the riband from her brother's neck, and rushing with it into the queen's presence, requested her majesty to place it in a drawer, observing hurriedly that the motive of her proceeding would shortly be discovered. As the young lady retired by one door, the king entered by another, and desired the queen, who was in the sixth month of her pregnancy with Charles the First, to produce the riband which he had lately given to her. Anne, without the slightest discomposure, drew it from the drawer in which she had just deposited it, and placed it in the king's hands. James examined it for some time, observing as he returned it, " Evil take me, if like be not an ill mark." That Alexander Ruthven, and not his brother Lord Gowrie, was the object of the queen's regard, is confirmed by a letter from Sir Henry Nevill, dated London 15th November, 1600:-"Out of Scotland," he writes, "we hear there is no good agreement between the King of Scots and his wife, and many are of opinion, that the discovery of some affection between her and the Earl of Gowrie's brother, (who was killed with him,) was the truest cause and motive of all that tragedy." Peyton, on the other hand, in his Divine Catastrophe of the House of Stuart, while he accuses James of the guilt of Gowrie's murder, asserts that it was the earl himself who was the queen's paramour."After Huntley's death," he says, "the queen found others to satisfy her unruly appetite; as namely, the Earl of Gowrie, a lord of a comely visage, good stature, and of an attracting allurement; who, upon King James's suspicion of often society with the queen, converted to the poison of hatred the friendship and love of the earl; causing Ramsay, after Earl of Holderness, with others, to murder Gowrie in his own house; giving it out for a state, that the earl, with others, would have killed him; and to make his falsehood appear odious in shape of truth, appointed the fifth of August a solemn day of thanksgiving for his supposed delivery; and in this mocked the God of heaven." There is little doubt, however, that Peyton is wrong in his identity. This writer is remarkably free in his allusions to the queen's gallantry. He mentions one Beely, a Dane, (who had accompanied Anne from her own country,) as having been particularly distinguished by her favours. This modest individual had the assurance to inform Peyton, "in great secrecie," that he was the undoubted father of King Charles. Peyton's evidence is suspicious, whenever, as is the case in this last incident, it happens to be unsupported by the testimony of others. He mentions as the queen's last favourites, two brothers of the name of Buchanan, to whom she equally distributed her smiles. The catastrophe of this fraternal intrigue is somewhat startling. Peyton says that they fell out for her love, fought a duel, and killed one another. JESSE'S MEMOIRS - ANNE OF DENMARK. who saw it after her death, of more discourse San Camden places In the latter period of her life, the queen seems Such is the importance which the vulgar at- Howel Upton, who had married Peyton details some loathsome particulars might alone be supposed to have given rise to the scandal above alluded to, had not Peyton stated his authority, and detailed the circumstances with so much colour of truth. Such are the particulars which we have been enabled to collect, respecting a lady to whom our principal historians have attached but little importance. Rapin says nothing of her character, and Hume dismisses her with remarkable brevity, as a "woman eminent neither for her vices nor probably adopted the panegyric of Arthur Wilson, "She died," her virtues." Eschard, on the contrary, who speaks of her in the highest terms : he says, " to the deep concern of all good men and loyal subjects, leaving behind her the name of a peaceable and dutiful wife, and a virtuous and pious queen." Little doubt, however, can exist, that this dutiful wife and pious queen, was a bigoted papist and a turbulent virago. It is sufficient, that the same writer speaks of James as " a very melancholy widower," when we find the easy monarch publicly enjoying himself at a a horse-race, not many days after the breath had departed from the body of his queen. One word may fairly be said in favour of Anne of Denmark. She had the taste and the feeling to be a kind friend and sincere admirer of the great Sir Walter Raleigh. The following letter, praying the Duke of Buckingham to intercede for Sir Walter's life, is preserved in the British Museum; and besides its internal interest, exhibits what slight influence the queen must have possessed over her husband: ANNA R., My kind Dog,* If I have any power or credit with you, I pray you let me have a triall of it at this time, in dealing sincerely and earnestly with the king, that Sir Walter Raleigh's life may not be called swer my expectation, assure yourself that I will in question. If ye do it so that the success antake it extraordinary kindly at your hands, and rest one that wisheth you well, and desires you to continue still, as you have been a true servant to your master. To the Marquiss of Buckingham. A few of the queen's letters to her husband, Edinburgh, have recently been published. They from the originals in the Advocates' Library in commonly commence, "My heart," and are generally brief, playful, and commonplace. Having said so much that is adverse to the queen's character, it may be right to mention (which we shall do as briefly as possible) the words of those writers who have endeavoured to very brave queen, who rescue her name from obloquy. Sir Anthony Weldon styles her a meddled with state affairs." Harris says, that never crossed her husband's designs, nor interthough she died without much lamentation from the king, "she was not unbeloved by