State Trials, Political and Social Volume I Part 6

_The Judgment._

But since you have been found guilty of these horrible Treasons, the judgment of this court is, That you shall be had from hence to the place whence you came, there to remain until the day of execution; and from thence you shall be drawn upon a hurdle through the open streets to the place of execution, there to be hanged and cut down alive, and your body shall be opened, your heart and bowels plucked out, and your privy members cut off, and thrown into the fire before your eyes; then your head to be stricken off from your body, and your body shall be divided into four quarters, to be disposed of at the king's pleasure: And G.o.d have mercy upon your soul.

The execution of sentence on Raleigh was deferred, and he was committed to the Tower, where he remained as a State prisoner for the next thirteen years, engaged in philosophic and scientific pursuits and the education of Prince Henry, the then Prince of Wales. All this time, however, he remained a person of considerable political importance, owing to the a.s.sistance which the opponents of the proposed marriage between Prince Charles and the Spanish Infanta hoped to derive from his general popularity, and his reputation as the leading representative of English hatred of Spain. At last, in 1616, he was released from custody, though he was still technically a condemned man, and allowed to prepare his expedition in search of the gold-mine which he believed to exist in Guiana, on the banks of the Orinoco. The expedition was in fact promoted by Winwood, then Secretary, and Villiers, who was at the moment in the hands of the enemies of Somerset and the Spanish faction, and was always intended by them as an act of hostility to Spain. How far Raleigh entered into it in the spirit in which he represented it to the King, may be judged of from the fact that he was ready at one time to direct it against the Spaniards in Genoa, as a relief to the Duke of Savoy, with whom they were then at war, and at another against the French, to support a rebellion against the Queen-Mother, then in power. He had also entered into negotiations with the French Court to bring his s.h.i.+ps back to France rather than England when its end was accomplished. What Raleigh's actual intentions were when he started, it is impossible to say. But they were all frustrated when a force which he sent up the Orinoco was disastrously defeated in January 1617, in an attack on a Spanish settlement, which was unexpectedly discovered between the sea and the supposed situation of the mine. Raleigh returned a ruined man.

He wished himself to go to France, but his crew forced him to promise to obtain their pardon from the King before he brought his s.h.i.+p into port.

In the end, after having touched at Kinsale, he persuaded his men to sail for Plymouth. On landing he set out for London, but on the way met his cousin, Sir Lewis Stukely, Vice-Admiral of Devon, charged with orders to arrest him. Returning to Plymouth, he found means to put himself into communication with the captain of a French s.h.i.+p, lying in the Sound. Preparations were made for his escape in her, but Raleigh changed his mind when he was actually in a boat on his way to board her, and returned to land. Soon after orders came that he should be brought up to London; but he managed to procure a little more time by feigning illness at Salisbury. Here he attempted to bribe Stukely to allow him to escape; but this proving in vain, he sent King, one of his captains, to hire a vessel at Gravesend to await him till he could go on board. The master, however, communicated the plan to a captain of one of the King's s.h.i.+ps, who pa.s.sed it on to Stukely, who thereupon communicated both attempts to the King. The next day Stukely sent the further information to the Court, that Le Clerc, the agent of the King of France, had offered Raleigh a pa.s.sage on a French s.h.i.+p, and letters which would procure him an honourable reception in France, which Raleigh had refused on the ground that his escape was already provided for. Stukely was accordingly ordered to feign friends.h.i.+p with Raleigh, and to aid his attempt to escape, arresting him at the last moment; the object being to gain as much information as to his designs as he could from Raleigh, and possibly to obtain papers which would contain evidence against him and his confederates. Raleigh was thereupon taken to his own house in Bread Street, where he received a visit from Le Clerc, who repeated his offers, which were accepted, and he was finally arrested the next morning as he was escaping in a boat with Stukely and King, and brought back once more to the Tower. Here Sir Thomas Wilson, an old spy of Queen Elizabeth's, was set to extract from him, if he could, an acknowledgment of the true character of his dealings with the French; and at length Raleigh wrote to the King admitting that he had sailed with a commission from the French admiral, and that La Chesnee, the interpreter to the French Amba.s.sador, had offered to a.s.sist in his escape. Meanwhile a commission had been sitting to advise the King as to the best course for him to follow. In the end they reported that Raleigh could not be tried for any offence of which he had been guilty as an attainted man, that if he were executed at all, he must therefore be executed upon the old judgment, and that it would not be illegal to send him to execution on a simple warrant. At the same time, they recommended that he should be allowed something as near a trial as the circ.u.mstances admitted of; that there should be a public proceeding in which the witnesses should be publicly called, and that Raleigh should be heard in his own defence.

