Newmarket, where there is a great scarcity of timber. A friend, alluding to these circumstances, pleasantly inquired of the Earl, "if wood were not extremely dear at Newmarket." She had a hand in all transactions both of Church and State, and the suppliants for her son's favour in the first instance addressed themselves to her. In allusion to this influence, as well as to her being a Roman Catholic, Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, with more wit than reverence, thus expresses himself in one of his despatches to his own court :-" There was never more hope of England's conversion to the Romish faith than now; for here there are more prayers offered to the mother than the son."* Lord Keeper Williams, also, then Dean of Westminster, is said to have been indebted to her influence for the Bishopric of Durham and the custody of the Great Seal. Indeed, there rests a suspicion that the existence of a tender familiarity between them was the secret of his rise.†

Her belief in the tenets of the Church of Rome was considered of some importance in her lifetime, since on this foundation rested the hopes of the Papists of converting the Duke her son. Previous, however, to her open and dangerous confession of being a proselyte, Buckingham, aware of the odium which such a disclosure would entail upon himself, exerted his utmost influence to bring her back to her original principles. James, moreover, never

* Wilson, p. 149.

+ Balfour, vol. ii. p. 93.

averse to polemical controversies, entered warmly into this laudable endeavour. One Fisher, a Jesuit, had already brought her to the eve of an open declaration. In opposition, therefore, to the arguments of the zealous father, the Duke brought forward Dr. Francis White, Divinity Lecturer at St. Paul's, and celebrated for his controversial dexterity, who consented to encounter the Jesuit in the lady's presence, and overthrow his arguments against the Protestant Church. One or two conferences accordingly took place, at one of which the King was himself present. Dr. White's arguments appear to have produced but slight influence on the Countess. In Buckingham, however, they were remarkable as having adventitiously excited an interest in his own spiritual welfare. He took the doctor into his favour, and, on the Sunday following the last conference, received the Sacrament at Greenwich.*

The Countess is accused of having tampered with the life of her sovereign. We have nothing to add to what has already been adduced in the Me

moir of King James.

Buckingham was attached to his mother with all her faults, and could not endure that she should be treated with disrespect. Henrietta Maria, in the ensuing reign, had promised on some occasion to visit the Countess in her apartments, but from some

*Heylin's Life of Laud, p. 95; Bishop Hacket's Life of Lord Keeper Williams, part ii. p. 171.

unavoidable cause was prevented from keeping her appointment. The arrogant favourite entered the chamber of his Queen ; and after some expostulation, told her in plain terms, that "she should repent it.” Henrietta naturally retorting with some indignation, the Duke reminded her "that there had been Queens in England who had lost their heads."* In all probability the quarrel had a deeper origin than a mere neglect in the payment of a visit.

The Countess died on the 19th of April, 1632, at her apartments in the Gate-house, Whitehall, which opened into King Street, Westminster. She was buried with considerable pomp in St. Edmund's chapel, situated in the south-aisle of Westminster Abbey.†

* Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. i. p. 69. + Collins's Peerage, vol. iv. 177; Granger, vol. iii. p. 223.

230

THOMAS SACKVILLE,

EARL OF DORSET.

His literary Accomplishments and political Services-his poetical Works-his wanton Extravagance.-Cause of his Reformation -his sudden Death-his Funeral.

THE Earl of Dorset was more remarkable from his literary accomplishments than his political talent. He was distinguished, however, for a strong sense, an unimpeachable integrity, and a cautious prudence, which perhaps are more to be coveted than genius itself. These qualities, added to the antiquity of his family, and the large fortune he inherited from his father, not only procured his elevation to the peerage, but caused him to be employed in several delicate transactions, wherein none but a very sensible and loyal man would have been trusted. It is singular that he sat among the peers who condemned Thomas Duke of Norfolk to the scaffold; that he was Lord High Steward at the trial of the unfortunate Essex; and that he was not only one of the commissioners appointed to try Mary Queen of Scots, but was selected to communicate to that

Princess the fatal intelligence that her days were numbered.

The Earl was the eldest son of Sir Richard Sackville, who had been in some degree a favourite with Elizabeth, and was indeed related to the Queen through the Boleyns. His son was born at Buckhurst, in Sussex, in 1536, received his education at the Universities both of Oxford and Cambridge; was afterwards entered at the Inner Temple, and was elected for the county of Sussex in the first parliament of Elizabeth. On the 8th of June, 1567, he was created Lord Buckhurst by Elizabeth, and on the 13th of March, 1604, Earl of Dorset by James the First. Besides having been employed successively as Ambassador to France and the United Provinces, and having been joined in several important commissions, he was Lord High Treasurer, a Knight of the Garter, and Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

He wrote several poems, besides being, with Thomas Norton, the joint author of "Gorboduc," the first respectable tragedy in the English language. It was acted by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple, before the Queen at Whitehall on the 18th of January, 1561. This play, notwithstanding its acknowledged merit, was singularly scarce, within the century after it was written; Shakspeare's glorious plays and Jonson's exquisite masques having annihilated common genius. Dryden and Oldham, in the succeeding age, amused