Sir Walter Raleigh: In Life & Legend by Mark Nicholls & Penry Williams

Author:Mark Nicholls & Penry Williams [Nicholls, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography, History, England/Great Britain, Virginia, 16th Century, Travel & Exploration, Tudors
ISBN: 978-1441112095
Publisher: Continuum International
Published: 2015-04-18T04:00:00+00:00

Was...found guilty of high Treason for practising with the Lord Cobham to disturb his Majestys possession of this Crown, by invasion from abroad, and Sedition both here at home and in Scotland; notwithstanding that Sir Walter, to all mens admiration dyd as much, as the witt of man could devise, to clear an offender.

Here Munck expressed the views of his master.117 Cecil called the whole sorry saga of the Bye and Main a 'tragedy', and his demeanour through the trials suggests a man increasingly convinced that there was no other appropriate word.118 The protracted crisis, and the disgrace of his brother-in-law Cobham, had made his own position far more difficult. Among those who take refuge from the complexity of history in the simplistic fashioning of all-powerful, Machiavellian statesmen, there has always been a tendency to suppose that Cecil might, possibly, have had a guiding hand in these treasons, but, as with the Gunpowder Plot two years later, no credible contemporary evidence supports such views. In 1603, Cecil's future looked distinctly shaky. The most trusted servant of a dead monarch cannot always count on the favour of that monarch's successor, and while James appreciated Cecil's good offices and loyalty at the succession, he was also deeply indebted to those like Henry Howard and the Earl of Southampton, who had lost out under Elizabeth, and who had only qualified respect and less affection for the Secretary. In such circumstances, it would have been the height of daring, or folly, to have manufactured complex conspiracies, even had time, imagination and resources permitted such creativity.

The precarious nature of Cecil's position in 1603 was not lost on the man in the street. In this new political world, little would have surprised the pragmatic Londoner. Thomas Gayton, writing from Gray's Inn to his wife Margaret on 15 July, told her that he had bought the cloth that she wanted, adding by way of the latest news that Anthony Copley, racked for his part in the Bye Plot, had implicated Lord Grey. Rumour, he added, suggested that Copley had also confessed to Sir Robert Cecil's involvement in the conspiracy.119 All sorts of wild stories reached English merchants overseas during that nervous, plague-ridden summer: King James was dead, three or four great noblemen were in revolt.120 On 27 July, the bailiffs of Colchester wrote to Cecil telling him that when they had announced and celebrated the King's coronation, word had suddenly spread through the crowd that Cecil had fled from Court, and that the King had promised a reward for his arrest.121 Five hundred 'soldiers' were levied in London for the coronation day, 'to withstand any tumults and disorders'.122 Preparations on this scale, of course, disclose the fears of the time.

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