This, however, the King would not allow; and on the 28th of October 1618, Raleigh was brought up from the Tower to the King's Bench at Westminster to receive judgment. He was called on to say why execution should not be awarded against him, and pleaded that whereas since judgment he had held the King's commission for a voyage beyond the seas, with power of life and death over others, he was discharged of the judgment; 'but the voyage, notwithstanding my endeavour, had no other success, but what was fatal to me, the loss of my son, and the wasting of my whole estate.'

Sir Edward c.o.ke, now Lord Chief-Justice, ruled that this plea was bad, as the commission had not the effect of a pardon, 'for by words of a special nature, in case of treason, you must be pardoned, and not implicitly.' He then proceeded, not without dignity, to order that execution should be granted.

The night before the Execution, Sir Walter wrote the following Letters, the one to the King, the other to his Wife:--

_Sir Walter Raleigh's Letter to the King._

'The life which I had, most mighty prince, the law hath taken from me, and I am now but the same earth and dust out of which I was made. If my offence had any proportion with your majesty's mercy, I might despair, or if my deserving had any quant.i.ty with your majesty's unmeasurable goodness, I might yet have hope; but it is you that must judge that, not I. Name, blood, gentility or estate, I have none; no not so much as a _vitam plantae_: I have only a penitent soul in a body of iron, which moveth towards the loadstone of death, and cannot be with-held from touching it, except your majesty's mercy turn the point towards me that expelleth. Lost I am for hearing of vain man, for hearing only, and never believing or accepting: and so little account I made of that speech of his, which was my condemnation (as my forsaking him doth truly witness), that I never remembered any such thing, till it was at my trial objected against me. So did he repay my care, who cared to make him good, which I now see no care of man can effect. But G.o.d (for my offence to him) hath laid this heavy burden upon me, miserable and unfortunate wretch that I am! But for not loving you (my sovereign), G.o.d hath not laid this sorrow on me; for he knows (with whom I am not in case to lie) that I honoured your majesty by fame, and loved and admired you by knowledge; so that whether I live or die, your majesty's loving servant I will live and die. If now, I write what seems not well-favoured, most merciful prince, vouchsafe to ascribe it to the counsel of a dead heart, and to a mind that sorrow hath confounded. But the more my misery is, the more is your majesty's mercy, if you please to behold it, and the less I can deserve, the more liberal your majesty's gift shall be: herein you shall only imitate G.o.d, by giving free life; and by giving it to such a one, from whom there can be no retribution, but only a desire to pay a lent life with the same great love, which the same great goodness shall bestow on it. This being the first letter that ever your majesty received from a dead man: I humbly submit myself to the will of G.o.d, my supreme lord, and shall willingly and patiently suffer whatsoever it shall please your majesty to afflict me withal.

'WALTER RALEIGH.'

_Sir Walter Raleigh's Letter to his Wife._

'You shall now receive, my dear wife, my last words in these my last lines. My love I send you, that you may keep it when I am dead; and my counsel, that you may remember it when I am no more. I would not by my Will present you with sorrows, dear Besse, let them go into the grave with me, and be buried in the dust. And seeing that it is not G.o.d's will that I should see you any more in this life, bear it patiently, and with a heart like thyself. First, I send you all the thanks which my heart can conceive, or my words can rehea.r.s.e, for your many travails, and care taken for me; which though they have not taken effect as you wished, yet my debt to you is not the less; but pay it I never shall in this world. Secondly, I beseech you, for the love you bare me living, do not hide yourself many days, but by your travels seek to help your miserable fortunes, and the right of your poor child. Thy mourning cannot avail me, I am but dust.

