1617 BUCKINGHAM'S DISPLEASURE. 95 hands. Some days afterwards he wrote again to Buckingham, telling him that he was ready to give every satisfaction to his mother. If Bacon had hitherto been actuated by any sympathy with Frances Coke, or by any notion that the sacredness of marriage would be profaned by the intrigues of Coke and Buckingham, his present conduct would have been unutterably base. As it was, he did nothing of which a man in his day had any reason to be ashamed. He had done his duty by remonstrating against an act which would involve a political evil. When he learned that the King refused to listen to his remonstrances, he proceeded to carry out his Majesty's orders. To him it made no difference whether those orders were to procure a wife for Sir John Villiers, or to seal a patent conferring on him a pension out of the Exchequer. He soon learned, however, that his motives had been grievously misapprehended at Court. Buckingham had contented himself with a dry acknowledgment of the receipt of his first letter. James indulged in a long tirade, to which Bacon could only reply that he reserved his defence till his Majesty's return.3 Coke's visit James had by this time, recrossed the Border, and was making his way southward by slow journeys. On August 28, Coke presented himself before him and was highly to the King. pleased with his reception. He had a fresh petition to make. His wife, as a last resource, had lately produced the imaginary contract between her daughter and the Earl of Oxford, and he now appears to have obtained permission to summon her before the Council. At least, it was immediately after his return that she was, at his complaint, committed to custody by the Board.5 1 Bacon to the King, Letters and Life, vi. 238. Mr. Spedding believed this letter to have been written about Aug. 12. 2 Bacon to Buckingham, Aug. 23, ibid. vi. 242. The King to Bacon, Aug. 25 or 26. Bacon to the King, Aug. 31, ibid. v. 243, 245. Lake to Winwood, Aug. 28, S. P. Dom. xciii. 69. • Complaint against Lady Hatton. Campbell's Chief Justices, i. 300; Council Register, Sept. 1 and 3. Sept. 3. report. A few days later, Yelverton went down to the King to give his version of the story. He found that Buckingham had adopted all Coke's quarrels, and used his very phrases Yelverton's in declaiming against the Lord Keeper and himself. "My Lord," wrote Yelverton, from Coventry, to Bacon, "I emboldened myself to assay the temper of my Lord of Buckingham to myself, and found it very fervent, misled by misinformation which yet I find he embraced as truth, and did nobly and plainly tell me he would not secretly bite, but whosoever had had any interest or tasted of the opposition to his brother's marriage he would as openly oppose them to their faces, and they should discern what favour he had by the power he would use." Such language was eminently characteristic of Buckingham. All his generous instincts were in it, marred as they were by the overweening self-confidence, and the contempt for the rights of others whenever they clashed with his own, to which two years of James's unwise and undiscriminating fondness had brought the affable youth, who had won all hearts in the days of Somerset's greatness. Everywhere, as Yelverton reported, Buckingham was speaking openly of the Lord Keeper as showing the same ingratitude to him as he had formerly shown to Essex and Somerset. Such words were no doubt the words of passion, but they were not spoken without ground. Of the warm personal affection which sometimes makes men oblivious of the claims of duty, Bacon was entirely incapable. Setting aside all untruths and misrepresentations which had reached the Court, there remained behind the revelation that Bacon had in the first place learned to love Buckingham because he hoped that his presence at Court would be conducive to the better government of the country, and that he was not willing to subordinate the cause of good government to the personal caprices of the favourite. It would have been well if the too fortunate youth could have understood that Bacon's friendship was all the better worth having because it did not, like the King's, lower itself into idolatry. Bucking ham's dissatisfaction not alto gether without foundation. The advice which Yelverton gave to Bacon was to maintain his ground boldly, and, whilst giving an unvarnished account 1617 BACON'S CONDUCT. 97 of all that had passed, to throw the blame upon the headstrong violence of his rival.1 Bacon restored to favour. It was, perhaps, the best advice which could be given. As it would have been useless to urge on Buckingham the injury which he was inflicting on the King's government by his support to Coke, the next best thing was to show him that Bacon had been attempting to act as a friend to himself. This was at least the character which Yelverton had given of the Lord Keeper, and Yelverton's open language had not been without effect. His story had been very different from that which had been told by Coke. Buckingham had imagined Bacon as bent upon thwarting his wishes, for the sake of inflicting punishment on a political rival. He learnt to regard him as a friend, whose intentions at least were undeniably good. Two days after Yelverton's report was written, Buckingham wrote to assure him that he would no longer listen to unfavourable rumours in his absence, and to convey a promise from the King that he would keep one ear open to him.2 After this Bacon could have but little difficulty