Sir Edmund Anderson.

BORN CIRC. A. D. 1540.-DIED a. d. 1605.

SIR EDMUND ANDERSON, an English lawyer of Scotch descent, was born about the year 1540, at Broughton, or Flixborough, in Lincolnshire. He studied at Lincoln college, Oxford, from whence he removed to the Inner Temple. In 1577, he was appointed sergeant-atlaw to the queen, and the year afterwards, one of the justices of assize, in which character he distinguished himself by his unrelenting severity towards the Brownists while on the Norfolk circuit of 1581. In 1582, he was made lord-chief-justice of the common pleas, and the year following, received the honour of knighthood. He sat in the star-chamber when sentence of death was pronounced against Mary, queen of Scots; and presided in the same court at Davison's trial. Anderson was justly considered an able lawyer, however, and adhered with rigorous exactness to the letter of the statutes. In the trial of Henry Cuffe, secretary to the earl of Essex, when the attorney-general was proceeding to argue the case on general principles, the chiefjustice interrupted him, by observing, "I sit here to judge of law, and not of logic:" but when an advocate, in favour of his cause, urged the want of certain precedents, the lord-chief-justice replied, "What of that? shall we give no judgment because it is not adjudged in the books before? We will give judgment according to reason; and if there be no reason in the books, I will not regard them." He did not hesitate to oppose the queen when she stretched her prerogative beyond the limit of the law; and he joined with the rest of the judges, and the barons of exchequer, in a remonstrance against the arbitrary authority occasionally assumed by the court. Upon the accession of James I., he was continued in office, and remained in it till his death, which happened in 1605. There can be no doubt that Sir Edmund was a sound lawyer; and, perhaps, on the whole, he was an honest man; but the intolerant and persecuting spirit which he manifested on all occasions towards the nonconformists, particularly in the case of Udal and Robert Brown, must for ever attach a stigma to his memory. His works are, Reports of Cases adjudged in the time of Queen Elizabeth, in the Common Bench,' in folio, London, 1644; and, Resolutions and Judgments in the Courts of Westminster,' published in 1653. The title is now extinct.

6

Blount, Earl of Devonshire.

BORN A. D. 1563.-DIED A. D. 1606.

ONE of the most distinguished ornaments of Elizabeth's court, was Charles, second son of James, Lord Mountjoy. He was born in the year 1563, and destined to the profession of the law, for the fallen fortunes of his family rendered it necessary for him to seek his subsistence by dint of his own honourable exertions. His grandfather had curtailed the family-revenue by the expenses into which he launched in

order to keep pace with the luxuries of Henry's court; his father had rendered matters still worse by seeking to overcome all his embarrassments by the possession of the philosopher's stone; and his elder brother had nearly dissipated the remnant by the most profuse and unjustifiable prodigality. In these circumstances Charles not only resolved to push his own way through the world, but to restore the sinking honours of his family. And it is recorded of him, that so early had this honourable desire taken possession of his bosom, that upon his parents proposing to have a portrait taken of him while yet a youth, he desired to be painted with a trowel in his hand, and this motto,-" Ad reæditicandam antiquam domum."

"As he

Sir Robert Naunton has thus sketched his early manhood. came from Oxford, he took the Inner temple on his way to the court, whither he no sooner came, but, without asking, he had a pretty strange kind of admission, which I have heard from a discreet man of his own, and much more of the secrets of these times. He was then much about twenty years of age; of a brown hair, a sweet face, a most neat composure, and tall in his person. The queen was then at Whitehall at dinner, whither he came to see the fashion of the court. The queen had soon found him out, and with a kind of affected frown, asked the lady-carver who he was. She answered she knew him not, insomuch as an inquiry was made from one to another who he might be, till at length it was told the queen he was brother to Lord William Mountjoy. This inquisition, with the eye of majesty fixed upon him (as she was wont to do, and to daunt men she knew not), stirred the blood of this young gentleman insomuch as his colour came and went, which the queen observing, called him unto her and gave him her hand to kiss, encouraging him with gracious words, and new looks; and so, diverting her speech to the lords and ladies, she said that she no sooner observed him but that she knew there was in him some noble blood, with some other expressions of pity towards his house; and then, again demanding his name, she said, 'fail you not to come to the court, and I will bethink myself how to do you good.' And this was his inlet, and the beginnings of his grace; where it falls into consideration, that though he wanted not wit and courage, for he had very fine attractions, and being a good piece of a scholar, yet were they accompanied with the retractives of bashfulness and a natural modesty, which, as the tone of his house and the ebb of his fortunes then stood, might have hindered his progression, had they not been reinforced by the infusion of sovereign favour, and the queen's gracious invitation. And, that it may appear how low he was, and how much that heretic necessity will work in the dejection of good spirits, I can deliver it with assurance, that his exhibition was very scant until his brother died, which was shortly af ter his admission to the court, and then it was no more than a thousand marks per annum, wherewith he lived plentifully in a fine way and garb, and without any great sustentation, during all his time; and as there was in his nature a kind of backwardness which did not befriend him, nor suit with the motion of the court, so there was in him an inclination to arms, with a humour of travelling and gadding about, which, had not some wise men about him laboured to remove, and the queen herself laid in her commands, he would, out of his natural propension, have marred his own market"