Thirdly, you shall understand that my land was conveyed _bona fide_ to my child: the Writings were drawn at Midsummer was twelve months, my honest cousin Brett can testify so much, and Dolberry too can remember somewhat therein. And I trust my blood will quench their malice that have cruelly murdered me, and that they will not seek also to kill thee and thine with extreme poverty. To what friend to direct thee I know not, for all mine have left me in the true time of trial. And I perceive that my death was determined from the first day. Most sorry I am, G.o.d knows, that being thus surprised with death I can leave you in no better estate. G.o.d is my witness, I meant you all my office of wines, or all that I could have purchased by selling it, half my stuff, and all my jewels, but some one for the boy; but G.o.d hath prevented all my resolutions, that great G.o.d that ruleth all in all: but if you can live free from want, care for no more, the rest is but vanity. Love G.o.d, and begin betimes to repose yourself upon him, and therein shall you find true and lasting riches and endless comfort: for the rest, when you have travelled and wearied your thoughts over all sorts of worldly cogitations, you shall but sit down by sorrow in the end. Teach your son also to love and fear G.o.d whilst he is yet young, that the fear of G.o.d may grow with him; and then G.o.d will be a husband to you, and a father to him; a husband and a father that cannot be taken from you. Baily oweth me 500 and Adrian 600 in Jersey. I also have much owing me besides. The arrearages of the wines will pay your debts. And howsoever you do, for my soul's sake, pay all poor men. When I am gone, no doubt you shall be sought to, for the world thinks I was very rich. But take heed of the pretences of men, and their affections, for they last not but in honest and worthy men; and no greater misery can befall you in this life than to become a prey, and afterwards to be despised. I speak not this, G.o.d knows, to dissuade you from marriage, for it will be best for you both in respect of the world and of G.o.d. As for me, I am no more yours, nor you mine, death hath cut us asunder; and G.o.d hath divided me from the world and you from me. Remember your poor child for his father's sake who chose you and loved you in his happiest times. Get those Letters, if it be possible, which I writ to the lords, wherein I sued for life: G.o.d is my witness it was for you and yours that I desired life; but it is true that I disdained myself for begging of it: for know it, my dear wife, that your son is the son of a true man, and who, in his own respect, despiseth death, and all his misshapen and ugly form. I cannot write much, G.o.d he knows how hardly I steal this time while others sleep, and it is also time that I should separate my thoughts from the world. Beg my dead body, which living was denied thee; and either lay it at Sherburne (and if the land continue) or in Exeter church by my father and mother. I can say no more, Time and Death call me away; the everlasting, powerful, infinite and omnipotent G.o.d, that Almighty G.o.d, who is goodness itself, the true life and true light, keep thee and thine, have mercy on me, and teach me to forgive my persecutors and accusers, and send us to meet in his glorious kingdom. My dear wife, farewell. Bless my poor boy. Pray for me, and let my good G.o.d hold you both in his arms. Written with the dying hand of sometime thy husband, but now alas overthrown.'

'WALTER RALEIGH.'

