NOTE 4 C. 



above two years before (whereof copies were lately dispersed by his followers), 

 these short abrupt sentences : &quot; No tempest is more furious than the indigna 

 tion of an impotent prince ; the Queen s heart is hardened. Cannot princes 

 err? Can they not wrong their subjects ? What I owe as a subject I know 

 well, and what as earl marshal of England.&quot; From hence they argued, as if 

 he esteemed the Queen for an impotent princess, and voyd of reason ; compared 

 her to Pharaoh, whose heart was hardened, that she cared no longer for truth 

 and justice ; and as if he besides his fidelity, ought neither obedience nor thank 

 fulness. Some points also of lesser moment they objected unto him out of a 

 book of the deposing of Richard the Second, dedicated unto him. He kneeling 

 at the table, upon one knee, thanked Almighty God for all his benefits, and his 

 most gracious princess, which would not have his cause to be heard publickly in 

 the Star Chamber, but commanded that cup to pass (for these were his words), 

 and him to be censured within a private house. He professed therefore that he 

 would not contest with her, nor in the whole, or in part, excuse the errors of his 

 young inconsiderate years, and of his weakness. He protested that he had most 

 sincerely kept his allegiance, and had not had so much as a thought not to obey, 

 and that he would ever be obedient. Briefly, that in all things his meaning was 

 good, howsoever it fell out otherwise, and that now he would bid the world 

 farewell. And withal he shed plenty of tears; the slanders by also wept with 

 him for joy, out of the great hope they had of him. Yet could he not contain 

 himself, but begun to make excuse, that he had made Southampton general of 

 the horse out of a &quot;credulous error that the Queen would admit the reasons which 

 he yielded ; but they being rejected, he presently displaced him. That he had 

 bestowed the dignity of knighthood upon many, that he might retain the gentle 

 men volunteers about him. That he had undertaken the war in Munster, by 

 the inconsiderate advice of the councel of Ireland. That Ormond, the principal 

 of them, rued the same, by the loss of his sight, and Sir Warham St. Leger, by 

 a cruel death. As he was going forward, the Lord Keeper stayed him, and put 

 him in mind to go forward as he had first begun, and to fly to the Queen s 

 mercy, who would not have him charged with perfidiousness, but with contempt 

 and disobedience ; and not to pretend obedience in words which in deeds he 

 had little performed. For by extenuating his offences he might seem to exte 

 nuate the Queen s clemency. That it was absurd to shadow open disobedience 

 with the will to obey. What every one said it is needless to repeat, seeing they 

 were in a manner the same which were either before spoken, or after to be 

 spoken, in the Star Chamber. In conclusion, the Lord Keeper pronounced that 

 he should be removed from the place of a counsellor, suspended from his offices 

 of earl marshal and master of the ordnance, and detained in custody during the 

 Queen s pleasure. These censures the rest approved by their voices, and many 

 conceived good hope that he should ere long be received again into favor ; for 

 asmuch as the Queen had expressly commanded that he should not be suspended 

 from his mastership of the horse (as if she would use his service again), and 

 that this censure should by no means remain upon record. 



Morrison s Account of the Trial. 



Give me leave to digresse a little, to one of the fatall periods of Robert, the 

 noble Earle of Essex his tragedy (and the last but one, which was his death), 

 whereof the following relation was sent into Ireland. The fifth of June there 

 assembled at Yorke-house in London, about the hearing of my Lord of Essex 

 his cause, eighteene commissioners, viz. my Lord of Canterburie, Lord Keeper, 

 Lord Treasurer, Lord Admirall, Lords of Worcester, Shrewsbury, Cumberland, 

 Huntington, Darby, and Zouch, Mast. Comptroller, Master Secretarie, Sir 

 Thon Fortescu, Lord Popham, Chiefe Justice, Lord Anderson, Chiefe Justice 

 of the Common Pleas, Lord Perian, Chiefe Baron of the Exchequer, Justices 

 Gandy and Walmesley. They sate from eight of the clock in the morning, till 

 very neere nine at night, all at a long table in chaires. At the carles cpmming 

 in none of the commissioners stirred cap, or gave any signe of curtesie. He 

 kneeled at the vpper end of the table, and a good while without a cushion. At 

 length my Lord of Canterbury moved ray Lord Treasurer, and they jointly my 