the people." The praise which Arthur Wilson bestows on her is still higher:- "She was in her great condition a good woman, not tempted from that * With this familiar phrase Anne usually commences her correspondence with Buckingham. The liar manner in which she speaks of her husband. following letter is curious from the still more famiMy kind Dog, If the famous Lord Herbert of Cherbury, in his interesting life of himself, had afforded fewer instances of personal vanity, we should have imagined that the queen had entertained a feeling, somewhat warmer than friendship, for that handsome and gallant philosopher. Lord Herbert, after mentioning that Richard, Earl of Dorset, had paid him the compliment of seeretly obtaining a copy of his picture, from the hands of one Larking, who had painted the original, thus evidently mortal sickness had been unfairly brought about, alludes to her majesty's predilection:-"But a in consequence of his having been the depositary greater person," he says, "than I will here nomi- of this important secret. The queen, by other nate, got another copy from Larking; and placing authorities, is stated to have died of the dropsy; it afterwards in her cabinet, gave occasion to those a disease which, from its external character, | all happiness, I have received your letter, which is very welcome to me. You do very well in lugging the sow's ear, and I thank you for it, and would have you do so still upon condition that you continue a watchful dog to him, and be always true to him. So wishing you ANNA R. height she stood on to embroil her spirit much with things below her (as some busy-bodies do), only giving herself content in her own house with such recreations as might not make time tedious to her. And, though great persons' actions are often pried into, and made envy's mark, yet nothing could be fixed upon her that left any great impression, but that she may have engraven upon her monument a character for virtue." These writers, however, because they hated and abused the king, appear to have thought it incumbent on them to eulogise his queen. Sir Henry Wotton, who might have been expected to have said more, in his panegyric of King Charles, contents himself with calling her " a lady of a great and masculine mind." If these encomiums, however, be considered as merely applicable to Anne, during the period she was queen of England, it is not so easy to controvert them. In a negative point of view, she was neither factious to her husband, nor did she embroil herself with politics; but it was for the excellent reason that she was excluded from all access to the one, and all interference with the other. That she was tolerably popular, is not to be wondered at. The public had no reason to lay their grievances to her charge: of her restless passions and disappointed ambition they knew nothing: to her inferiors, her manners appear latterly to have been courteous and conciliating; besides, her entertainments were frequent and splendid, and, with the vulgar, magnificence is the surest precursor of popularity. The queen's principal residence was at Somerset House, at that period called Denmark House, in honour of the country which gave her birth. Her children were Henry, Prince of Wales; Robert, Margaret, and Sophia, who died young; Charles, who succeeded to the throne, and Elizabeth, married to the Elector Palatine. Sophia was born at Greenwich, 22d June, 1606, and survived her birth but three days. She was buried near the tomb of Queen Elizabeth, in Henry the VII.'s chapel. Mary was also born at Greenwich. Fuller tells us that no one ever remembered the ceremony of baptism to have been celebrated with so much pomp. James used to say, with more humour than reverence, that he did not pray to the Virgin Mary, but for the virgin Mary. This princess also died in her infancy, and was buried at Westminster. HENRY PRINCE OF WALES. The darling of his contemporaries; the Marcellus of his age; justly beloved and regretted as one of those princes who have been remarkable for the precocity of their talents and their untimely ends. With a taste for all that adds grace to society, or dignity to human nature; with every quality that might have been expected to form both a great aud a good king; uniting a love of literature and science with a chivalrous thirst for military reputation (that graceful com bination which formed the brilliant characters of such men as Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Sir Kenelm Digby, and the Admirable Crichton); mingling a Christian temper with a Roman virtue; with all the pleasant characteristics, and none of the irregularities of youth; it is not to be wondered that the historian lingers fondly over the page which records the brief but beautiful career of Henry Prince of Wales. own mouth, being in the company of those I like, otherwise for any charge or necessity that can come from me, you shall not deliver him; and in case God call me at any time, see that neither for the queen, nor estates their pleasure, you deliver him till he be eighteen years of age, and that he command you himself. "Striveling, 24th of July, 1595." The prince's extraordinary character was early displayed. As a child, he was never seen to weep, and appeared indifferent to pain. On an occasion of his receiving a severe fall from another boy, we are told that he neither " whined nor wept." When little more than five years of age, a son of the Earl of Mar, somewhat younger than himself, fell out with one of the royal pages and " did him wrong." The prince instantly reproved his playfellow. "I love you," he said, "because you are my lord's son and my cousin; but, if you be not better conditioned, I will love such an one better,"-naming the child whom the culprit had misused. First