On the 29th of October 1618, at nine o'clock in the morning, Raleigh was brought to the scaffold in Old Palace Yard. As he began to make his dying speech he saw Lords Arundel, Northampton, and Doncaster with other lords and knights at a window, but too far off to hear him easily. 'I will strain my voice,' said he, 'for I would willingly have your honours hear me'; whereupon Arundel and the others came down to the scaffold, and he having saluted them, began his speech again. He made no reference to his original conviction, but occupied himself in justifying his conduct since his return from Guiana. He denied having had any commission from the French king, or knowing anything of a French agent till he met him in his lodgings. He never spoke dishonourably of the King. He did try to escape, but it was to save his life; and he feigned illness at Salisbury, but it was in the hope of being able to work upon the King's pity. He forgave the Frenchman, Le Clerc or La Chesnee, and Sir Lewis Stukeley, 'for I have received the Sacrament this morning of Mr. Dean of Westminster, and I have forgiven all men; but that they are perfidious, I am bound in charity to speak, that all men may take heed of them,' Stukeley, 'my keeper and kinsman,' had said that he had told him that Carew and Doncaster had advised him to escape; but this was not true; and it was needless that they should so tell him, for he was left as much as ten days together at liberty to go where he would. He had not offered Stukeley any money to procure his escape. So far was it from being the case that he was brought by force into England, his soldiers mutinied, and forced him to take an oath that he would not go there till they would; and it was only by great exertions that he persuaded them to go to Ireland, and then to England. He had only 100 with him when he started for Guiana, and of that he gave his wife 25. 'It is said that I should be a persecutor of the death of the Earl of Ess.e.x, and that I stood in a window over against him when he suffered, and puffed out tobacco in disdain of him. G.o.d I take to witness, I shed tears for him when he died; and as I hope to look G.o.d in the face hereafter, my lord of Ess.e.x did not see my face when he suffered, for I was afar off in the Armoury when I saw him, but he saw not me. I confess indeed I was of the contrary faction, but I know my lord of Ess.e.x was a n.o.ble gentleman, and that it would be worse with me when he was gone; for I got the hate of those who wished me well before, and those that set me against him afterwards set themselves against me, and were my greatest enemies, and my soul hath many times been grieved that I was not nearer him when he died; because, as I understood afterwards, that he asked for me at his death to have been reconciled unto me.' And then proclamation having been made, he took leave of the lords, knights, and gentlemen on the scaffold, particularly of Lord Arundel, and asked to see the axe, and when it was brought to him, he felt along the edge of it, and smiling, said to the sheriff, 'This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician that will cure all diseases.' He then prayed a little, and having made the sign, the executioner cut off his head with two blows.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The following are the leading dates in Raleigh's life. He was born about 1562 at Hayes, near Budleigh Salterton; he was at Oriel in 1572; he was present at the battles of Jarnac and Montcontour in 1569; he may have been in Paris during the ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572; he was in Islington in 1577; and fighting in the Low Countries in 1578. He left England on a freebooting expedition the same year, and returned in 1579. He was about the Court on his return, and in 1580 went to Ireland, where he ma.s.sacred the Spanish prisoners taken at Smerwick. In 1581 he returned to the Court, and attracted the Queen's notice, possibly by laying down his cloak for her to walk over, according to the well-known legend, for which Professor Laughton and Mr. Sidney Lee consider that there may be a foundation in fact. He was knighted in 1584, and made Warden of the Stannaries in 1585, and subsequently received many other profitable grants. In 1584 he sent out the expedition which discovered Virginia, and other expeditions to occupy it, but without success, in 1585 and 1587. In 1588 began his quarrel with Ess.e.x; he was in Ireland in 1589, and returned to introduce Spenser to the Queen. In 1592 he helped to fit out a powerful expedition, and against the Queen's orders took it to sea himself; returning in a few months, after capturing the _Madre de Dios_, containing a cargo estimated at the value of half a million. He was committed to the Tower in July for having carried on an intrigue with Elizabeth Throgmorton, and he retired to Sherborne in the same year. In 1593 Raleigh and his friends Harriot and Marlowe incurred the suspicion of the government as atheists, and an inquiry was held, of which the results are not known. In February 1594-95 he started on his first Guiana expedition, and returned in 1595 after sailing some way up the Orinoco. He took part in the expedition to Cadiz in 1596. In July 1600 he was sent with Lord Cobham to congratulate Lord Grey on the battle of Nieuport, and later in the year went as governor to Jersey. He was present, as related in the text, at Ess.e.x's trial (see p. 70). The immediate causes which led to his trial are stated above.

[2] Archduke Albert was a younger brother of the Emperor Rudolf II., and had married Isabella, the eldest daughter of Philip II. of Spain, who made over the sovereignty of the Netherlands to his daughter and son-in-law a few years before his death in 1598.

