hospitals. Sir Thomas died suddenly in November 21, 1579, in the full enjoyment of his prosperity. He was buried in St Helen's church with great pomp and with every demonstration of public regret. His character is best gathered from the tenour of his life. His commercial abilities were unrivalled; he was a liberal patron of the sciences and the arts; cautious and sagacious, he knew how to make money,-munificent, hospitable, generous, he knew how to show it. He was one of the few whom prosperity cannot spoil; the same amidst riches and honours as he had been in humble circumstances. He was dignified without pride, magnificent without ostentation, generous but not lavish; he was one of those very rare men of simplicity, worth, and true practical wisdom, who know what is due to every situation, and can adapt their conduct with a nice and accurate adjustment to all the varying circumstances of fortune. A more worthy name than that of Sir Thomas Gresham does not adorn the page of English history.

Sir Nicholas Throckmorton.

BORN CIRC. A. D. 1513.-DIED A. D. 1571.

SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON, the fourth son of Sir George Throckmorton, an officer of Henry the Eighth's household, was born about the year 1513. While yet a boy he became attached to the duke of Richmond's suite in the quality of page, and he accompanied his master and the earl of Surrey in their mission to France. In 1544, he commanded a troop in the expedition against France, and acquitted himself to Henry's satisfaction. On the death of Henry he attached himself to the queen-dowager, which introduced him to the princess Elizabeth's notice. In 1547 he served in the Scottish campaign, and greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Pinkey. The protector sent him to London with the news of that victory, and soon after this he was knighted, and obtained an office in the privy chamber. He appears to have stood well with Edward VI.; but, having embraced the protestant doctrines in early life, the accession of Mary threw a cloud over his fortunes, and within a few months afterwards, he was arrested and sent to the Tower, on a charge of being accessary to Wyatt's rebellion. Never did the ingratitude of Mary appear in darker colours than in ordering the arrest of Sir Nicholas: for, protestant as he was, he had a great veneration for legitimacy, and was the very first to communicate to Mary the plans of Northumberland for the proclamation of Lady Jane Grey. In concert with his brother, he despatched Mary's goldsmith to Hunsden, where that princess then was, with the news of Edward's death. She at first hesitated to rely implicitly upon the intelligence, especially on being informed that it was Sir Nicholas who brought the news from Greenwich, remarking, that if Sir Robertmeaning his elder brother, who was a zealous papist-had been here, "she would have gaged her life upon the truth of it."

We have already detailed the particulars of Wyatt's insurrection. Sir Nicholas was committed to the tower on the 20th of February, 1554, and on the 17th of April was brought to trial at Guildhall in London. There seems little doubt that he sympathized with, and even

afforded direct encouragement and assistance to the insurgents; but he defended himself on his trial with so much boldness and dexterity that he was acquitted by the jury. He was remanded, however, to the Tower, and remained in custody till the 18th of January, 1555, when he obtained his release along with several other state-prisoners, at the solicitation of King Philip, who sought to gain the favour of his queen's subjects by this and other acts of leniency.

Soon after his discharge, Throckmorton went into France, where he became intimately acquainted with Sir James Melvil, the confidential adviser of Mary of Scotland, who speaks of him as his "oldest and dearest friend by long acquaintance," and says, "he was a devout friend to the queen, my mistress, and to her right and title to the succession to the crown of England." At the close of the year 1556, Throckmorton returned to England, and paid his court, but secretly, to the princess Elizabeth, who reposed much confidence in him, and employed him, on the report of Mary's death, to ascertain its truth—a piece of service which he faithfully and dexterously performed, and for which he was rewarded with the office of chief butler, no very lucrative appointment. Elizabeth found in him, however, a faithful and bold counsellor. He strenuously opposed the retaining of several zealous catholics, who had formed part of Mary's council, in their office of privy councillors. The queen, irritated at the freedom with which Throckmorton expressed his sentiments on this point, is said to have exclaimed, "God's death, villain, I will have thy head!" To which passionate threat he coolly replied, "You will do well, Madam, to consider first how long you will then be able to keep your own on your shoulders." Elizabeth, on reflection, saw the unreasonableness of her warmth and the force of Throckmorton's observation, and not long afterwards evinced her confidence in him by despatching him as her ambassador to France, in 1559, in which character he remained at the French court till 1563. His diplomatic correspondence during this period has been published, and displays considerable tact and shrewdness on the part of the ambassador. Secretary Cecil placed a high value on his services; but a short time before Throckmorton's return to England a misunderstanding occurred betwixt the ambassador and secretary, which determined the former to attach himself to the earl of Leicester's party.

