ORIGINAL PAPERS CHARACTERISTIC OF SCOTTISH COUNCILS AND COUNCILLORS DURING THE M.DC.XV-M.DC.XXXIII. I. FROM LORD NAPIER'S AUTOGRAPH RELATION. AFTER I had left the Schooles, I addressed my selfe to the service of King James of blessed memory, and wes gratiously receaved by him; and after the death of Queene Elisabeth I followed his Majestie into England, when he went to receave the Crown of that Kingdome. I served him there, as Gentleman of his Privy-chamber, the space of sixteen or seventeen yeares, or thereabout, continually, till his Majestie wes pleased to cast the Earle of Summerset out of his favour, and [1615. ] take in his place George Villiers, afterwards Duk of Buckinghame; a powerfull Favorite, and no good friend of myne, because I, with some of our Countrey-men, endeavoured to support Summerset, which in his construction wes ane opposing of his rysing. Therefore I (being before much desyred thereto by my worthy Father) took this occasion to repair to Scotland, and expect the event of things: wherewith I did acquaint the King, and desyred his leave, which he granted; but not before he made his Favorite (against his mynd I think) to give me large promises of friendship, and faire blossomes of protestations and complement which never bore fruit.' Some yeares after, Sir Gideon Murray, Deputy Thesaurer to his Majestie, dyed; and the King, knowing every man's friends in his Bed-chamber, said in the presence of myne, that he had found a meane to employe me; whereof I being advertised came vp to his Majestie, who commanded me to attend his tyme and pleisure heirin. But the Earle of Mar, Thesaurer principall, (who could not well brooke a Colleg,) by means of the Duk of Buckingham got the tryall of the place solely for a yeare. But before that yeare expyred, the effaires of Court, which are never long stable, took another ply, and the same men, who, vpon promises made by the Thesaurer, did befriend him in his bussines, being disapoynted of the hopes hee gave them, were they who joyned with his enemyes to put upon him a Deputy. To the first notion of a Deputy his Majestie gave consent, as being usuall, and from which his Majestie wes diverted the yeare before by the power his Favorite had with him: For it wes his manner to give way to strong opposition, or his favorites intreaties, yet never to give over his purpose, but at another tyme to worke it by the meanes of a contrary faction, to free and discharge himselfe of the others discontentment upon the faction. 1 Somerset was suddenly cast from the pinnacle of King James's favour to the depths of his displeasure in the month of October 1615. About the same time George Villiers was knighted, and appointed Gentleman of the Bedchamber, which post Sir Archibald Napier then resigned, and retired to Scotland. His father, Napier of Merchistoun, who had just given to the world his 'Canon Miri ficus Logarithmorum,' was thus enabled to enjoy the society of his son in Scotland for two years before his own death in 1617. Sir Archibald Napier appears to have entertained a good opinion of Somerset, and to have considered him the victim of faction. See the next article. It was during this retirement to Scotland that Napier married the sister of Montrose. The marriage contract is dated 15th April 1619. The King's consent once being got, every man who had power putt in for his friend, without respect of his sufficiency or ability: But no man could bee proposed against whom his Majestie did not take some exception; which being perceaved by the late Marquis of Hammilton,' a wyse Nobleman, in whom there wes no vertue wanting befitting his place and quality, and judging that the King had made some secret election in his owne mynd, [he] desyred to know who it wes. His Majestie having named me, the Marquis did not only approve his Majesties judgement, but also procured a warrand for my admission, wisely covering thereby the repulse he got for his friend; and, preventing the prevailing of any competitor, not only made it seeme that hee had obtained his desyre, and a poynt of revenge vpon my Lord of Mar, but also made purchase of me for a faithfull friend and servant: For, although from the King's owne mouth (who knew the custome of the Court, and could never endure to be robbed of his thanks) the whole carriage of that bussines wes delivered unto me,-together with a command to me to serve him faithfully, not to be factious, nor to comply with any to his prejudice, or the Countrey's, or to wrong any privat man for favour of another, not the les I dissembled my knowledge, and professed my obligation to the Marquis, (which indeed wes greater then I could challenge at his hand for any deserving of