and Anne of Denmark, was born at Stirling my surety, and I have concredited unto you the Henry, at his birth, had been committed to the charge of the Earl of Mar, in whose family was vested the hereditary guardianship of the king's children. The Countess of Mar, who had formerly been the king's nurse, was installed in the same capacity to his son. Whatever may have been James's motives in depriving the queen of the care of her child, it is certain that she was far from submitting tamely to the loss. She not only attempted every legitimate means to regain possession of the prince, but endeavoured to tamper with the chancellor and others of the council, in order to effect her object. The dispute excited much ill feeling between the royal parents, and raised the king's anger to the highest pitch. He accordingly wrote the following letter to the Earl of Mar, by which he established him still more firmly in his office of guardian. It sufficiently exhibits the king's irritation, and his total independence of his wife : "My Lord of Marre, His tutor was Adam Newton, a good scholar and a strict disciplinarian, exactly the sort of person James was likely to select. Probably Newton was not sparing in his chastisements. On one occasion, when the prince was about to strike the ball, while playing at goff, a stander-by exclaimed, "Beware, sir, that you do not hit Mr. Newton." The prince desisted from the stroke, at the same time observing, with a smile, "If I had done so, I had but paid my debts." Another story is related by Mr. D'Israeli, in the Curiosities of Literature, descriptive of the relative position of the prince and the tutor: we must allow him to tell it in his own agreeable manner. "Desirous of cherishing the generous spirit and playful humour of Henry, his tutor encouraged a freedom of jesting with him, which appears to have been carried at times to a degree of momentary irritability on the side of the tutor, by the keen humour of the boy. When Newton, playing at shuffleboard with the prince, blamed him for changing so often, and, taking up a piece, threw it on the board and missed his aim, the prince smilingly exclaimed, Well thrown, Master;' on which the tutor, a little vexed, said, He would not strive with a prince at shuffleboard.' Henry answered, Yet you gownsmen should be best at such exercises which are not meet for men who are more stirring.' The tutor, a little irritated, said, 'I am meet for whipping of boys.' You vaunt, then,' retorted the prince, that which a ploughman or cartdriver can do better than you.' 'I can do more,' said the tutor, for I can govern foolish children.' On which the prince, who, in his respect for his tutor, did not care to carry the jest further, rose from table, and in a low voice to those near him, said, He had needs be a wise man who could do that." In order to stimulate him in his studies, the king one day hinted, that if he did not take more pains, his younger brother Charles would outstrip him in learning. Newton some time afterwards reminding the prince of his father's remark, Henry asked him if he really thought his brother would prove the superior scholar. The tutor answering, that he had considerable fears on the subject," Well, then," said the prince, with ready wit, "I will make Charles archbishop of On the 2d of July, 1603, when only nine years old, he was invested, at a solemn feast of St. George, at Windsor, with the Order of the Garter. His companions in this honour were the Duke of Lennox, and the Earls of Southampton, Mar, and Pembroke. Even at this early age, his "quick, witty answers, princely carriage, and reverend obeisance at the altar," are said to have been the admiration of the bystanders. On the 4th of June, 1610, he was created Prince of Wales, the king having previously knighted him, without which honour, it seems, he was incapable of sitting at dinner with the sovereign. His military taste was early displayed. When asked what musical instrument he most delighted in, his answer was, " a trumpet." The French ambassador coming one day to take leave of him, inquired if he could deliver any message from him to the king his master? "Tell him," said the young prince," the inanner in which you see me employed:"-he was amusing himself with practising with the pike. As early as the year 1606, Henry the Fourth of France appears to have had an insight into, and to have regarded with anxiety, the extraordinary character of his young namesake. The French ambassador, Antoine le Fevre de la Boderie, had directions to treat him with particular respect a remarkable compliment to a boy of twelve years old. The ambassador writes in a letter to France, " He is a prince who promises very much, and whose friendship cannot but be one day of advantage." Henry had sent the Dauphin a present of some dogs; the ambassador recommends in return, that the latter should send over " a suit of armour well gilt and enamelled, together with pistols and a sword of the same kind;" and, he says, " if he add to these a couple of horses, one of which goes well, and the other a barb, it will be a singular favour done to the prince." Henry, young as he was, seems to have entertained a project of retrieving the national credit, by the recovery of Calais from the French. When in 1607, the Prince de Joinville returned to France, Henry sent over an engineer in his train, who had secret orders to examine all the fortifications of that town, and especially those of Rix-bane. He lost no opportunity of cultivating the acquaintance of the most celebrated officers in Europe, and especially those of Upper and Lower Germany. It was also his custom to walk considerable distances on foot, in order that he might enure himself to long and harassing marches. In naval affairs he took almost