Savoy, I know not. For I remember hee told me that hee would see Holland and Zeland, if that peace weare concluded. How hee shalbe welcume to the Archduke I conceve not. I thought good to lett yow know this miche.1 Your's to do yow service, Addressed: "To the right honorabell Mr. Secritorye." Endorsed: "Sir Walter Ralegh to my Master." W. RALEGH. 1 I am unable conclusively to identify the " Virginio Orsini," here spoken of Probably, he was the same Italian nobleman who is mentioned by De Thou (Historia sui Temporis, under A.D. 1591), as leading a crusade against bandits in the States of the Church, but there is no proof. In the careful index of De Thou's French translators (edit. of 1734), that nobleman is entered as Virginio degli Orsini, 'son of the Marquess of Lamentano,' but nothing can safely be inferred from Ralegh's use of the title 'Duke.' I do not think that Virginio degli Orsini occurs in De Thou after 1591. Ralegh's allusion to "the Peace of Savoy" I had overlooked. It shows that this letter should have been placed at the end of the letters of '1600,' not of '1602.' The treaty between Henry IV. and Charles Emanuel of Savoy (by which either the marquisate of Saluzzo, or the territory of Bresse with large appurtenances, was to be ceded by Savoy to France), was concluded at Paris on the 27th of February, 1600. LETTER CXVI. [1600?] PREFA- NOTE TO 15603. 1603. PREFATORY NOTE TO LETTER CXVII. — RALEGH AND DURHAM HOUSE, to the surrender of which by Sir Walter Ralegh the following letter relates, was built to be the mansion of the Bishops of Durham during their attendance in Parliament, by Thomas de Hatfield, who had served King Edward the Third as his Secretary, and filled the See of Durham from the year 1345 until 1381. The building appears to have been commenced soon after this Bishop's consecrat on. It continued to be the town residence of the Bishops of Durham until nearly the close of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, when Bishop Cuthbert Tonstal had to resign it to the King, in the form of an 'exchange'-after the fashion of the times. By Edward the Sixth it was given to the Princess Elizabeth for her life. During Mary's reign, Tonstal recovered Durham House as well as his dissolved bishopric, but he was again deprived of both on Elizabeth's accession. In 1362. De Quadra, the Spanish ambassador whom Mr. Froude has made famous, lived here; and hence were written some of his very curious contributions towards our English history. Other temporary residents inhabited the old mansion, fra time to time, by the Queen's favour. In 1584, she granted a lease of the greater part of it to Sir Walter Rale,h. It appears by a letter from Lady Ralegh to Sir Robert Cecil, written 1 ng subsequently, that Sir Walter expended a considerable sum upon its reparation, notwithstanding the insecurity of bis tenure. The original mansion was very large, and with its courtyards and various outbuildings covered nearly the whole site of the present Adelphi Terrace and of the streets between it te Strand, one of which still bears the name Durhana Yid TORY Immediately on King James' accession, Bishop Tobias PREFAMatthew claimed the house of his ancient predecessors in the See, and within a few days of the King's arrival at Greenwich obtained a royal warrant in the following terms : "To our trusty and well beloved Counsellors, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seale, &c. JAMES R.-Right trusty and well beloved Counsellors, we greet you well. Forasmuch as upon examination before you of the matter between the Bishop of Duresme and those that now dwell in his house, touching the right of the House called Duresme Place, it appeareth that neither the said dwellers have any right therein, nor we, whome they sought to entytle to it; and that thereof we are certyfied by you, we think it reasonable the said Bishop should have quiet possession of his house. Wherefore we require you to give order to our Attorny Generall, or some other of our learned Counsell, to give warning and commandment in our name to Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight, and Sir Edward Darcy, to delyver quyet possession of the said house to the said Bishop of Duresme, or to such as he shall appoint to receave it in his name. And that they and all others there abyding do, within such tyme as you shall think good to lymit, avoid the house, removing thence themselves and all their goods within that tyme which you shall appoint, with indifferent consideration. as well of the Bishop's necessary use of the place as also of their convenyency for removing from thence. Gyven under our Sygnet at our Manor of Greenwich, the last day of May, 1603, in the first yeare of our rayne." The Bishop, as it seems, was prevented from attending the Commissioners, in person, and wrote to the Lord Keeper a letter, of which the following is a copy : 1603. PREFA- NOTE TO LETTER CXVII. 1003. "To the Rt. Hon. my very good Lord, Sir THOMAS EGERTON, Knight, Lord Keeper of the Great Seale of England. MAIE IT PLEASE YOUR GOOD LORDSHIP, Whereas yesterdaie morning, when I should have attended your Lordship, and the rest of his Majesties Commissioners, for the possession of my house in the Strand, I received a message from his Highness, by Sir Roger Ashton and Mr. Hudson, that it was his Majesties good pleasure and direction that I should forthwith repaire to the Queene our Sovreigne, and give myne attendance on her Highness in her journey from Duresme to the Court (which his Majestye would vouchsafe to take in very good part of his princely benignitic), I had no tyme to take my leave of your Lordship, being the same afternoone to depart the Cittie northward, much lesse to solicite your Lords' ip and the rest as aforesaid. Wherein as necessitie itself will, I trust, pleade myne excuse, notwithstanding I thought meete to acquaint your Lordship with this sodaine occasion of my absence, and to intreate thate this bearer, my servant Francis Berty, maie have accesse to your good Lordship to receive your honorable and favorable answer, togeather with the possession of that house to my use with what celeritie conveniently may be graunted; the supposed tenaunts seeking nothing els but to gaine tyme to deface the house more then is justyfiable by lawe, or to shuffle in some noble or otherwise gracious person thereinto (yf not moe then one), whome to remove it may be harder for me than I am willing to assaie. I heare that Sir Walter Raleigh doth earnestly labour to contynue his habitation there until Michaelmas, a desyne nothing reasonable, considering that thereby the commoditie of the summer will be lost, a ty me most fit for me to repaire the delapidations and decayes which he by so many yeres space hath made or TORY CXVII. 1603. suffered, and which I would forthwith sett in hande PREFA- Thus being sorie but that there is no remedie to At Ware, this vijth of June, 1603. Your Lordship's humble, bounden and assured, TOBIE DURESME." The Bishop was very timely as it proved-in his application. He had taken advantage of his northern proximity to be among the first to welcome King James on his crossing the border, and he obtained permission to preach a congratulatory sermon before him at Berwick. James, probably, knew nothing of the very unfavourable view of his own character which the now courtly Bishop had formed and expressed in bygone years. As recently as in 1594, Matthew had written. to Lord Burghley that King James "is a deeper dissembler than is thought possible for his years." "I pray God," he adds, "the King's protestations be not too well believed." This deprecation grew out of a then-pending negotiation between Queen Elizabeth and the King of Scots touching the 'protection' of that Scottish exile, Lord Bothwell, who is mentioned, 1 See Prefatory Note to Letter XCV. |