myne,) whereby I had him my noble friend all the dayes of his lyfe. This act of the King's without my knowledge, without my sute, or any and in my absence, being singular, (for although no living man had the art to know men more perfectly then hee, yet still importunity prevailed with him against his own choyse,) made me enter into serious consideration of the mater, and to set downe to my selfe rules and resolutions of honest proceeding in the dischairge of that place. First, because wee are commanded to serve our Masters faithfully, and for conscience sake; friends of myne, hall, 2d March 1625, in his thirty-sixth year, and was buried at Hamilton. B next, because in my nature I hate the imputation of dishonesty, avarice, and injustice; thridly, not to make his Majestie ashamed of the choyce, which wes only his owne; and lastly, I thought it no safe way for me (who wes borne to ane estate) by base scraping, purloyning, and bribery, to endanger it: what I got by his Majestie's bounty, upon consideration of good service, would doe me, I thought, and my house good. Armed with this resolution I entred that service, and my behaviour therein wes according thereto; whereby his Majestie wes well satisfyed, and if it had pleased God to grant him longer lyfe, I had not, in all probability, beene disapoynted of my hopes: For of his good opinion and purpose toward me there are yet living witnesses; and a litle before his death he recommended me, (I being then in Scotland) to his Sonne King Charles, as his Majestie himselfe wes pleased to tell me; then which, a greater testimony of a gratious Master's favour, to ane absent Servant, at such a tyme, could not bee exprest. FROM II. REASONS WHY SOMERSET SHOULD NOT BE EXECUted. ALL the honour that is to be gott that way is by opinion of justice; for clemency, the vertue wherby Princes approch nerest to God, hes no part in this cours: And what prayse is due to extremitie of Justice, the best pairt thereof, example, and the profitablest, being alreddy, by the death of fower,' sufficiently established? 1 There can be no doubt that this paper refers to the accusation against Somerset, and his notorious Countess, of having been the chief instigators of the murder to Sir Thomas Overbury, who is supposed of have died of poison administered to him while a prisoner in the Tower of London. Ere the two noble delinquents were The King's gratious and temperat maner in cases of lyk nature, ever in justice to remember mercy without prejudice of ather, being nothing lyk to the procedings of this, settills an opinion in the people's harts, that private designs, private hate, private satisfactioun, gifs motioun to this violent cours, and that justice is pretendit only. If he be guylty, he remanes not without punishment in his own persoun that hes it in fame, and is cast from a great fortune, and the King's supream favour, into contempt and disgrace, carrying with him the conscience of a cryme, and a deserved punishment, altho he have lyf, land, and liberty. If it be not for the King's honour, it is not for his profit; for matters of profit are the aymes of private endevoirs; Princes have them or may have them with ease; but a good fame is their gane, and to be purchased of tham at any rate; and where, in any consultation of theirs, profit comes to oppose itself to honour, it is reason that honour should cary it. But what profit is to be expected that way? His estate is not sufficient to help the King's affaires; and if it be applyed to that use it will be thoght to be the caus of his death.' arraigned for that crime, four individuals, their supposed tools, had been executed for the same :-viz. Richard Weston, Overbury's jailor; Anne Turner, the creature of the Countess of Somerset; Sir Gervase Elwes, Lieutenant of the Tower; and James Franklin, an apothecary. These were all hanged, at the close of the year 1615. 1 This was a bold allusion. In a recent publication, entitled The Great Oyer of Poisoning: The Trial of the Earl of Somerset for the Poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury in the Tower of London, and various matters connected therewith, from contemporary MSS. By Andrew Amos, Esq., late Member of the Supreme Council of India,' the compiler observes: But of all Somerset's acquisitions, the possession of Sherborne Castle, the forfeited estate of Raleigh, was the most prejudicial to him on his trial, owing to the adverse sentiments it inspired. James's unfeeling reply to Lady Raleigh's supplications for the restoration of the estate,-"I mun have it for Carr," cannot be read of in the present day without indignation.' (P.29.) The evidence is closely sifted in this industrious compilation. |