316 LETTERS FROM BIRCH. 



his opinion thereof to his majesty, and hath understood 

 what his majesty conceived of the same ; wherewith he will 

 acquaint your lordship, and with his own observation and 

 judgment of the businesses of that country. 



I give your lordship hearty thanks for your care to satisfy 



my Lady of Rutland s * desire ; and will be as careful, when 



I come to York, of recommending your suit to the bishopf. 



So I rest 



Newark, the 5th Your Lordship s ever at command, 



of April, 1617. G. BUCKINGHAM. 



To the Lord Keeper. J 

 My honourable Lord, 



I spake at York with the Archbishop, || touching the 

 house, which he hath wholly put into your hands to do 

 with it what your lordship shall be pleased. 



I have heretofore, since we were in this journey, moved 

 his majesty for a dispatch of my Lord Brackley s^ busi 

 ness: but, because his majesty never having heard of any 

 precedent in the like case, was of opinion, that this would 

 be of ill consequence in making that dignity as easy as the 

 pulling out of a sword to make a man a knight, and so 

 make it of little esteem, he was desirous to be assured, first, 

 that it was no new course, before he would do it in that 

 fashion. But since he can receive no assurance from your 

 lordship of any precedent in that kind, his majesty in- 

 tendeth not so to precipitate the business, as to expose that 

 dignity to censure and contempt, in omitting the solem 

 nities required, and usually belonging unto it. 



His majesty, though he were a while troubled with a 

 little pain in his back, which hindered his hunting, is 

 now, God be thanked, very well, and as merry as ever he 

 was ; and we have all held out well. 



customs in Ireland (not but there were laws for the same before) ; of which 

 the first year s revenue amounted but to 500/. ; but before his death, which was 

 about twenty-two years after, they were let for 54,OOOL per annum. Bar lose s 

 Reduction of Ireland to the Crown of England, p. 200. Edit. London, 1675. 



* Frances, Countess of Rutland, first wife of Francis, Earl of Rutland, and 

 daughter and coheir of Sir Henry Knevet, of Charleton, in Wiltshire, knight. 

 She had by the earl an only daughter and heir, Catharine, first married to 

 George, Marquis, and afterwards Duke, of Buckingham ; and secondly, to 

 Randolph Macdonald, Earl, and afterwards Marquis, of Antrim, in Ireland. 



t Relating to York House. 



t Harl. MSS. Vol. 7006. f| Dr. Tobie Matthew. 



Who desired to be created earl in an unusual manner, by letters patents, 

 without the delivering of the patent by the king s own hand, or without the ordi 

 nary solemnities of creation. He was accordingly created Earl of Bridgewater, 

 May 27, 1617. 