an equal interest: it appears, indeed, to have been principally at his instigation, that, in the year 1612, two ships, the Resolution and Discovery, were sent out, with a view to the discovery of a northwest passage to China: the expedition, however, was not the first of its kind. This taste of the prince enables us to relate an instance of his strong sense of justice and powers of appreciating talent. His love of the sea had made him acquainted with the famous Phineas Pett, so celebrated for his genius in naval architecture. Pett was at one time on the point of being crushed by the envy and rival interests of other competitors in his line. There persons so far attained their object as to bring Pett to an examination, at which the king presided in person, when charges were preferred against him of professional incompetency, and of having made use of inferior materials in the construction of his ships. During this investigation, of which Pett has himself given an account, (which will be found in the Archæologia,) he was compelled to remain the whole time on his knees, and, in this dispiriting posture, to combat the frivolous charges which were brought against him. "I was, at length," he says, " almost disheartened and out of breath, but the prince's highness, standing near me, from time to time encouraged me as far as he might without offence to his father, labouring to have me eased by standing up, but the king would not permit it." When the king, at length decided iu Pett's favour, Henry cried out enthusiastically, "Where are those perjured fellows that dare abuse the king's majesty with their false accusations? Do not they worthily deserve hanging!" James, alluding to the nature of one of the charges, wittily observed, " that the cross-grain appeared to be in the men and not in the timber." Pett shortly after this was employed to build a ship of war, which was called "the Prince," after Henry. The prince, to show his regard for Pett, and his respect for his talents. carried his fascinating sister, afterwards the queen of Bohemia, to visit the ingenious shipwright at his humble residence; an honour which appears completely to have gained the hearts of the worthy Pett and his wife. His amusements were generally of a martial character, but his great delight was in tennis. The pursuits of the English Marcellus are thus described by Mons. de Boderie, in a letter to France, dated 31st October, 1606. "He is a particular lover of horses, and what belongs to them, but is not fond of hunting; and when he goes to it, it is rather for the pleasure of galloping than that which the dogs give him. He plays willingly enough at tennis, and at another Scot's diversion very like mall; but this always with persons older than himself, as if he despised those of his own age He studies two hours a day, and employs the rest of his time in tossing the pike, or leaping, or shooting with the bow, or throwing the bar, or vaulting, or some other exercise of that kind, and he is never idle. He shows himself likewise very good-natured to his dependants, and supports their interests against any persons whatever, and pushes what he undertakes for them or others with such a zeal as gives success to it. For, besides his exerting his whole strength to compass what he desires, he is already feared by those who have the management of affairs, and especially the Earl of Salisbury, who appears to be greatly apprehensive of the prince's ascendant; as the prince on the other hand, shows little esteem for his lordship."Henry excelled in dancing, but seldom practised it unless strongly pressed. His tact was remarkable even when very young. A certain patriotic Welshman, asserting in the king's presence that he could produce 40,000 men in the principality, who were ready to sacrifice their lives for the prince, against any king in Christendom, James with some jealousy inquired, "To do what?" Henry instantly averted the alarm by answering playfully, "To cut off the heads of 40,000 leeks." The instances of his wit are not few. A musician having delighted the company with some music which he had composed at the moment, was requested to play it over again. "I could not," said the performer, "for the kingdom of Spain; for this were harder than for a preacher to repeat word by word a sermon that he had not learned by rote." A clergyman standing by, expressed his opinion that this need not be impossible. "Perhaps not," replied Henry, "for a bishopric." When a mere child, he happened to be entertained in a nobleman's house in the country, in which parsimony and bad fare were the order of the day.His attendants were loud in their complaints, of which the prince took no notice at the time. The lady of the mansion, however, happening the next morning to pay him a visit of respect, discovered him amusing himself with a volume containing prints, to one of which he was paying particular attention. It was descriptive of a company seated at a banquet: "Madam," said the young prince, "I invite you to a feast." "To what feast?" she inquired. "To this feast," replied Henry. "What," said the lady, "would your highness only invite me to a painted feast?" "No better, madam," said the prince, looking significantly into her face, "is to be found in this house." He had the greatest esteem for Sir Walter Raleigh; and once observed, alluding to the latter's long imprisonment in the tower, that "no king but his father would keep such a bird in such a cage." He had a fine taste for the arts, and made a magnificent collection of books, medals, statues, coins, &c.; Evelyn says his cabinet was superior to any at home, and to the generality abroad: it was lost to the royal family in the civil wars. He knew how to distinguish genius, and courted the society of the