1603. Dec. 4. APPENDIX BURY, what shalbe don for HERIOT'S coming about his VI. Plots and accompts; which grace his Majesty intends to aford1 Counterhim. Where you doubted how Mr. G. BROOK shalbe plots of 1602-1603. buried, you may please to bury him privatly, in some church. And for a scaffold, it was not to be doubted but he must have one.3 There shall be no need of any new questions to be asked at his death. For all is known. And it will be pity to troble him at that time, but with the best preparation for his sowle,—of which God Almighty take mercy. And so we end, Lord Cecil The King's for burial of Brooke. Endorsed, by a Secretary of Lord Cecil : Yowr... Mynute to Sir BENJAMIN TITCHBOURNE, the 4th of December, 1603. 1603. Dec. 4. Bishop of to the XV. ANTHONY WATSON, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER, TO From the Original. Cecil Papers, vol. cii. § 49 (Hatfield). Holograph. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIPS, UPON Mr. BROOK's preparacion for the Communion Chichester and my exhorting to a worthy receyvinge, we entred into some particulars, both for the last action and his former lyfe. I vexed againe that speech for the Fox and his cubbs, which now, I assure your Lordships, he abso Lords Commissioners. From Win chester. 1 First written ‘give.' 2 after his' written and then erased. 3 First written thus: "And for a scaffold, there can be no doubt." lutely denyeth; saieng that he wold not sweare, for all the world, that my Lord COBHAM ever uttered them. Somwhat was spoken to lyk sence, as he doubtfully alledgeth. Yff ther remaine any doubte wherin he may further satisfy the King, or your Lordships, he professeth his readinesse fully to accomplishe. Thus much I am bould to signifye to your Lordships, folowinge the opportunity of my Lord of WINCHESTER his sendinge to the Courte. And so, with remembrance of all dewty to your Lordships, I take my leave. From the Castle at Winchester, December 4th [1603]. Addressed: Your Lordships' in all dewtye, ANTHO. CICESTREN. For the Kinge's Service. To the right honorubele the Earle of Endorsed: December 4. Lord Bishop of Wynchester to the Lords. From Wyn APPENDIX VI. Plots and Counter plots of 1602-1603. 1603. Dec. 4. George Brooke's retracta tion (on receiving the Holy Communion) of his cha his charge against Cobham for saying, "We will kill the fox and his cubs." chester. XVI. ANTHONY WATSON, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER, TO From the Original. Cecil Papers, vol. cii. § 55 (Hatfield). Holograph. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIPS, ON Sonday, before eaveninge prayer, I made the last motion to Mr. BROOKE, concerninge wordes uttered 1603. Dec. 6. VI. APPENDIX against Sir GEORGE CAREW and Sir HENRY BRONPlots and KARDE.1 His very awnsweare was this: Its a jeaste2 [?]. CounterI never spake of them but by supposition that yff anyplots of 1602-1603. thing wer attempted for the Lady ARBELLA, Sir GEORGE CAREW and Sir HENRY BRONKARDE wer lyk to knowe it.' And, further, he could not say any think against them. 1603. Dec. 6. The to the Commis- From chester. Statements made by George Brooke, just before his execu tion. After prayeres, I commended him to God, for his comfortable meditations till the next morninge ;-when I came againe to pray with him, and, by his importunat request, folowed him to the skaffolde, wher he suffred at the tyme appointed; which, I presume, hath restored me to my former libertye and dewtyes. And so I humbly tak my leave. At Winchester, Decemb. 6 [1603]. 1 Brouncker. Your Lordships' in all dewty, ANTHO. CICESTREN. 2 So apparently in MS., but this reading must be taken as conjectural; the word being but partially legible. THE PLOT TO LORD GREY'S PARTICIPATION IN TORY LETTER XVII. OF far as respects one principal count of the Indictment PREFAagainst Lord Grey, the charge is, in a great measure, borne out by so much of the prisoner's Confession as has been preserved. The two statements, of course, differ totally in regard to the real aim and object of the accused person. Nor do they differ much less as to the relative position, amongst themselves, of the conspirators concerned in the plot to 'surprize' the King and to seize the Tower. VI. Plots and Counterplots of 1602-1603. 1603. The specific counts against Grey in the Indictment of December. November 1603,-as I find them in the original document, preserved in the Baga de Secretis,-are briefly these: (I.) That, on the 14th day of June, Lord Grey had a meeting at Westminster with George Brooke and with Sir Griffin Markham; that Brooke and Markham declared to Lord Grey their treasonable intention "to seize the King's person, and that of Prince Henry, and to imprison them in the Tower," in order to "extort three promises from the King:" viz. (1) Their own pardon for the imprisonment; (2) A toleration of the Romish religion; (3) The exclusion of certain lords from the Council. And then the Indictment proceeds to allege: (II.) That on the 18th day of the same month these three accused persons had another meeting at Westminster, wherein, after "assenting to all their plans, Lord Grey stipulated that after the King's imprisonment he should be made Earl Marshal, and Master of the Horse." Grey's confession-made in the Tower of London, before his trial-admits his complicity in the plot to seize the King, Baga de membrane PREFA- NOTE TO with a view to influence the subsequent course of government. But in that confession, as in all his numerous letters about the plot, written during imprisonment, he uniformly asserts an entire divergence of ultimate purpose between himself and his Plots and fellow-conspirators. He declares that their real plans had been Counteronly partially disclosed to him, and that when he discovered plots of 1602-1603. what it was that Markham, Brooke, and the priests were in truth aiming at, he withdrew from all further complicity with 1603. December. them. What was it, then, which Grey had hoped to attain when he first entered into a plot to surround the King suddenly on a Midsummer morning and to keep him, for a time, in durance in the Tower of London ? It will be in vain to seek an answer to this question in the mere text of his Confession. The collation of his extant correspondence will, probably, be more to the purpose. But in order to a clear understanding of the letters, there must be some preliminary remembrance of the life and character of the man who wrote them. THOMAS GREY, fifteenth Baron Grey of Wilton, was essentially a soldier. He was also a man of fine parts and of scholarly cultivation. Passionately fond of the noble profession which he had studied as well as adopted, he was one of the many soldiers who have shown, conclusively, that a devout mind and a refined intellect may shine as brightly in the camp as in the court. He was also a strenuous and disinterested politician. The grave mistakes and dark blots of his brief political career are insufficient to hide the patriotism and the public spirit which were as inherent in his nature as was the passionate and reckless impulsiveness that helped to bring about his ruin. Those who lived in his intimacy loved him dearly. And no one could live with him a month, it seems, without witnessing some outburst of temper or some escapa.le of Quixotic adventurousness, of the sort which opens an easy breach to the assaults of enmity, though it may fail to weaken the strength of friendship. |