MARRIAGE OF VILLIERS. CCX1X 



the temper of the times, and the miserable subjection 

 in which the favourite held all persons, however eminent 

 in talent or station. Sir Edward Coke, who had been 

 disgraced the year before, unable to bear retirement, 

 aggravated as it was, by the success of his rival, ap 

 plied, during the King s absence, to Secretary Winwood, 

 submissively desiring to be restored to favour; and he, 

 who, in support of the law, had resisted the King to his 

 face, and had rejected with scorn the proposal of an 

 alliance with the family of Buckingham, now offered &quot; to Marriage 

 do any thing that was required of him,&quot; and to promote, of Vllliers - 

 upon their own terms, the marriage of his daughter with 

 Sir John Villiers. Winwood, who, for party purposes, was 

 supposed to enter officiously into this business, readily 

 undertook the negociation. It was not attended with 

 much difficulty: the young lady, beautiful and opulent, 

 was instantly accepted. 



Bacon, for many cogent reasons, which he fairly ex 

 pressed both to the King (a) and to Buckingham, strongly 

 opposed this match, displeasing to the political friends of 

 Buckingham, and fraught with bitterness from the oppo 

 sition of Lady Hatton, the young lady s mother, upon 

 whom her fortune mainly depended. Bacon s dislike to 

 Coke, and the possible consequences to himself from this 

 alliance, were supposed by Buckingham to have influ 

 enced this unwise interference; which he resented, first 

 by a cold silence, and afterwards by several haughty 

 and bitter letters : and, so effectually excited the King s 

 displeasure, that, on his return, he sharply reprimanded 

 in the privy council those persons who had interfered in 

 this business. Buckingham, who could shew his power, 

 as well in allaying as in raising a storm, was soon 

 ashamed of the King s violence, and seeing the ridicule 



() See the letters, vol. xii. p. 324-7. 



