notion. He did not fuffer thofe about him to confine either his parfe or his ear to themfelves. As his own judgment directed the courfe of his bounty, fo his affability extended itfelf even to the meaneft of his fubjects: infomuch that his minifters must have found it a very difficult matter to conceal from him any truth, which it was ufeful for him to know. But, though his ears were always open to information or complaint, his heart was shut againft calumny: nor did any good fervant, through the whole courfe of his long reign, fuffer any lofs of favour or credit, by the fecret whifpers of malice, or the vain and groundlefs clamour of popular rumours. He was fo conftant in his friendships, and chofe his minifters with fuch difcretion, that not one of thofe whom he principally trusted was ever difgraced; except only Becket, who rather quitted, than loft, the place he had gained in his heart. The perfons who are most steady in their attachments are generally moft apt to retain their averfions: and I find it obferved in the character of this prince, that whom he once hated he could hardly be perfuaded to admit any more to a fhare of his favour; but it does not appear that he ever hated without a fufficient caufe. With what a generous clemency hè pardoned rebellions, and other offences committed against himself, fome remarkable inftances have already been given, and more will occur in the latter parts of this hiftory: but there is one which it is proper to take notice of here, as it will not fall in with the feries of events related in the following books. Some gentlemen of his court be ing accufed, in his prefence, of having, at the fuggeftion of the bifhop of Worcester, talked of him indecently and to his difhonour, they did not deny the words which were laid to their charge, but alledged that they were fpoken when their minds were heated and difordered with wine. On this apology, he difmiffed them all without any punishment, and retained no unkindness towards them or the bishop: an admirable proof of true magnanimity, and fuch as is found in few princes! for even the best are fometimes more angry at any liberty taken with their perfons, than at an act of high treafon against their crown. But Henry's good-nature got the better of his pride; and he was fo wife as to know that his character would gain more by this moderation, than it could fuffer by any injurious afperfions. Nor would he encourage the bafenefs and malignity of informers, who endeavour to recommend themfelves to the favour of a prince, by bringing to his car the unweighed expreffions of men in their hours of freedom: a practice as pernicious to the quiet of the fovereign as to the fecurity of the fubject. Henry's behaviour on this occafion effectually delivered his court from that peft, and rendered the air of it pure and healthful to liberty. Of the piety of this prince we have a remarkable teftimony fromWilliam Fitz-Stephen, a contemporary writer of Becket's life. He tells us, that the king would fometimes watch with the monks of Merton-abbey three nights before Eafter: and that, after the evening fervice on Good Friday, he was accustomed to fpend the reC 2 mainder 1 mainder of the night, till the hour of nine, when the fervice of Easter eve begins, in walking on foot, and muffled up in a cowl, with only one companion, to vifit all the poor churches in the neighbour, hood, and perform his devotions in them. The serious fenfe of religion, which thefe practices feem to indicate, however tinctured with a degree of innocent fuperftition, deferves great praife; and more efpe cially in a monarch, who with fo much fpirit oppofed the encroachments of the church on the temporal rights of the ftate. No gentleman of that age excelled him in politenefs, or had a more becoming and agreeable manner of converfing with all who approached him. His wit was very lively, but neither petulant nor ill natured: fo that it made him no enemies, nor ever let down the dignity of his character. He had alfo the advantage of a wonderful memory, and a great flow of natural eloquence; which happy endowments he improved by a conti nual application to learning. For he was not content (as princes ufually are) with the rudiments acquired in his childhood; but conftantly employed a great part of his leifure in fecret ftudy, or in affem. blies of clergymen, with whom he delighted to reafon and hear their opinions, on points of literature and fcience. His daily fchool (fays Peter of Blois) was the converfation of the moft learned men, and a kind of academical difcuffion of quetions. With his intimate friends he lived in the most gracious and eafy familiarity, particularly with Becket, to whofe house and table he would frequently come uninvited and unexpected. "After they had finished their ferious affairs, they "played together," fays a writer of Becket's life, like two boys "of the fame age." The king's good humour feems, indeed, to have been