In 1594, he was appointed governor of Portsmouth, and in the same year he succeeded to the barony of Mountjoy on the death of his elder brother. He now stood high in the queen's good graces, and in 1597 was appointed lieutenant-general of the land forces in the expedition under Essex to the Azores. It is certain, that notwithstanding the queen's favour, the jealousy of Essex retarded the promotion of Mountjoy. But on the fall of that favourite he rapidly rose in honour and employments. He succeeded Essex in the command in Ireland, and in two campaigns reduced that country to obedience; thus fulfilling the queen's prophetical speech,' as recorded by Naunton, "that it would be his fortune and his honour to cut the thread of that fatal rebellion, and to bring her in peace to the grave."

James acknowledged and rewarded Mountjoy's merits, by appointing him lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and creating him earl of Devonshire. But he does not appear to have resided much in his government. He died on the 3d of April, 1606. Fynes Morrison, who had been the earl's secretary in Ireland, declares that "grief of unsuccessful love brought him to his last end." In early life he had privately interchanged vows of attachment with Penelope, eldest daughter of Walter Devereux, earl of Essex. But he had not yet raised himself above the adversity which clouded his early years, and the parents of his lady love forced their daughter to give her hand to Robert, Lord Rich. A guilty connexion between the lovers followed; and at last, Lady Rich abandoned her husband, and fled to the arms of the earl, taking with her her five children, whom she declared to be his issue. The earl received the unfortunate woman, and on her divorce from Lord Rich, was married to her on December, 1605. He survived this wretched union but a few months.

Sir Francis de Vere.

BORN A. D. 1554.-died A. D. 1608.

FRANCIS DE VERE, the second son of Geoffrey De Vere, and grandson of John De Vere, fifteenth earl of Oxford, was born at Castle-Henningham, in Essex, or, according to others, at Colchester, in the year 1554. His ancestors, from the first arrival of the family in the person of Alaric De Vere, who accompanied the Conqueror to England, had filled the most honourable posts under their respective sovereigns. At an early age the young Francis was put to study the noble profession of arms;' but it was not until his thirty-first year that he had an opportunity of witnessing actual service. In December, 1585, he accompanied the English expedition to Flushing, as a volunteer, and soon afterwards attached himself to the gallant Sir Philip Sidney, whose death he witnessed in the battle of Warnsfield. In 1587 he gallantly assisted in the defence of Sluys, and next year served in the defence of Bergen-op-Zoom, under Lord Willoughby. On this occasion he was intrusted with the command of two companies of foot, and the important charge of the island of Toretole; but after that the duke of Parma had converted the siege into a blockade, De Vere solicited and obtained permission to occupy one of the two forts situated between the

town and the river, in the defence of which, our young soldier perceived more glory was to be obtained than in service within the walls. Here he lured a strong detachment of the duke's army into a snare, by which 500 men were cut off, and a general panic diffused throughout the besieging army, in consequence of which the siege was hastily abandoned. De Vere's eminent services on this occasion were rewarded with the honour of knighthood, and from this period his name holds a distinguished place in the annals of English warfare.

In the spring of 1589, De Vere commanded a body of 600 of his countrymen, under Prince Maurice, the general-in-chief of the Dutch forces. In this service, with a force of only 800 men, he successfully defended the island of Voorn against Mansfeldt's forces, then amounting to 12,000, and compelled that general to change the plan of his campaign. The next service which he rendered the States was the relief of Bergh upon the Rhine, then closely besieged by the marquess of Warrenbon, and suffering severely for want of provisions. Arriving, at the head of a small force, in the rear of the enemy's lines, he boldly charged through them, threw in the much-needed supplies, and then cut his way back again to Caleti. But the garrison of Bergh was soon as much distressed as ever for want of provisions, and the investing corps had meanwhile received considerable reinforcements, whereupon the States desired Sir Francis to throw in a fresh supply. The commission appeared almost a desperate one, yet it was instantly undertaken by him. With admirable dexterity he led the convoy through a narrow defile in the face of overwhelming numbers, and entered Bergh without the loss of a single waggon. His retreat was still more successfully executed. Quitting the town under cover of a thick fog, and pursuing a new route, he entirely escaped the notice of the besieging forces, and arrived safely at his original station, bringing along with him his wounded men in the empty waggons.

