NOTE 4 C. 



highness, but ignorance and indiscretion in himself. I hear it was a most 

 pitiful and lamentable sight, to see him that was the mignion of fortune, now 

 unworthy of the least honor he had of many ; many that were present burst out 

 in tears at his fall to such misery. 



Row. Whyte, Esq. to Sir Rob. Sydney. S. L. Vol. ii. p. 200. Baynard s 

 Castle, Wednesday, 11 June, 1600. 



I heard since about the Earl of Essex, that the Attorney General in his speech 

 would have proved wilful and malicious contempts to have been disloyalty in 

 him, and brought forth these words : Regina vidit, consul vidit, senatus vidit, 

 hie tamen vivit. To this his lordship answered, that he was forced to alter his 

 purpose of coming to that place, which was not to justify himself, but to 

 acknowledge his transgressions, being by his own opinion and persuasion of 

 others, misled to commit these errors. But now his honor and loyalty was called 

 in question, he should do God great wrong and his own conscience ; and if I do 

 not justify myself an honest man (taking his George, and putting it with his 

 hand towards his heart), this hand shall pull out this heart when any disloyal 

 thought shall enter into it. But the lords interrupted his speech, clearing him 

 generally of that, and proceeded to their censure, by the way of opinion only, to 

 those matters objected by the Queen s learned counsel against him. Something 

 he said to all these, but no way to justify himself, and with all humble submis- 

 siveness besought her majesty s mercy. The lords did all admire at his discre 

 tion and carriage, who never was moved at any speech was spoken against him, 

 but with patience heard all was said ; sometimes kneeling, one while standing, 

 another while leaning at a cupboard, and at last he had a stool given him ; but 

 never offered to leave kneeling, till the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury desired 

 he might stand, and then that he might leane, and lastly, that he might sit. 

 For they began at nine in the morning, and it continued till eight at night, 

 without removing. The lords did in a sort give him this comfort, that her 

 majesty would be gracious unto him ; in the meantime all his offices are seques 

 tered from him. The master of the horse was not mentioned, because it was 

 not by patent, and a deputy by the Queen appointed, which is my lord of 

 Worcester, till his return to court ; so that if he come not again, then is he 

 still to execute it as he doth. The judges made his contempts very heinous by 

 the laws of the land, and by examples, and by the civil law criminal. The poor 

 earl continues still with a keeper at his own house until her majesty s pleasure 

 be further known, who, as it seems, is not resolved what she will do with him. 

 Her majesty is very much quieted and satisfied to see, that the lords of her 

 council, her nobility, and the grave judges of her land, do hold him worthy of 

 far more punishment than hath been inflicted against him. Some think his 

 keeper shall be removed this week, and that he shall have the liberty of his 

 houses in London and Barnelmes, and that he shall have his friends come to 

 him ; there are others that do believe that he shall continue as he doth some time 

 longer. 



Camden s Account of the Trial. 



But whereas the vulgar sort spread abroad his innocency every where, it 

 seemed good to the Queen, for removing of all suspicion of too much severity, 

 injustice, and prejudice from herself and her counsel, that his case should be 

 plainly heard (not in the Star Chamber, lest he should be heavily fined, but) in 

 the Lord Keeper s house, before the Queen s councell, four earls, two barons, 

 and four judges, and that, as it were, a certain censorious animadversion should 

 be used, yet without any note of perfidiousness. The chief heads of the accusa 

 tion against him were these: that contrary to that he had in charge, he had 

 made the Earl of Southampton general of the horse ; that he had bestowed the 

 dignity of knighthood upon many ; that he had drawn his forces into Munster, 

 neglecting Tir-Oen, the archrebel ; that he had conference with him not be 

 seeming the Queen s majesty, nor the dignity of a lord deputy ; and which was 

 the more suspect, because it was in secret. All these points the Queen s 

 learned councell had highly aggravated, producing out of his letters, written 