fometimes too playful, in "the eye of the public." But the notions of decorum were not in thofe times fo high and rigid as now; nor could the military life, then led by our monarchs, be rendered confiftent with all that pride of royal ftate, which the forms of a fettled court are thought to require. Indeed any king may fafely and amiably diveft himself of his majefty, in hours of recrea tion, if he knows how to keep it up, on proper occafions; and if thofe companions, whom he chufes to unbend himfelf with, are neither fo mean, nor fo vicious, as by their intimacy to dishonour and leffen his character. Henry sported with his chancellor, and with the nobility of his court: but it does not appear that he ever contaminated himfelf with the low fociety of buffoons, or any of thofe who find accefs to the leifure hours of princes, by miniftering to their vices, or foothing their follies. We His favourite diverfion was hunting; in which he followed the customs of his ancestors, and more efpecially of the Normans, who took a pride in this exercife, as indicating a manly temper of mid, and forming the body to the toils and hardships of war. are told by his preceptor, Peter of Blois, that when he was not reading, or at council, he had always in his hands a fword, or a hunting fpear, or a bow and arrows. The hunting fpear was used against wild boars, which were then in our fo refts, tefts, and adding greatly to the danger, added alfo to the honour of this recreation. Henry rofe by break of day, purfued the chace till evening with unabated ardour, and when he came home, though all his fervants were tired with following him, he would not fit down; but was always on his fee, except athis meals, which he ufually made very short. Even while he was confulting on bufinefs with his minifters, he food, or walked. Thus he kept down a difpofition to corpulency, which would have other. his diet plain, and in his dress he affected the utmost fimplicity, difliking all ornaments, which might encumber him and hinder his exercife, or fhew an effeminate regard to his perfon. Yet this did not proceed from inattention to women. He was but too fenfible of the power of their attractions, and too defirous to please them, even to the end of his life. Character of the Empress Matilda. THILE Henry was employed wife incommoded him, and pre-infuppreffing this revolt, he ferved the alacrity of youth to old age. From the continual habit of exercife he was fo indefatigable, that he would perform in one day (if occafion required it) a journey of three or four to an ordinary traveller; by which expedition he often came unexpectedly upon his enemies, difconcerted the meafures that were taken against him, and crufted the first motions to rebellion or fedition, even in the most diftant parts of all the feveral ftates that were under his government. The frequent progreffes he made about England have already been mentioned. They were very beneficial to his people; the execution of the laws, the good order of cities, the improvement of agriculture, manufactures, and trade, being thus under his own immediate inspection. He was the foul of his kingdom, pervading every part of it, and animating the whole with his active vivacity. Nor were his cares for the public interrupted by luxury,or the powers of his mind difordered or enfeebled by excefs. He was conftantly fober, and often abftemious both in eating and drinking. His table was frugal, received an account of the death of his mother Matilda, the greateft lady that Europe had ever feen, emprefs of Germany by her firft marriage, countess of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine by her fecond, and, by the will of her father confirming her claim from hereditary right, duchefs of Normandy and queen of England. Yet fhe was more truly great in the latter part of her life, when the acted only as a fubject under the reign, of her fon, than at the time when the beheld king Stephen her prifoner, and England at her feet. The violence of her temper and pride, inflamed by fuccefs, had then dishonoured、 her character, and made her appear, to her friends, as well as to her enemies, unworthy of the dominion to which he was exalted but from the inftructions of adverfity, age, and reflection, the learned the virtues fhe most wanted, moderation and mild nefs. Thefe, joined to the elevation and vigour of her mind, wherein fhe had always fur. paffed her fex, enabled her to become a moft ufeful counsellor and minifter to her fon, in the affairs of C 3 hi, his government, which, for fome time paft, had been her fole ambition. There is not in all history another example of a woman who had poffeft fuch high dignities, and encountered fuch perils for the fake of maintaining her power, being afterwards content to give it up, and, without forfaking the world, to live quietly in it; neither mixing in cabals against the ftate, nor afpiring to rule it beyond that limited province, which was