[3] Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk (1561-1626), was the second son of the Duke of Norfolk beheaded by Elizabeth in 1572. He gained considerable distinction as a sailor, taking part in the defeat of the Armada and the attack on the Spanish treasure-s.h.i.+p in which Sir Richard Grenville was killed. He rose to a position of influence under Elizabeth, was made an Earl on James's accession, and after filling many high offices became Lord High Treasurer in 1614, which office he held till 1619. In that year he was dismissed, fined 30,000, and imprisoned in the Tower, for serious embezzlements and other frauds. He was afterwards received back into favour: it was generally supposed that his wife was chiefly to blame for his defalcations. He was grandfather to the second Lord Howard of Escrick, the witness against Lord Russell, whose trial see in vol. ii.

[4] Charles Blunt, Earl of Devon (1563-1606), was the second son of the eighth Lord Mountjoy. He soon attracted the Queen's notice, fought in the Low Countries, and took part in the defeat of the Armada. He was offered and accepted the post of Lord Deputy of Ireland after it was vacated by Ess.e.x, and was to some extent implicated in Ess.e.x's subsequent treason. In 1602 he obtained Tyrone's surrender in Ireland after three years' fighting. He returned to England in 1603, and held occasional important appointments. In 1605 he was married by Laud to Lady Rich, the former mistress of Sir Philip Sidney and himself, and the divorced wife of Lord Rich. The event is chiefly remarkable for the part taken in it by Laud.

[5] Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton (1540-1614), was the second son of the Earl of Surrey, beheaded in Henry VIII.'s reign. After a long period of political intrigue he rose to power on James's accession, having long been in correspondence with him. He was an avowed enemy of Raleigh. He maintained a position of great influence till the end of his life, generally using his influence in support of the king's prerogative and the Catholics. After his death he was accused of complicity in the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury in the Tower: not altogether without reason. He built Northumberland House.

[6] Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury (1563?-1612), was at the time of this trial at the middle point of his long official career. He first appears in a public capacity in 1588, when he was sent to Spain in the train of Lord Derby, having been appointed amba.s.sador to negotiate conditions of peace. He represented Hertfords.h.i.+re in the House of Commons in 1589; in 1591 he was sworn of the Privy Council; and in 1596, during the absence of his rival Ess.e.x on the Cadiz expedition, he was appointed Secretary of State. In 1598 he took part in an emba.s.sy to Paris with Lord Brooke, Raleigh, and others to hinder an alliance between France and Spain. In 1600 Cecil was a member of a Commission appointed to report on Ess.e.x's return from Ireland without permission, and managed to mitigate the gravity of his offence; but in 1601, on Ess.e.x's trial for treason, had to defend himself from an accusation by Ess.e.x of having declared himself in favour of the Infanta's claim to the throne. By careful preparations he secured the peaceable accession of James II. to the throne, and was raised to the peerage, and eventually made Earl of Salisbury in consequence. For the rest of his life he remained James's most trusted minister.

[7] John Popham (1531-1607) was born of a good family in Somersets.h.i.+re.

He was reported to have been stolen by gypsies in his youth, but was educated at Balliol. He began life in London as a law-student and a highwayman; but soon became, according to Campbell, a consummate lawyer, practising chiefly as a special pleader. He became a Serjeant and Solicitor-General in 1578, Speaker in 1580, Attorney-General in 1581, and Lord Chief-Justice in 1592. He presided at the trial of Guy Fawkes and his fellow-conspirators. He enjoyed the reputation of being a sound lawyer and a severe judge. He left the greatest estate that had ever been ama.s.sed by a lawyer; but it is probably untrue that he acquired Littlecot Hall by fraudulently acquitting 'Wild Darrell' of the murder of its newly born heir. He was, however, reported to have saved money while he was a highwayman.

