Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years by John Guy

Author:John Guy [Guy, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: history, biography
ISBN: 9780670786022
Google: _l3hCwAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0143110098
Publisher: Viking
Published: 2016-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

16. One Last Chance

On his return from Cádiz, a crestfallen Essex set about reversing the shattering blow he believed he had suffered while fighting for the queen. In a matter of months, Robert Cecil had gained the coveted role of the queen’s principal secretary, the route to succeeding his father as Elizabeth’s chief minister. Then, when the ailing Lord Hunsdon died, Cecil had secured for his father-in-law, Lord Cobham, the influential post of Lord Chamberlain, which gave him overall control of access to the queen. Archbishop Whitgift’s close friend ever since they had hunted for the author of the Marprelate tracts together, Cobham would have proved to be a formidable enemy to Essex had he not sickened and died in March 1597, six weeks after his daughter suffered a fatal miscarriage. Cecil, understandably, was stunned and for a while unravelled by the shock of his wife’s sudden death. Ralegh, who never lacked human sympathy in such tragic circumstances, wrote him a moving letter of condolence:

Sir: Because I know not how you dispose of yourself, I forbear to visit you, preferring your pleasing before mine own desire. I had rather be with you now than at any other time if I could thereby either take off from you the burden of your sorrows or lay the greatest part thereof on mine own heart. In the meantime I would but [re]mind you of this, that you should not overshadow your wisdom with passion but look aright into things as they are . . . Sorrows draw not the dead to life but the living to death, and if I were myself to advise myself in the like I would never forget my patience till I saw all and the worst of evils, and so grieve for all at once, lest lamenting for some one, another might yet remain in the power of destiny of greater discomfort. Yours ever beyond the power of words to utter, W. Ralegh.1

Money troubles slowed Essex down. Debts in excess of £10,000, chiefly arising from the huge sums he had invested in his Normandy and Cádiz expeditions, were about to fall due, whereas his guaranteed annual income was rarely higher than £2,500 from rents and £3,500 from the lease of the farm of the customs on sweet wines. Up until now, he had been regularly bailed out by gifts from the queen, a few as generous as £2,000 or £4,000, and had bridged the gap by converting grants worth £1,000 a year into one-off payments, one of which yielded as much as £38,000.2

In June 1596, however, Burghley had intervened. He persuaded Elizabeth shortly after Essex sailed for Cádiz that no more immediate warrants for grants signed off by her alone were to be processed, whether for Essex or for anyone else. From now on, warrants must be countersigned by three or four privy councillors, of whom he was always to be one. It was an audacious move, usually interpreted by Elizabeth’s biographers to reflect a decline in her mental powers with the onset of age.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.