learned. Archbishop Williams, shortly after taking orders, happened to preach before the court at Royston. "He acquitted himself so well," says Ambrose Philips, "that his majesty was pleased to speak much in his commendation; and the prince, not content to let him go off with hungry praise, looking upon him as an honour to Wales, assured him that he would not be unmindful of his great merits. But he dying untimely, the father bestowed that preferment on him which the son intended." He held his court at St. James's Palace, which was set apart for his residence. Here he frequently entertained the young and the brilliant of both sexes, and kept about his person a number of young gentlemen whose spirit and tastes assimilated with his own. A great proof of his popularity is the manner in which his court was attended. Possessing but little or no political influence, and having but few opportunities of rewarding his friends, his court was nevertheless far more frequented than that of the king himself. So jealous was James of this circumstance, that he once made use of the remarkable words, "Will he bury me alive?" Though pleasure was not excluded, his establishment was governed with discretion, modesty, and sobriety, and with an especial reverence for religious duties. It may here be observed that, in 1810, his household amounted to four hundred and twenty-six persons, of whom two hundred and ninety-se en were in the receipt of regular salaries. We are informed by his faithful follower, Sir Charles Cornwallis, that though the most beautiful women of the court and city were invited to his entertainments, yet that he could never discover the slightest inclination on the prince's part to any particular beauty. He admits, however, the existence of reports that the prince's heart had not been always unsusceptible. There seems reason indeed to believe that Henry was the unsuccessful rival of Somerset, for the affections of the lovely and profligate Lady Essex. It is stated in the Aulicus Coquinariæ as a " notorious truth," that he made love to the Countess of Essex, "before any other lady living." Arthur Wilson tells us that, thinking to please the prince, one of the courtiers presented him with Lady Essex's glove, which he had accidentally picked up. The prince instantly rejected it, observing disdainfully that he "scorned it, since it had been stretched by another." Certainly the young prince bore Somerset any thing but good will. On one occasion he is said to have either struck, or offered to strike, him with his racket. Essex, however, had been the playfellow of Henry, which might, in some degree account for the prince's enmity towards a man who had so deeply injured his friend by debauching his wife. Still there is a doubt hanging over the prince's purity in this affair: Sir Symonds D'Ewes states, that the Earl of Northampton, Lady Essex's uncle, incited her to win the prince's affections, and that he was the first upon whom she bestowed her favours. There was an intention to marry Prince Henry to the Infanta Major, or eldest daughter of the King of Spain. Sir Charles (afterwards Lord) Cornwallis, was sent to Madrid to negotiate on the subject; but he met with so little encouragement that the project fell to the ground. His MS. account of the treaty, related in a letter to Lord Digby, is preserved in the Harleian collection. The match appears to have been far from agreeable to the prince, who had the greatest repugnance to allying himself with a papist. The prince's affection, indeed for the Church of England, was only equaled by his aversion to the Church of Rome; a fact the more remarkable, since his mother had early sought to tamper with his religious principles, and used every means to reconcile him to the Romish persuasion. Bishop Burnet says, he was so zealous a protestant, that, after the failure of the Spanish match, when James was desirous of marrying him to a popish princess, (either the archduchess, or a daughter of Savoy,) he wrote a letter to the king, praying him, if it was intended thus to dispose of him, that he might be married to the youngest princess of the two, for he should then have more hopes of her conversion: he requestea also that whatever liberties might be allowed her in the exercise of her faith, they should be conducted in the most private manner possible. The original of this letter was shown to the bishop by Sir William Cook, and was dated less than a month previous to the death of the prince. His affection for protestantism was regarded as of such importance, that the Puritans looked upon him as their future saviour, and even discovered his prototype in the Apocalypse; a construction, from whence they argued that he was to become the avenger of protestantism, and the destroyer of the Romish church. According to Harrington, the following indifferent distich was extremely popular at the time Henry the Eighth pulled down the abbeys and cells, But Henry the Ninth shall pull down bishops and bells. life So deep a feeling of religion in one so young, and so attached to the stirring interests of life, is indeed remarkable. He was strict in his attendance at divine worship, and was accustomed to retire three times a day to his private devotions. Sir Charles Cornwallis says, that had the prince lived, it was his intention to select one of the most learned and experienced of his chaplains, whose advice he proposed to follow in all matters of conscience. He had the greatest horror of an oath. Os borne says he never swore himself, nor retained those about him who did. At each of his residences, St. James's, Richmond, and Nonsuch, a box was kept, in which were deposited the fines collected from those members of his household who were heard to swear; the proceeds of which were