in making his peace. He completed his success by offering to apologize in writing. Buckingham replied that he was now so well satisfied as to have forgiven everything; adding that, if the King had forgotten the past, it was entirely owing to his own intercession, and that he was sure that no other man in England could have done as much.3 Bacon's part Throughout the whole of this wretched affair, Bacon's conduct had been thoroughly consistent. He had never questioned that it was the King's business, and not his, to dispose in the affair. of the patronage of the Crown; yet, it must undoubtedly have cost him something to find his opinion slighted. He did not see, or did not care to see, that the King's prostration at the feet of Buckingham was more than a temporary evil, 1 Yelverton to Bacon, Sept. 3, Letters and Life, vi. 247. 2 Buckingham to Bacon, Sept. 5, ibid. vi. 249. 3 Buckingham to Bacon, ibid. vi. 251. Weldon's story of the meeting of Bacon and Buckingham may be dismissed at once. Perhaps he saw something on which he founded it, but who can say what it was? or that the disease was one which would require a sharper cure than any that his statesmanship was able to administer. To see this would not only have involved his own retirement from office, and his condemnation to a life of inaction and obscurity, but it would have driven him to an acknowledgment of the insufficiency of those monarchical theories to which he clung so tenaciously. It was too late for him to discover that the work of providing checks upon the royal power would have to be commenced anew. Such discoveries are never made but by young or disappointed men. He went on from day to day, doing his work unremittingly and cheerfully; halfpersuading himself that evil which he could not control was no evil at all, till at last his own errors and the errors of others drove his barque upon the rocks, and his course came to its sad and gloomy end amongst those clouds which, almost to this day, have rested heavily on his memory. On September 28, Coke once more took his place at the Council-table. It was probably on this occasion that the King delivered a speech in defence of his conduct: “I, James,” he said, am neither a god nor an angel, but a man like any other. Therefore I act like a man, and confess to loving those dear to me more than other men. You may be sure that I love the Earl of Buckingham more than anyone else, and more than you who are here assembled. I wish to speak in my own behalf, and not to have it thought to be a defect, for Jesus Christ did the same, and therefore I cannot be blamed. Christ had his John, and I have my George.” On the following day Coke paid the price of his restoration to favour. His daughter's marriage was celebrated at Hampton Court. The King gave away the bride.3 Coke was in high spirits, and almost fancied himself again upon the Bench. His wife deliberately kept away. It was in vain that her daughter had written under dictation, to beg her consent to the marriage, saying, truly enough, that she was a mere child Marriage of 1 Herbert to Carleton, Oct. 6, S. P. Dom. xciii. 114. 2 Gondomar to the Archduke Albert, Oct. 2 Madrid Palace Library. • Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 11, S. P. Dom. xciii. 124. J2, 1617 MARRIAGE OF FRANCES COKE. 99 without understanding in the ways of the world. She did not know, she added, what was good for her, and she might perhaps, by yielding, put an end to the sad quarrel between her parents, and regain the King's favour for her father. As for Sir John, he was wel enough. He was a gentleman by birth, and she had no reason to dislike him.' Lady Hatton was inexorable. She would not come to the wedding. Yet, if the bridegroom had been a man capable of inspiring respect or love, the marriage might still have been a happy one. As it was, the issue of that day's work was a tragedy hardly inferior to that which sprung from the marriage of Lady Essex. October. If Coke expected great things from the King, it was not long before he was undeceived. He had been restored to his seat at the Council; but he had got nothing more. Coke's dis- In addition to the 10,000l. which he had originally appointment. promised to his daughter, he had redeemed by a payment of 20,000l. the estates which were settled upon her at his death, and there was nothing more to be extracted from him.2 The penalty for the wicked compact was first exacted, as was most just, from the man who should have been the last to enter into it. He had sold his daughter for fairy gold, and it had turned into dust in his hands. The day would come when, weary of disappointment and neglect, he would turn round upon the system by which he had hoped to profit, and would call to account the statesman whom he hated, and the favourite whom he despised. If he had shared in Bacon's success, it is hardly likely that his eyes would have opened so readily to the abuses of the Government. November. Now, that Coke had no more to give, it was time to lay siege to Lady Hatton. On November 1, all London was astonished by the news that Buckingham had driven Lady Hatton up to the house in which she was a prisoner and, in favour. after informing her that she was now at liberty, had carried her with him to her father, the Earl of Exeter. On the 8th, she gave a grand banquet at Hatton House. The 1 Frances Coke to Lady Hatton, Campbell's Chief Justices, i. 302. 2 Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 31. S. P. Dom. xciii. 158 |