[8] Sir Edmund Anderson (1530-1605) was born at Flinborough or Broughton in Lincolns.h.i.+re. He was educated at Lincoln College, Oxford, called to the bar, and made a Serjeant in 1577. He tried Robert Brown, founder of the Brownists, as a.s.sistant judge on the Norfolk Circuit in 1581; in the same year he tried Campian, the Jesuit, on the Western Circuit. In both cases he expressed strong views as to the claims of the Established Church. He was promoted to the chiefs.h.i.+p of the Common Pleas in 1582, and tried Babington for treason in 1586, and Davison for beheading Mary, Queen of Scots. He also took part in the trials of the Duke of Arundel; Sir John Perrot, Lord Deputy of Ireland; and the Earl of Ess.e.x. He also tried Udall, the puritan, and no doubt tried to entrap him into a confession of guilt. Apart from political trials, he had the reputation of being a good judge and a sound lawyer.

[9] Henry Brooke, eighth Lord Cobham, was the son of a leading favourite of Queen Elizabeth's. On his father's death he succeeded to much of his father's influence; Robert Cecil married his sister; and they were both enemies of Ess.e.x. Cobham's influence did not last into James's reign, and he entered on the transactions which are discussed in Raleigh's trial. He himself was tried and convicted after Raleigh (see p. 6), but after being pardoned on the scaffold he remained a prisoner in the Tower till 1617, when he was allowed to pay a visit to Bath for his health: he died on the way home.

[10] Arabella Stuart was the daughter of the Earl of Lenox, younger brother of Lord Darnley, the grandson of Margaret, eldest sister of Henry VII., and thus stood next in succession to James. Her claim to the throne as against James was that she was born in England, whereas he was an alien. She had been arrested by Elizabeth in consequence of a rumour that she was to marry William Seymour, grandson of Catherine Grey. She was imprisoned in 1609 on another rumour of her marriage to some person unknown. In 1610 she became actually engaged to William Seymour: he promised not to marry her without the King's consent, but married her secretly a few months afterwards. The marriage was discovered, and she was committed to private custody whilst her husband was committed to the Tower. She escaped, disguised in a man's clothes, but was arrested in the Straits of Dover. She died in the Tower in 1615.

[11] Sir Edward c.o.ke (1552-1634) came of an old Norfolk family, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was called to the bar in 1578, having already acquired a reputation as a lawyer. He entered public life as member for Aldborough in 1589, and as member for Norfolk in 1592. He became Speaker in 1593, and in opposition to Bacon became Attorney-General in 1593. In 1598, on the death of his first wife, he married Elizabeth Hatton, Burghley's granddaughter, again depriving Bacon of a prize. He was retained to prosecute Ess.e.x, Southampton, and the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, against all of whom he showed the same animus that he did against Raleigh. In 1606 he became Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas, in which capacity he maintained the independence of the Law Courts against ecclesiastical interference. He likewise offered a resolute opposition to the King's claim to place impositions on imported merchandise, and to regulate by proclamation such matters as the erection of new buildings in London and the manufacture of starch from wheat. In 1613 c.o.ke, much against his will, was promoted, on Bacon's advice, to the post of Chief-Justice of the King's Bench, where, though his dignity was greater, his profits were less, and he was less likely to have opportunity for opposing the King's measures. At the same time he was made a Privy Councillor. His opposition to the power of the Chancellor to exercise his equitable jurisdiction by injunction, and to the King's power to grant commendams proved less successful than his former measures; and what was considered his excess of zeal in inquiring into the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, his opposition to the growth of the powers of the Ecclesiastical Commission and the Star Chamber, and no doubt other less public matters, led to his being deprived of his office on the 5th of November 1616. After his dismissal he became engaged in a most undignified quarrel with his wife as to whether their daughter should marry Buckingham's elder brother, which she eventually did. In 1617 he was recalled to the Council, and occasionally judicially employed. In 1621 he re-entered the House of Commons, and took up the popular side in resisting monopolies and other abuses. He was engaged in drawing up the charges against Bacon in the same year. He drew up the 'Protestation' affirming the privileges of Parliament in December 1621, and was committed to the Tower in consequence. He was released in August 1622, but remained in a kind of qualified confinement. He resisted an attempt by James to exclude him from the 1624 Parliament by sending him on a commission to Ireland, and though he continued in opposition contrived to reconcile himself to the King to some extent. He opposed Charles's demands for money in his first two parliaments and drafted the Pet.i.tion of Right, and made his final appearance in the debate on the Grand Remonstrance (1628), when he openly accused Buckingham as being the cause of the misfortunes of the country.