distributed among the poor. Coke informs us, that his father used to relate several stories respecting the young prince. He was once out hunting, when the stag, harassed by the chase, happened to cross a road while a butcher and his dog were passing. The dog killed the stag, but the carcass was too heavy for the butcher to carry off, as he wished to do. The huntsmen coming up endeavoured to incense the prince against the man. Henry, however, merely observed that it was not the butcher's fault but the dog's. "If your father had been here," they said, "he would have sworn so, that no man could have endured it." "Away," retorted Henry, "all the pleasure in the world is not worth an oath." He hated flattery and dissimulation, vanity and ostentation, and regarded with contempt the ephemeral sycophants of his father's court. He was extremely temperate and abstemious, except in the "article of fruit," in which, according to Birch he liked to indulge. His temper is stated by his biographers, to have been almost always mild and even. It appears, however, to have been more than once ruffled in the excitement of his favourite game of tennis. An instance of the prince falling out with Somerset at this pastime has already been alluded to: Codrington, in his life of Robert Earl of Essex, the prince's early companion, mentions another occasion of his warmth of temper, under similar circumstances. Henry and the young earl were amusing themselves in the tennis-court, when a dispute took place on some point in the game: Essex persisting on his rights, the prince at last grew so angry as to call the earl the son of a traitor, alluding to the catastrophe of his father, the spoiled victim of Elizabeth. Essex, growing furious in his turn, struck the prince on the head with his racket so severely as to draw blood. The king sent for the earl; but, on being acquainted with the real circumstances of the affair, dismissed him unpunished. James told the prince, that the boy who had just struck him would not hereafter be remiss in striking his enemies. Essex afterwards grew to be the famous parliamentary general. The prince's rapid progress in his studies, his military genius, and extreme popularity with all ranks of people, excited a painful feeling of jealousy in the mind of his father. So deep indeed was the prejudice, that it appears to have destroyed all natural affection for his offspring. Burnet says, the prince was rather feared than loved by his father. Once, on the downs at Newmarket, when James and his son had bidden one another farewell, in order to retire to their respective homes, it was remarkable that all the principal persons followed the prince, leaving the king almost entirely to be escorted by servants. Archee, the court-fool, with an ill-timed joke, pointed out the circumstance to his master; at which the king is said to have been so much affected as to shed tears. Archee, however, for his officiousness, was, for some time afterwards, tossed in a blanket wherever he could be met with: by which party the punishment was inflicted does not appear, but in all probability by the prince's. The king, observes Osborne, was much annoyed to find that all the worth which he had imagined to belong to himself, was wholly lost in the hopes which the people entertained of his son. The prince's person is minutely described by Sir Charles Cornwallis: "He was of a comely, tall, middle stature, about five feet and eight inches high, of a strong, straight, well-made body, with somewhat broad shoulders, and a small waist, of an amiable, majestic countenance, his hair of an auburn colour, long faced, and broad forehead, a piercing grave eye, a most gracious smile, with a terrible frown." His face was supposed to bear a resemblance to that of Henry the Fifth. Ben Jonson took advantage of the flattering compliment which this circumstance enabled him to pay to the prince, on the occasion of a pageant presented before the king on his progress through London in 1603. The prophet Merlin, after recounting the heroic deeds of his kingly ancestors, thus alludes to the prince's resemblance to the hero of Agincourt. Yet rests the other thunderbolt of war, Prince Henry's career was destined to be as brief as it was brilliant. He died on the 6th of November, 1612, after a long illness, which he bore with exemplary piety and resignation. He had frequently expressed his indifference about death, and regarded length of days as an unenviable boon: "It was to small purpose," he said, "for a brave gallant man, when the prime of his days were over, to live till he were full of diseases." In the Aulicus Coquinariæ, there is an interesting account of the progress of his last illness; -" In the nineteenth year of his age, appeared the first symptoms of change, from a full round face and pleasant disposition, to be paler and sharper, more sad and retired; often complaining of a giddy heaviness in his forehead, which was somewhat eased by bleeding at the nose; and that suddenly stopping, was the first of his distemper, and brought him to extraordinary qualms, which his physicians recovered with strong waters. "About this time, several ambassadors extraordinary being despatched home, he retired to his house at Richmond, pleasantly seated by the Thames river, which invited him to learn to swim in the evenings after a full supper, the first immediate pernicious cause of stopping that gentle flux of blood, which thereby putrefying, might engender that fatal fever that accompanied him to his grave. His active body used violent exercises; for at this time being to meet the king at Bever in Nottinghamshire, he rode it in two days, near a hundred miles, in the extremity of heat in summer; for he set out early, and came to Sir Oliver Cromwell's, near Huntingdon, by