left Cambridge, and retired to his own house at Lampsie, in South Wales, where he appears to have been so pleased with this rural retreat that it required some pressing in prevailing on him to quit it. In the course, however, of the following year he came up to London, and made his first appearance at court, bringing thither a fine person, a handsome and animated countenance, an agreeable carriage, and an affability which procured him a marked attention and many friends. His father, when in Ireland, had been persecuted and misrepresented to the Queen by the Earl of Leicester, who at that time was a great favourite of Elizabeth. The young Earl knew this; and it required some time before he could overcome the reluctance he felt, and could not conceal, against associating with his late father's enemy, and now, strangely enough, his father-in-law, having married the Dowager Countess of Essex, his mother. By Leicester, however, he was first introduced to Queen Elizabeth, who was not wont to overlook a handsome young man of family, with an appearance and personal qualifications such as were presented by the Earl of Essex. About this time Leicester was sent over as governor, or commander-in-chief, of the forces in the Low Countries, and he took Essex with him, then in his nineteenth year. In a letter of Leicester to Mr. Secretary Walsingham, dated July, 1586, he says-" Norris complains that all men are advanced but he; as the Erle of Essex to be Generall of all the horse, both English and Dutch. . . . In very troth he doth it onlie to bred quarrels, and to cause some mislike; for my Lord of Essex is none otherwise than over the English horse, for the Count de Meurs is over the rest.”* On the 28th of September, after the battle of Zutphen, he thus writes to the same-" But I must retorne to that daye's service to lett you know that, upon my honor and credite, for I was the appointer myself of all that went forth, onlie those principall noblemen and gentlemen that staed by me in the mist, was my Lord of Essex, my Lord Willowbye, Sir William Russell, Sir Phillip Sidney, Sir Thomas Perrott, Muster, with their bands, but amonge themselves and their own servants, and eleven or twelve of name, in all to the number of fifty or forty (lor xl) went on till theie found Sir John Norris, to whom I had comitted this service, only to have impeached a convoy; but he seeing these young fellowes, indeed ledd them to this charge, and all these joined in front together, and what theie did the first charge and after the second, doth appear by the nomber of men then slaine, which is confest by the enemy to be at lest 250, but others that have reported of the enemies mouth, theie were above 350, and theie were of the gallantest and best sort.”† In this battle that noble and accomplished youth, * Leicester Correspondence, printed for Camden Society. † Ib. Sir Philip Sidney, fought and fell in the front of the advanced corps, and shortly after died of his wounds. Truly has Hume said, that "virtuous conduct, polite conversation, heroic valour, and elegant erudition, all concurred to render him the ornament and delight of the English court. No person was so low as not to become an object of his humanity:" and he relates the well-known story, that "while he was lying on the field mangled with wounds, a bottle of water was brought him to relieve his thirst; but observing a soldier near him in a like miserable condition, he said, This man's necessity is still greater than mine: and he resigned to him the bottle of water."* Towards the end of September, 1586, Essex returned to England, and became a great favourite with Elizabeth, who, being always mindful of gallant conduct, received in him some consolation in her sorrow for the loss of that "Child of the Muses," for whom she had a most sincere and parental affection. He now stood so high in the Queen's good graces that, in 1587, she made him Master of the Horse; and on the arrival of the Spanish Armada, when the Queen headed her army assembled at Tilbury, the Earl of Essex was promoted to the rank of General of the Horse, "gracing him in the camp, in the view of the soldiers and people, even above her former favourite the Earl of Leicester, and * Hume's History. Ꮓ honouring him with the Order of the Garter."* On Leicester's death, which happened the 4th of September, 1588, just at the close of the defeat and dispersion of the "Invincible Armada," Essex was competitor with Sir Christopher Hatton, as successor to Leicester in the office of Chancellor of the University of Oxford; but on account of his youth, and of his being generally considered as a patron of the Puritan party, the interest of the Vice-Chamberlain Hatton prevailed, and the election was carried against the young Earl. So sudden an elevation to the highest pitch of royal favour might be expected to excite that impetuosity of spirit that was natural to the Earl of Essex; and instances occurred of that uncontrolled temper, which led him sometimes to conduct himself petulantly to the Queen herself, who did not admit, while she sometimes provoked, freedoms of that kind from certain of her subjects; he had yet to learn, what Bolingbroke so truly said of her"She had private friendships, she had favourites ; but she never suffered her friends to forget she was their queen; and when her favourites did, she made them feel that she was so." On one occasion, when in this state of temper, he insulted Sir Charles Blount, on a jealousy of the Queen's partiality. Sir Charles, afterwards Earl of Devonshire, a very comely young man, having distin *Birch's Memoirs. guished himself at a tilt, her Majesty sent him a chess-queen of gold enamelled, which he tied upon his arm with a crimson riband. Essex perceiving it, said, with affected scorn, "Now I perceive every fool must have a favour." On this Sir Charles challenged and fought him in Marybone Park, disarmed and wounded him in the thigh. "Instead of a sentimental softness," says Walpole, "the spirit of her father broke out on that occasion; she swore a round oath, that unless some one or other took him down, there would be no ruling him.'"* But she assisted in réconciling the combatants, who continued good friends as long as they lived. Though his supposed tendency towards a particular and powerful sect lost him the chancellorship, Essex had nothing of the Puritan in sentiment or conduct: liberal in the former, and generous in the latter, he was always ready to afford assistance, whether in person or in purse, to the distressed and deserving. It was mainly owing to this feeling of generosity, congenial at the same time with his activity of mind, as well as from the hatred he bore to the Spaniards, that he engaged in the expedition to Portugal, under Drake and Norris, to establish the exiled Antonio in the government of that kingdom; and this was done without her Majesty's consent or even knowledge. It would appear, however, from the following letter to his honourable friend * Royal and Noble Authors. |