[12] _Post_, p. 45.

[13] Andrews (1555-1626) was appointed to the living of St. Giles, Cripplegate, in 1589, through Walsingham's influence. He was made Master of Pembroke Hall soon after. He refused two bishoprics offered him by Elizabeth because he would not consent to the alienation of any part of their revenues; but became Dean of Windsor in 1601. He subsequently became Bishop of Chichester in 1605; of Ely in 1609; of Winchester in 1619. He took part in the Hampton Court Conference, and his name stands first in the list of the authors of the Authorised Version.

[14] Patrick Galloway had followed the King from Scotland: he had a.s.sisted James in some of his religious writings, and was Moderator of the General a.s.sembly in 1590 and 1602. He afterwards upheld the liberties of the Kirk against the attempts of James to restrict them, and warmly supported the Five Articles of Perth in 1618.

[15] See _ante_, p. 5.

[16] See _ante_, p. 7.

[17] Sir Amyas Preston came of a good family settled at Crichet in Somerset. He was lieutenant of the _Ark_ in the attack on the Armada: and afterwards ravaged the West Indies, in company of Somers, in 1596.

He was knighted by Howard during his Cadiz expedition. He seems to have been a friend of Ess.e.x; the challenge to Raleigh took place in 1601, but did not lead to a meeting.

[18] Edmund Campian (1540-1581), the famous Jesuit, was educated at Christ's Hospital, and afterward at St. John's, Oxford. He took an oath against the Pope's supremacy on proceeding to a Master's degree, in 1564; but was probably always a Catholic at heart. He welcomed Elizabeth to Oxford in a Latin oration in 1566, and was subsequently patronised by Leicester and Cecil. He took deacon's orders, and went to Dublin in the hope of having the direction of the Dublin University, which it was proposed to resuscitate. He fell under suspicion as a Papist, but managed to escape arrest and return to England, whence, after hearing Dr. Storey's trial in 1571, he repaired to Douay, and formally renounced the Protestant faith. He went to Rome, became a Jesuit, and was among the first to be despatched to England on a Jesuit mission. He landed at Dover in 1580, and was arrested, but released and went to London. After various adventures in different parts of the country he was again arrested, and brought to London in 1581. He was rigorously examined as to his mission, but concealed the fact that he was charged to persuade Catholics to separate themselves from the English communion. Afterwards he was tortured, and a report, probably false, was spread abroad that he had betrayed his companions. He was then called upon to meet his adversaries in a public disputation, which he did with great courage and skill. After being again tortured, he was tried and convicted of treason in stirring up sedition. His trial was most unfairly conducted, and it seems probable that the charge was altogether false. He was executed on 1st December 1581.

[19] 'Take heed of a preacher as Ess.e.x did.' Ess.e.x admitted his guilt at the end of his trial. Howell (_State Trials_, vol. i. p. 1358) says: 'On the 25th of February 1601, which was the day appointed for his execution, Thomas Mountford and William Barlow, doctors of divinity, with Ashton, the minister of the Church in the Tower, were sent unto him early to administer Christian consolation to his soul. In the presence of these men he gave thanks to Almighty G.o.d from the bottom of his heart, that his designs, which were so dangerous to the state, succeeded not. He told them he had now looked thoroughly and seriously into his sin, and was heartily sorry he had so obstinately defended an unjust cause at the bar.... He acknowledged how worthy he was to be spued out (these were his words) by the Commonwealth for the wickedness of his enterprize, which he likened to a leprosy spread far and near, and that he had infected many.'

