THE COURT AND TIMES OF JAMES THE FIRST; ILLUSTRATED BY AUTHENTIC AND CONFIDENTIAL LETTERS, FROM VARIOUS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS. EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY THE AUTHOR OF 66 MEMOIRS OF SOPHIA DOROTHEA," ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1848. 545229 1 INTRODUCTION. The work now presented to the reader owes its existence to the research of Dr. Thomas Birch, an industrious historical scholar, who died in 1766, and whose works are well known. Having access to almost every important public and private collection of manuscripts in the kingdom, he entertained the idea of putting together a consecutive series of the most interesting correspondence of the seventeenth century. With this object, he selected, instead of the communications of the great officers of state to each other, of which he had already given one example in the Thurloe State Papers, the far more entertaining correspondence of the professed writers of news, or "Intelligencers," as they were then called, who were employed by ambassadors in foreign countries, and great men at home, to furnish them with a continual account of every event that came under their observation. To these he added the private letters of men of eminence, holding distinguished employments abroad, as well as those of a few eminent characters about the ourt, likely to be well informed of what was going on a around them. Among these are Robert Cecil, Marquis of Salisbury; Dudley Carleton; Viscount Dorchester; Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury; Henry, Earl of Northampton; William, Earl of Pembroke; Edward, Baron Wotton; Richard Sackville, Earl of Dorset; George Calvert, Baron Baltimore; Viscount Andover; Thomas, Earl of Arundel and Surrey; Sir Thomas and Sir Clement Edmondes; Sir Isaac Wake; Sir Henry Fanshawe; and Sir John Throckmorton. Having caused transcripts of these to be made from the originals, he had commenced preparing them for publication, when the task was interrupted by his death, and his papers were shortly afterwards transferred, by bequest, to the British Museum, where they still remain. Since then, several collections of historical letters have been published, in which a few of those in Dr. Birch's selections have appeared, but very rarely have they been given entire. In general, such collections have been printed as examples of style and language at different periods, or as in some way characteristic of the writer or illustrative of his career. However valuable these may be to the antiquary, they want, by their isolation, that interest which belongs to a consecutive series. In the present instance, the communications of two or more contemporaneous writers read like so many different diaries; the lightest gossip of the court mingles with the important details of transactions of State; a piquant anecdote is contrasted with a grave conspiracy; and a momentous discussion in the House of Commons is relieved by an interesting recollection of Shakspeare's theatre, or a lively account of Ben Jonson's masque By so many observers of various humours writing the same time, not only is the reader secure against any omission of facts it is desirable he should know, but he is presented with the minutest details of every transaction that transpired, at a period wonderfully fruitful in strange events. As the reader proceeds, the character of James the First is unfolded, as it were, like a mummy from its cerecloth: as he turns over page: after page, he becomes more familiar with the true form and features of that notable example of royalty; till gradually the King is divested of those innumerable expedients that have been employed to preserve him to posterity in a becoming sarcophagus, and the man in all his offensive mortality is laid bare to the eye. But the reader may look for far more interesting spectacles in these volumes than the career of the British Solomon: for he may hold companionship with his estimable son Prince Henry, the worthiest example of regal heirship since the heroic Black Prince; accompany his unfortunate yet true-hearted sister from her wooing by the Prince Palatine of the Rhine, to the end of her fruitless struggle for the Bohemian crown; or share with another royal adventurer, her brother Prince Charles, the dangers of his romantic journey from England to make fruitless love to the Infanta of Spain. If incidents of a more touching character are likely to attract him, he will find ample materials for sympathy in the fatal marriage of the Lady Arabella, or the affecting tragedy of the gallant Raleigh. Should he seek scenes of more terrible interest, they are to be found in the ample details of the Gunpowder Plot, in the thrilling memorials of Sir Thomas Overbury's murder in the Tower, or in the mysterious trials in the |