In the succeeding summer, De Vere's services were demanded to relieve the castle of Litkenhooven, which he at once undertook, though unprovided with a single piece of artillery, and achieved with small loss. On his return through the country of Cleves, having learned that Burick on the Rhine was in the hands of the enemy, he resolved to regain it, and after having been twice driven back by the garrison of the citadel, the place was put into his hands by the governor at the moment preparations were making for a third attack. The return of the duke of Parma rendered it necessary for Prince Maurice to concentrate his divisions, and De Vere's detachment was ordered to Deesburg. Here it was intimated to him that the prince intended to invest Zutphen, and in order to facilitate the siege, De Vere made himself master of a strong fort in the neighbourhood, by a stratagem which is thus related by himself in his Commentaries: "I chose," he says, "a good number of lusty and hardy young soldiers, the most of which I apparelled like the countrywomen of those parts, the rest like the men: gave to some baskets, to others packs, and such burthens as the people usually carry to the market, with pistols and short swords, and daggers under their garments, willing them, by two or three in a company, by break of day, to be at the ferry of Zutphen, which is just against the fort, as if they staid for the passage-boat of the town; and bade them there to sit and rest themselves in the meantime, as near the gate of

the fort as they could for avoiding suspicion, and to seize upon the same as soon as it was opened, which took so good effect, that they possessed the entry of the fort, and held the same till an officer with two hundred soldiers-who was laid in a covert not far off-came to their succour, and so became fully master of the place. By which means the siege of the town afterwards proved the shorter."

The fall of Zutphen was followed by the surrender of Deventer, and the advance of Prince Maurice into Friesland, from whence he was suddenly recalled by the States-general, on the appearance of the duke of Parma in the Beltow, one of those large islands formed betwixt the Rhine and the Waal. The duke had formed the siege of Kosenburg, a castle which protects the ferry of Nimeguen, before Maurice came up; and the latter despaired of being able to drive so consummate a general from the strong position in which he now found him. Not so De Vere. He attentively reconnoitred the position of the enemy, and quickly devised a plan for leading him into an ambuscade, in which he so effectually succeeded, that the duke, disheartened by the loss of a large body of his finest cavalry, instantly raised the siege, and retreated "with more dishonour than in any action that he had undertaken in these warres.”

We hear no more of our gallant countryman till the year 1596, excepting that, in 1592, he was chosen member of parliament for the borough of Leominster. It is certain, however, that he continued in the military employment of the States until 1596, when he was recalled to take part in the expedition against Cadiz, prompted by Elizabeth's high-admiral. On the 10th of June that year, the arınament, consisting of 15,000 men and 150 ships, put to sea, and on the 1st of July arrived at the mouth of Cadiz bay. It was immediately resolved to force the entrance to the bay, and drive the Spanish fleet, which was laid across it, from its moorings. In this service De Vere bore, as usual, a distinguished part; and the subsequent capture of the town was mainly attributable to his gallant and judicious conduct. His opinion, however, that the place should be retained, was overruled, and orders given for its destruction, after which the troops leisurely re-embarked. It is recorded, to the immortal honour of De Vere and his companions, that, on this occasion, not a single life was taken in cold blood, nor had a single female to complain that she had suffered violence or insult from an English soldier. De Vere, however, informs us that "he got three prisoners on the occasion worth 10,000 ducats; one a churchman and president of the contradutation of the Indies, the other two ancient knights."

The

On the return of the Spanish expedition to England, De Vere spent a few months at court, and then set out again for the Low countries. But he had scarcely put foot on the old theatre of his military exploits, when he was summoned to repair to England to assist in planning and executing an enterprise against the Spanish West India fleet. failure of this expedition is well known. Essex, the commander, returned baffled and dispirited, and his enemies keenly endeavoured to turn the queen's resentment against him; but De Vere, though he had felt himself aggrieved by the appointment of Lord Mountjoy to the first command, nobly disdained to take advantage of Essex in his hour of humiliation, and, on his presentation at court, spoke so warmly in his favour, that he completely removed the impression which the enemies