ten o'clock before noon, near sixty miles, and the next day betimes to Bever, forty miles. "There, and at other places, in all that progress, he accustomed himself to feasting, hunting, and other sports of balloon and tennis, with too much violence. "And now returned to Richmond in the fall of the leaf, he complained afresh of his pain in the head, with increase of a meagre complexion, inclining to feverish; and then for the rareness thereof called the new disease; which increasing, the 10th of October he took his chamber, and took counsel with his physician, Dr. Hammond, an honest and worthy learned man. moves to London to St. James's, contrary to all advice; and (with a spirit above indisposition) gives leave to his physician to go to his own home. Then re "And so allows himself too much liberty in accompanying the Palsgrave, and Count Henry of Nassau (who was come hither upon fame to see him), in a great match at tennis in his shirt, that winter season, his looks then presaging sickness. And on Sunday, the 25th of October, he heard a sermon, the text in Job, Man that is born of a woman, is of short continuance, and is full of trouble.' After that he presently went to Whitehall, and heard another sermon before the king, and after dinner, being ill, craves leave to retire to his own court, where instantly he fell into sudden sickness, faintings, and after that a shaking, with great heat and headache, that left him not whilst he had life." ness. The Archbishop of Canterbury and Dr. Melborn, Dean of Rochester, constantly attended at his bedside, and prayed with him during his illCornwallis says, that "he bore his sickness with patience, and as often recognition of his faith, his hopes, and his appeals to God's mercy, as his infirmity, which afflicted him altogether in his head, would possibly permit." He died at St. James's at the age of eighteen years, eight months, and seventeen days. His body, having been embalmed, was interred in Westminster Abbey. His death had been foretold by Bruce, an eminent astrologer of the period, who, however, at the instigation of the Earl of Salisbury, was banished for his discrimination. Before quitting England, the astrologer sent to Salisbury, assuring him that his words would prove but too true, though the earl himself would not live to see it. His prediction turned out correct. The prince died in November, six months after Salisbury's dissolution. To falsify this story, it has been argued that Bruce retired voluntarily abroad; and also, (supposing the prediction to have been really made), that it required no great prophetical powers to calculate that the earl's shattered frame would in all probability yield to the prince's youth, and apparently vigorous constitution. The untimely deaths of promising young princes are frequently attributed to unfair means, and Prince Henry's among the number, is said to have been occasioned by poison. Certainly the suspicion was more than whispered at the time. One of his chaplains actually preached a sermon at St. James's (which was afterwards printed), wherein he alluded so openly and feelingly to the manner in which the prince was cut off, as to melt his congregation into tears, and to procure his own dismissal from court. Arthur Wilson says, there were strange rumours at the time, some attributing the prince's decease to poisoned grapes, and others to a pair of gloves which had been similarly tampered with. When Henry was dying, Sir Walter Raleigh sent him a cordial from the Tower, which he said would infallibly cure him unless his malady was the effect of poison. The prince took the cordial, but not recovering, the queen is said to have laid so much stress on Sir Walter's proviso, as to have believed to the last that her son had met with foul play. It has been suspected that John Holles, Earl of Clare, comptroller of the prince's household, was the depositary of some important secret, relative to the death of his young master. His sudden emancipation from a prison to a peerage appears to have given rise to this notion, besides the undue importance which was attached to some lines written in the earl's pocket-book, beginning Actæon once Diana naked spied The ever, justly been remarked, that though this medical detail gives no reason to believe that poison was administered, yet that it affords no direct proof to the contrary. inclined to fix the guilt is undoubtedly Robert not digested. The chirurgeons and physicians Carr, Earl of Somerset, afterwards a convicted found no sign or likelihood of poison." murderer in the case of Overbury, a man openly physicians, in support of their opinion, drew up held in contempt and dislike by the prince, and on paper the result of their post-mortem examiwhose utter ruin was sure to follow, in the event nation, in which they minutely described the of Henry's succession to the throne: besides appearance of the prince's body. It has, howthese circumstances there existed the well-known rivalship for the affections of Lady Essex. Burnet says: "Colonel Titus assured me that he had from King Charles the First's own mouth, that he was well assured Prince Henry was poisoned by the Earl of Somerset's means." Lord Chief Justice Coke hinted openly in court, that Overbury was made away with to prevent a discovery of Somerset's share in the prince's death; an imprudence which lost Coke the king's favour, and eventually his place.