parti. cularly affigned to her adminiftration! Such a conduct was merito. rious in the highest degree, and more than atoned for all the errors of her former behaviour. Character of Sir Philip Sidney, with a comparison between him and the celebrated chevalier Bayard. From the fame. Will add, that the two laft, who I appear to have fashioned themfelves upon the model of chivalry, and to have poffeffed in perfection all the virtues of their order, were, in France, the chevalier Bayard, and, in England, Sir Philip Sidney. In valour, courtefy, generofity, and a high and noble sense of honour, the peculiar virtues of chivalry, thefe two knights may be well compared together; but Sir Philip Sidney's character, upon the whole, is much fuperior to Bayard's, because he not only excelled in wit and learning, but was alfo endow. ed with great talents and abilities for ftate affairs, as we know from the teftimony of the greateft ftates. man of that age, William prince of Orange, who fent this meffage to Queen Elizabeth by Sir Fulk Greville, "that (in his judgment) her "majefty had one of the ripeft and "greatest counsellors of ftate in Sir "Philip Sidney that then lived in "Europe, to the trial of which he "was pleafed to leave his own "credit engaged, until her majefty "might pleafe to employ this gen"tleman either amongft her friends "or enemies." The credit of the prince of Orange wants no fupport; but I will add, from the fame author, Sir Fulk Greville, the teftimony of the earl of Leicester, who faid to Sir Fulk, "that when he under"took the government of the Low"countries he carried his nephew "(Sir Philip Sidney) over with "him, as one amongst the reft; "not only defpifing his youth for "a counsellor, but withal bearing "a hand over him as a forward young man. Notwithstanding, "in fhort time he jaw this fun fo "rifen above his horizon, that both "be and all his ftars were glad to fetch light from him. And in the end acknowledged, that he "held up the honour of his cafual "authority by him whilst he lived, "and found reafon to withdrazu "himfelf from that burden after his "death." But left this praife might be fufpected as coming from a relation, Sir Fulk fays further: "In what extraordinary eftimation "his worth was, even amongst ene"mies, will appear by his death: "when Mendoza, a fecretary of many treafons against us, acknow"ledged openly, that, however be was glad King Philip, his mafter, "had loft in a private gentleman a "dangerous enemy to his ftate; yet "he could not but lament to fee Chrif "tendom deprived of fo rare a light "in these cloudy times, and bewail poor Widow England (fo he term "ed "ed her) that, having been many years in breeding one eminent fpi"rit, was in a moment bereaved of "him by the hands of a villian" (or low common foldier; for that is the meaning of the word villain in this place.) We may therefore conclude, that, in the faculties of his mind, Sir Philip Sidney rofe above the highest pitch of knightly accomplishments, and was not only "un Chevalier fans peur et fans re"proche," but fit for the greatest offices of ftate and government. It feems indeed no lefs dithonourable to the memory of Queen Elizabeth, that the should have let fuch a fpirit and fuch talents as his remain fo long unemployed, than that the fhould have trufted fo much of her moft arduous bufinefs to her unworthy favourite the earl of Leicefter. As for the Chevalier Bayard, he does not appear to have had any extraordinary parts, or to have been ranked among the fatef men of the times in which he lived; nor had he any fuperior degree of knowledge, to diftinguifh him much from the ignorant nobility of his country whereas Sir Philip had acquired fuch a reputation for fcience and tafte in the fine arts, that, (to ufe the words of the above. mentioned author) "the univerfi"ties abroad and at home account"ed him a general Mecenas of "learning; dedicated their books "to him, and communicated eve ❝ry invention or improvement of "knowledge with him. There "was not a cunning painter, a "kilful engineer, an excellent "musician, or any other artificer "of extraordinary fame, that made "not himself known to this fa"mous fpirit, and found him his "true friend without hire, and "the common rendezvous of worth "in his time." Since I wrote this, the public has been entertained with the life of a very extraordinary man, the Lord Herbert of Cherbury, written by himself, from which he appears to have been as ftrongly poffeffed with the high fpirit of chivalry as Sir Philip Sidney, and was alfo a man of parts and learning. But he feems to have had weakneffes and defects in his character, arifing chiefly from vanity, which are not to be found in Sidney, none of whofe actions were improper, and much lefs were they ridiculous. Yet it must be owned, if thefe gentlemen are compared as writers, that Lord Herbert's Hiftory of King Henry the Eighth is fuperior upon the whole to any work of Sir Philip Sidney. |