X PREFACE. 



&quot; a diary ague ; the reign of a lady married to a 

 &quot; foreigner, and the reign of a lady solitary and un- 

 te married. 



&quot; His lordship, who had given such proof of his 

 &quot; skill in writing an History of England, leaving the 

 &quot; world, to the unspeakable loss of the learned part 

 &quot; of it ; his late majesty, a great favourer of that 

 e work, and wise in the choice of fit workmen, en- 

 &quot; couraged Sir Henry Wotton to endeavour it, by 

 &quot; his royal invitation, and a pension of 5001. per 

 &quot; annum. This proposal was made to that excel- 

 &amp;lt;c lent man, in his declining years ; and he died after 

 &quot; the finishing some short characters of some few 

 &quot;kings; which characters are published in his 

 &quot; Remains. 



STATE OF EUROPE. 



This tract is supposed by Mallet to have been 

 the first work written by Lord Bacon, and to have 

 been written about the year 1580, when he was be 

 tween 19 and 20 years of age : because it states, 

 &quot;that Henry III. of France was then 30 years 

 old: now that king began his reign in 1576, at 

 the age of 24 years, so that Bacon was then 1 9.&quot; 

 How far this evidence is satisfactory, may be col 

 lected from other parts of the same tract. It says, 

 &quot; Gregory XIII. of the age of 70 years:&quot; but 

 Gregory XIII. was 70 years old in the year 1572, 

 when he was elected Pope, so that according to this 

 reasoning, it might be inferred that it was written 

 when Bacon was 12 years of age. In another part 