* Wilson and other writers also allude to the dark suspicions which were entertained of Somerset's guilt. There has existed another horrible surmise, that the son's life was cut short by the jealousy of the father. Hume says, -" the bold and criminal malignity of men's tongues and pens spared not even the king on the occasion." Arthur Wilson openly hints his suspicious, though, with affected and ingenious delicacy, he talks of them as a subject for his fears, and not for his pen. Rapin very properly remarks, in noticing this unnatural aspersion, that the proofs should be "as clear as the sun," before they are accepted as evidence. With reference to the general question as to the manner of the prince's death, it is right to add, that the physicians who attended him during his illness, and who examined his body after his decease, gave it as their unanimous opinion that he was not poisoned; and Sir Charles Cornwallis expresses his opinion that the rumours to a contrary effect were without foundation. Bishop Goodman, in his Memoirs, has an interesting passage on the subject: - " That Prince Henry," he says, "died not without vehement suspicion of poison, this I can say in my own knowledge. The king's custom was to make an end of his hunting at his house in Havering, in Essex, either at the beginning or in the middle of September. Prince Henry did then accompany him. I was beneficed in the next parish, at Stapleford Abbots. Many of our brethren, the neighbour ministers, came to hear the sermon before the king, and some of us did say, looking upon Prince Henry, and finding that his countenance was not so cheerful as it was wont to be, but had heavy darkish looks, with a kind of mixture of melancholy and choler, -some of us that certainly he had some great distemper in his body, which we thought might proceed from eating of raw fruit, peaches, musk-melons, &c. A while after we heard that he was sick, his physicians about him, none of his servants forbidden to come to him; he spake to them when he knew he was past hopes of life; he had no suspicion himself of poison; he blamed no man; he made a comfortable end, and when he was opened, as I heard, there stomach some remnants of grapes which were What probably threw so painful a suspicion upon the king, was the command he gave, that the Christmas festivities should proceed as usual: moreover, he issued an indecent order that no mourning should be worn for his deceased son. It has been attempted to disprove this fact, by asserting that, at the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth, which shortly followed, both the king and his daughter were dressed in black. We do not know what may have been the king's costume on the occasion, but Sir James Finett, a nice observer, and master of the ceremonies to the court, distinctly says, that the princess was "apparelled in white," and, moreover, alludes to the splendid jewels that were worn by the king himself. A similar order had been issued by James at the demise of Queen Elizabeth. Sully, the French ambassador to England, informs us that, after having been at the expense of providing mourning habits for his suite, he was compelled to change their apparel, in order that he might not mortally offend James, and yet his mission was principally that of condolence. We may conclude the memoirs of this extraordinary young prince with the character drawn of him by his treasurer, and affectionate follower, Sir Charles Cornwallis: * - " He was courteous, loving, and affable; his favour, like the sun, indifferently seeming to shine upon all; naturally shame-faced and modest, most patient, which he showed both in life and death. Quick he was to conceive any thing; not rash, but mature in deliberation, and constant having resolved. True of his promise, most secret even from his youth, so that he might have been trusted in any thing * Dr. Lingard, in his estimate of Prince Henry's character, is certainly unfair, and, I believe, incorrect. "The young prince, faithful to the lessons which he had formerly received from the mother, openly ridiculed the foibles of his father, and boasted of the conduct which he would pursue, when he should succeed to the throne. In the dreams of his fancy he was already another Henry V., and the conqueror of his hereditary kingdom of France. did then say, * Kennett, vol. ii. p. 689, note. Lord Dartmouth, in a note on the anecdote of Bishop Burnet above quoted, makes the following remark. "If he was poisoned by the Earl of Somerset, it was not upon the account of religion, but for making love to the Countess of Essex; and that was what the lord chief justice meant, when he said at Somerset's trial, Supposing, however, that the argument in fa-G God knows what went with the good Prince Henry, Four of Henry's being poisoned is at all tenable, but I have heard something." "-Burnet, vol. i. p. he individual on whom we should naturally be 19. All unawares, yet by his dogs he died. To those who were discontented with the father, the abilities and virtues of the son became the theme of the most hyperbolical praise; the zealots looked on him as the destined reformer of the English church; some could even point out the passage in the Apocalypse which reserved for him the glorious task of expelling Antichrist from the papal chair. With the several matches prepared for him by his father, it were idle to detain the reader; his marriage, as well as his temporal and spiritual conquests, was anticipated by an ters have attributed to poison, some to debauchery, and others, with greater probability, to his own turbulence and obstinacy. In the pursuit of amusementhe disregarded all advice. He was accustomed to bathe for a long time together after supper; to expose himself to the most stormy weather, and to take violent exercise during the greatest heats of summer," &c. The vein of sarcasm which runs through this passage, and the impression it was intended to leave, are too apparent to require any commnet. In the present instance, however, the idolised champion of protestantism could scarcely expect to be a fa were found in his untimely death, which some wri vourite. |