CHARLES I

The following report was first published 'by Authority, to prevent false and impertinent relations.' It was licensed by Gilbert Mabbot, and, so far as one can judge from internal evidence, is rather the slightly amplified transcript of a barrister's note, than the work of anybody who in those days might represent a modern newspaper reporter. The whole is carelessly put together, as far as form is concerned; the grammar is often halting, and the sentences are not always finished. But I should suppose that all the arguments used on either side are fairly indicated, except in those places where it is suggested in a note that 'authority'

made excisions. If such excisions were made, however, the fact that the gaps were left in their present state is evidence of the substantial accuracy and fairness of the rest of the report. Taking a purely legal view of the matter, which no one will pretend covers the whole, or indeed the most important part of the case, one does not see why, if Bradshaw left in as much as he did, he should not have left in everything. From the point of view of defending counsel, Charles had an unanswerable case, and he was enough of a lawyer to make the most of it.

Bradshaw, on the other hand, seems, to me at least, to have played his part not badly. Considering all things, I do not myself see that his behaviour to Charles was unnecessarily harsh. If you have made up your mind to cut off a man's head, and if you are aware that your position as a judge is a false one, you are bound to a.s.sert your authority without much regard to prisoners' feelings, or even good manners. I am not in a position to discuss what effect the essential illegality of the trial, from a formal point of view, produced on contemporary and subsequent opinion; but I think it may safely be said that the trial presents the most striking example to be found in English history of the view held in this country of the authority of the law. I have only to add that in this trial I have reproduced the original report exactly as I found it.

On Sat.u.r.day, being the 20th day of January 1649, the Lord President of the High Court of Justice,[20] with near fourscore of the members of the said Court, having sixteen gentlemen with partizans, and a sword, and a mace, with their and other officers of the said Court, marching before them, came to the place ordered to be prepared for their sitting at the west-end of the great Hall at Westminster; where the Lord President, in a crimson velvet chair, fixed in the midst of the Court, placed himself, having a desk with a crimson-velvet cus.h.i.+on before him; the rest of the members placing themselves on each side of him upon several seats, or benches, prepared and hung with scarlet for that purpose; and the partizans dividing themselves on each side of the court before them.

The Court being thus sat, and Silence made, the great gate of the said Hall was set open, to the end that all persons without exception, desirous to see or hear, might come into it. Upon which the Hall was presently filled, and silence again ordered.

This done, colonel Thomlinson, who had the charge of the Prisoner, was commanded to bring him to the Court; who within a quarter of an hour's s.p.a.ce brought him, attended with about twenty officers with partizans, marching before him, there being other gentlemen, to whose care and custody he was likewise committed, marching in his rear.

Being thus brought up within the face of the Court, the Serjeant at Arms, with his mace, receives and conducts him strait to the bar, having a crimson-velvet chair set before him. After a stern looking upon the Court, and the people in the galleries on each side of him, he places himself, not at all moving his hat, or otherwise shewing the least respect to the court; but presently rises up again, and turns about, looking downwards upon the guards placed on the left side, and on the mult.i.tude of spectators on the right side of the said great Hall. After silence made among the people, the Act of Parliament for the trying of Charles Stuart, king of England, was read over by the Clerk of the Court, who sat on one side of a table covered with a rich Turkey-carpet, and placed at the feet of the said Lord President; upon which table was also laid the sword and mace.

After reading the said Act, the several names of the Commissioners were called over, every one who was present, being eighty, as aforesaid, rising up, and answering to his call.

Having again placed himself in his Chair, with his face towards the Court, silence being again ordered, the Lord President stood up, and said,

LORD PRESIDENT--Charles Stuart, king of England, the Commons of England a.s.sembled in Parliament being deeply sensible of the calamities that have been brought upon this nation, which is fixed upon you as the princ.i.p.al author of it, have resolved to make inquisition for blood; and according to that debt and duty they owe to justice, to G.o.d, the kingdom, and themselves, and according to the fundamental power that rests in themselves, they have resolved to bring you to Trial and Judgment; and for that purpose have const.i.tuted this High Court of Justice, before which they are brought.

This said, Mr. Cook,[21] Solicitor for the Commonwealth standing within a bar on the right hand of the Prisoner, offered to speak; but the king having a staff in his hand, held it up, and laid it on the said Mr. Cook's shoulder two or three times, bidding him hold. Nevertheless, the Lord President ordering him to go on, he said,