CHAP. XLV. His examination Curle, Mary's secretaries. chamberlain good naturedly asked the amount; and being told that six angels would be sufficient, he said, "Then I promise thee it shall be paid." He was next engaged in the very delicate task of interroof Nau and gating Nau and Curle, Mary's secretaries, whose examinations were to be used as the chief evidence against their mistress. He was prepared for this by a letter from Burghley, saying "they wold yeld soewhat to confirm ther mystriss, if they war persuaded that themselves might scape, and the blow fall upon ther Mrs. betwixt hir head and shoulders." Most strangely, the original letter, supposed to establish Mary's complicity, was not shown to them, and “ an abstract of the principal points of it" being read, they were required to say, upon oath, whether they could not recall these points to their recollection as having been contained in it. t His con duct on Mary's trial. His speech against her in the House of Commons. * When the scene shifted to Fotheringay Castle, we have seen that it was chiefly by the artful persuasion of Hatton, named one of her Judges, that Mary was induced to depart from her resolution to deny the jurisdiction of the Court appointed to try her. When the trial began, he left the conduct of it to Burghley and the other counsel for the Crown, silently enjoying the effect of the confessions and examinations which he had so dexterously prepared. But when judgment had been given he delivered a violent speech in the House of Commons, urging the House to petition that it might immediately be carried into execution. "He explained, at great length, the practices and attempts caused and procured by the Queen of Scots, tending to the overthrow of the true and sincere religion established in this realm; yea, and withal (which his heart quaked and trembled to utter and think on), the death and destruction of the Queen's most sacred person, to the utter desolation of this most noble realm of England. He therefore thought it good, for his part, that speedy consultation be had by this House for the cutting off this great delinquent by due course of justice; Burghley to Hatton, Sept. 4. 1586.,-a sportive anticipation of Mary's fate, probably written to be shown to Elizabeth. † Ellis, iii. 5. Ante, p. 127. concluding with these words of Scripture—Ne pereat Israel, CHAP. pereat Absolon." XLV. Hatton afterwards brought down a message, "that her Nov. 14. Highness, moved by some commiseration for the Scottish 1586. Queen in respect of her former dignity and great fortunes in her younger years, her nearness of kindred to her Majesty, and also of her sex, could be well pleased to forbear taking of her blood, if by any other means, to be devised by the great Council of the realm, the safety of her Majesty's person and government might otherwise be preserved. But herein she left them, nevertheless, to their own free liberty and disposition." He concluded his speech by moving a resolution, Carries which was carried unanimously, "That no other way, device, in the or means whatsoever could or can possibly be found or imagined, that such safety can in anywise be had so long as the said Queen of Scots doth or shall live." * The zealous Vice-chamberlain was subsequently instrumental in causing the death-warrant being sent off to be executed. Being informed by Secretary Davison that the Great Seal was appended to it, and that the Queen had pretended to chide him for his precipitancy, he immediately went to Burghley, and they called the meeting of the Council, at which it was resolved that, the forms of law having been all duly observed, it was their duty, without giving further needless trouble to her Majesty, to take all the remaining responsibility on themselves. resolution House of for exe cution of Mary. Active in sending off death-war rant. Elizabeth. When the news arrived of the close of Mary's sufferings at Pretended Fotheringay, Hatton was of course a marked object of Eliza- anger of beth's assumed indignation, and he was ordered, with the other Councillors who had concurred with him, to answer for their misconduct in the Star Chamber; but Secretary Davison, according to the preconcerted plan, being made the only victim, all the others were speedily pardoned, and the Vicechamberlain, for his recent services, was in higher favour than ever. Balls and masques were resumed, and being still the handsomest man, and the best drest, and the most gallant, * 1 Parl. Hist. 844. CHAP. He is made Lord Chancellor, 1587. and the best dancer at Court,-he gained new consequence, pretending to become an orator and a statesman. It was at this conjuncture that Lord Chancellor Bromley died, and the Great Seal was to be disposed of. Love and gratitude filled the mind of Elizabeth, and after some misgivings, whether he would have made a most excellent Lord Chamberlain was exactly fitted for the duties of Lord Chancellor, she resolved at all hazards to appoint him. The intention, however, was kept a profound secret from all except Burghley, till the time when the deed was done. The Court then lay at the Archbishop of Canterbury's Palace, at ceremony. Croydon, and there, in a walk near her private chamber, the Queen, in the midst of a numerous circle of nobles and courtiers, taking the Seal in its velvet bag, delivered it to her Vice-chamberlain, ordered him before the assembled company to seal a writ of subpoena with it, and then declared that he was to hold it as Lord Chancellor of England.* Descrip tion of the Some of the courtiers at first thought that this ceremony was a piece of wicked pleasantry on the part of the Queen; but when it was seen that she was serious, all joined in congratulating the new Lord Chancellor, and expressing satisfaction that her Majesty had been emancipated from the prejudice that a musty old lawyer only was fit to preside in the Chancery, whereas that Court being governed not by the strict rules of law, but by natural equity, justice would be much better administered there by a gentleman of plain good sense and knowledge of the world. "Memdum qd die Sabbati, &c. (April 29. 