In 1565, he was sent into Scotland to oppose Mary's projected marriage with Darnley, and encourage the earl of Murray's party in their opposition to that measure. On the imprisonment of Mary at Lochleven, in 1567, he was again sent into Scotland to negotiate for her release, and Melvil declares, that of all the English ambassadors, Throckmorton "dealt most honestly and plainly, for he shot at the union of the whole isle in one monarchy."2 Whatever his merits were in these services, they were not adequately rewarded in his own apprehension, and he assumed the air and bearing of an ill-used man to such a degree, that 'weazen-faced Throckmorton' became a bye-word at court. In 1569, when the intrigue for a marriage between the queen of Scots and the duke of Norfolk was discovered, Throckmorton was

1 See Criminal Trials in Library of Entertaining Knowledge, vol. i. p. 55.

Memoirs, p. 89.

sent to the Tower on suspicion of being concerned in it. He was soon afterwards discharged; but he never regained Elizabeth's favour. His disappointments preyed deeply upon his spirits, and he died within a few months after his liberation, in the house of the earl of Leicester, on the 12th of February, 1571. Fuller hints that he was poisoned by Leicester, no mean artist in that faculty; but the suspicion is not borne out by any adequate evidence.

Thomas, Duke of Norfolk.

BORN A. D. 1536.-DIED A. d. 1572.

THOMAS HOWARD, duke of Norfolk, was the eldest son of the earl of Surrey. He succeeded to the title and estates of his grandfather, the third duke of Norfolk, in August, 1554. After the death of his father he was placed under the care of his aunt, the duchess of Richmond, who appointed Fox, the martyrologist, his preceptor. Under such tuition, the young Norfolk imbibed the principles of the Reformation; and it is recorded to his praise, that he never forgot what he owed to his venerable and pious preceptor. On Elizabeth's accession, he was made a privy councillor, and honoured with the garter; and in 1559, he was appointed lieutenant-general of the north, a situation of peculiar trust and importance in these times. The discerning Cecil thus expresses the opinion he had formed of the duke in relation to this office: "Surely, I think, his grace will as discreetly, as honourably, as powerfully execute the commission, as any that hath gone before him. One notable quality he hath wherein is great commendation; he will do nothing almost of any moment in his private causes, but upon advice; which property shall be most convenient for this charge." Cecil was at this time secretly assisting the lords of the congregation against the queen-regent of Scotland; and the quality he here praises in Norfolk peculiarly fitted the duke for bearing his part as lord of the marches in the negotiation with the Scottish party.

At the time of Mary's flight into England, after the battle of Langside, the duke of Norfolk was the most powerful and popular nobleman in England. His rank as premier peer, his relationship to the queen and the favour in which he stood with her majesty, his personal qualities of munificence and affability, his connexion by blood with some of the first catholic families, and the confidence which his known principles induced the protestant party to repose in him, all conspired to make him the first man in the state; and accordingly he was treated with the highest deference by both parties.

It is difficult now to trace the origin of the scheme of a marriage between the duke and the queen of Scotland. On the appointment of the commission for the purpose of hearing and determining the alleged matters of grievance betwixt Mary and her subjects, Norfolk was placed at the head of it. His duchess had died during the preceding year; and Mary had been for some time under the surveillance of Lady Scrope, the duke's sister, at Bolton. The bishop of Rosse, on his examination, declared that the scheme had been first suggested to Mary herself in a communication from the duke, previously to her

granting her final assent to the commission. The conferences at York commenced on the 4th of October, 1568. Murray declares that proposals were made to him by Norfolk for the suppression of all documents which might go to establish Mary's participation in the murder of Darnley, and that it was urged upon him, in reference to this point, that any undue exposure of Mary might be prejudicial to her son's interests, on whom the eyes of a considerable party were now set as the destined successor of Elizabeth on the throne of England. The duke, on his trial, strenuously denied the truth of this statement, but Melvil declares that the regent imparted to him the substance of his communication with the duke the same night. Whether or not these secret dealings were discovered or suspected by Elizabeth, measures were soon afterwards adopted which removed Mary from the influence of Norfolk or his agents. She herself was transferred from the charge of Lord Scrope to the custody of the earl of Shrewsbury, and the seat of the commission was removed from York to London; while the duke was despatched on military affairs to the northern marches. On Norfolk's return to court, Elizabeth exhibited manifest signs of dissatis faction towards him; but the duke introduced the subject of his rumoured marriage with Mary himself, and affected to treat the whole as an idle and unfounded rumour. In the meantime, Murray delivered up the evidences which he possessed of Mary's connexion with Bothwell, chiefly consisting of those letters and sonnets whose genuineness has been since disputed with so much diligence of historical investigation and shrewdness of argument. Soon after the production of these papers the conference closed, and Elizabeth signified her determination to give no final judgment in the matter. Norfolk beheld the failure of his scheme, through Murray's breach of promise, with much indignation; and the bishop of Rosse, in his declaration, affirms, that for a time Norfolk was privy to and encouraged a plan to intercept and assassinate the regent on his return home.

Early in the year 1569, the proposal for the marriage of the duke with the queen of Scots was publicly entertained by a very powerful party of the English nobility; and a letter was written to Mary by the earls of Leicester, Arundel, and Pembroke, urging her consent to the measure, as calculated to secure the peace and well-being of both kingdoms, in the event of Elizabeth's death without issue. To this communication Mary returned a favourable answer; and a formal contract of marriage was drawn up and signed, and deposited with Fenelon the French ambassador. These arrangements were made unknown to Elizabeth, but Leicester engaged to take the first favourable opportunity of breaking the matter to her. It was not till the month of August, that the first rumour of this intrigue was conveyed to Elizabeth by some of her ladies. Leicester, shortly afterwards, revealed the whole transaction to her, and obtained her forgiveness for the part which he had taken in it. The first intimation which Elizabeth gave the duke of her acquaintance with his designs, was conveyed to him in the sig nificant hint from her own lips, "to beware on what pillow he rested his head." The duke instantly took the alarm, and retired to Kenninghall in Norfolk; but a peremptory summons commanded his presence at court; and on the 9th of October, he was committed to the Tower.

Elizabeth would have at first precipitated his trial; but the

cool and cautious Cecil succeeded in satisfying her of the impolicy of this. "If the duke," said he, "shall be charged with the crime of treason, and shall not be thereof convicted, he shall not only save but increase his credit. And surely, without his facts may appear manifest within the compass of treason (which I cannot see how they can), he shall be acquitted of that charge; and better it were in the beginning to foresee the matter, than to attempt it with discredit, and not without suspicion of evil will and malice." The want of sufficient evidence to convict the duke of treason, and the good offices of Cecil, finally procured the duke's liberation from the Tower, but he soon afterwards engaged himself in more treasonable practices.

In February, 1570, the plan of an embassy to the duke of Alva, the pope, and the king of Spain, was suggested by the queen of Scots, and communicated by the bishop of Rosse to the duke of Norfolk. The duke, it was declared by Rosse and Barber in their examination, assented to the scheme, which was nothing less than a proposal to form an alliance with the foreign powers just mentioned, and the catholic party of England, in support of the queen of Scots. The fact of a secret correspondence with foreign powers was early discovered, but the council were for a time baffled in their efforts to discover the traitors. At last the detection of a letter in cipher from Hickford, the duke's secretary, and the subsequent confessions and revelation of Hickford, and Barber, another confident of the duke's, led to the arrest of Norfolk himself. Abundant matter for a charge of high treason was soon collected against him, and on the 16th of January, 1572, he was tried and pronounced guilty by his peers. Elizabeth manifested great reluctance, real or feigned, to consent to his execution; but, after four months delay, the fatal warrant was at last issued; and on the 3d of June, 1572, the duke was executed on Tower-hill. He acknowledged the justness of his sentence upon the scaffold, and met his death with becoming fortitude. "It is incredible," says Camden, "how much the people loved him; whose good-will he had gained by a munificence and extraordinary affability suitable to so great a prince. The wiser sort of men were variously affected; some were terrified at the greatness of the danger, which, during his life, seemed to threaten the state from him and his faction. Others were moved with pity towards him, as one very nobly descended, of an extraordinary good nature, comely personage, and manly presence, who might have been both a support and ornament to his country, had not the crafty wiles of the envious, and his own false hopes, led on with a show of doing the public service, diverted him from his first course of life. They called likewise to mind the untimely end of his father, a man of extraordinary learning, and famous in war, who was beheaded in the same place five and twenty years before." A very accurate report of the duke's trial has been got up from various sources by the editor of the Criminal Trials,' in that most meritorious publication, The Library of Entertaining Knowledge.'