29 Eliz.) Mag. Sigill. in cus todia Dne Regine existens apud Croydon in Com. Sarr, sua serenissima Majestas ibidem residens ad benepltum suum in Palacio Reverendissimi in Xto Patris Johannis Cantuar. &c. ac ibidem similiter in privato ambulatorio juxta privatam cameram sue Majestatis sua serenissima Majestas essend, presens circa horam quartam post meridiem ejusdem diei ac in presencia dicti reverendissimi Patris, &c. &c. Sigill. Mag. prdm jacens in fenestra in fine dicti ambulatorii in baga de velueto rubeo incluso sua serenissima Majestas accepit in manibus suis et tulebat secum ad medium ejusdem ambulatorii ac ibidem in presencia prda dicto Egregio Viro Xtofero Hatton militi tradidit et iterum immediate e manibus dicti egregii viri recipiebat et extrahi jubebat et nudari." Then comes the sealing of the subpoena, with the restoration of the Seal to the bag. Et sigill. prdm in bagam predictam de velueto rubeo impositum dicta sacra Majestas regia dicto nobili viro Xtofero Hatton militi in presencia prda redeliberabat Ipsaque Xtoferum Hatton militem Dnm Cancellarium Anglie adtunc et ibidem fecit ordinavit et constituit Habendam," &c. &c. . Rot. Cl. 29 Eliz. p. 24. XLV. Westmin Very different were the reasonings in Westminster Hall CHAP. and the Inns of Court when the news of Hatton's appointment arrived from Croydon. "The gownsmen grudging Consternhereat, conceived his advancement their injury, that one ation at not thoroughly bred to the laws should be preferred to the place. They said, how could he cure diseases unacquainted with their causes, who might easily mistake the justice of the common law for rigour-not knowing the true reason thereof."* ster Hall. tency. Considering that the Great Seal had now been held for Hatton's thirty years successively by eminent lawyers who had esta- incompeblished a procedure, and laid down rules which were well understood, and had been steadily adhered to, the prospect must have been very alarming of practising before a Chancellor, who, when he was appointed, could hardly know the distinction between a subpoena and a latitat; for surely no greater misfortune can befall an advocate than to lose a consummate Judge whose decisions might be confidently anticipated by the initiated, and to be obliged to practise under an incompetent successor, before whom no case is safe and no case is desperate. tise before Meetings of the bar were held, and it was resolved by Bar resolve many Serjeants and Apprentices that they would not plead not to prac before the new Chancellor; but a few who looked eagerly him. for advancement dissented. The Chancellor himself was determined to brave the storm, and Elizabeth and all her ministers expressed a determination to stand by him. Procession on his in The 3d of May was the first day of Trinity term, and A. D. 1587. the great officers of state, and the heads of the law, were entertained at breakfast at the Chancellor's mansion in Ely stallation. Place, Holborn. From thence there was a procession to Westminster Hall, exceeding in magnificence any thing seen on a similar occasion since the time of Cardinal Wolsey, Naunton. Camden's account of the grumbling of the leaders of the bar is likewise very striking. Christopherus vero Hattonus, florentissima apud Principem gratia, suffectus erat ex aula Cancellarius, quod juris Anglici consultissimi permoleste tulerunt. Illi enim ex quo Ecclesiastici de gradu dejecti, hunc magistratum, summum togatæ dignitatis culmen, viris ecclesiasticis et nobilibus plerunque olim delatum, magna cum æquitatis et prudentiæ laude gesserant.”— Camd. Eliz. vol. i. 475. CHAP. His reception in Court of whose crosses, pillars, and pole-axes some old men could still remember. First went forty gentlemen of the Chancellor's household all in the same livery, with chains of gold about their necks. They were followed by divers pensioners and gentlemen of the Queen's Court upon splendid foote clothes; then came the Masters in Chancery and the officers of the Court; next rode the Lord Chancellor on a palfrey richly caparisoned, having on his right hand Burghley, the Lord Treasurer, and on his left the Earl of Leicester; after whom came many of the nobility, riding two and two; then all the Judges in their robes and coifs, with Serjeants and Apprentices; and last of all many Knights and a great troop of their retinue.* This was a much more gallant show than the line of close carriages now to be seen moving from the Chancellor's levee on the first day of term; though our predecessors must have been in an uncomfortable plight when it rained during their march along the Strand to Charing, and from thence to Westminster; and though there were many traditionary stories of the misfortunes which had befallen the Judges on their march, notwithstanding their skill in horsemanship from riding their circuits. † It is said that Hatton was received in the Court of Chancery with cold and silent disdain. Nevertheless there was, Chancery. from the first, some little business brought on before him. The Attorney and Solicitor General, lest they should themselves be dismissed, were obliged, however discontented they might be, to appear to countenance him. He made no public complaint of his reception, and gradually gained ground by his great courtesy and sweetness, to say nothing of the good dinners and excellent sack for which he was soon famous. He was quite at home when presiding in the Star Chamber, where he had before been accustomed to sit as a Privy Councillor, and he had the Chiefs of the common law to assist him. To this Court, according to usage, he dedicated Wednesdays and Fridays. On other days he sat for equity * Stowe, Eliz. 741. The last which has reached us is that of Mr. Justice Twisden, who was thrown from his horse near Charing Cross, while attending Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury. |