This man being noted to grow high in her favour, (as his place and experience required,) was questioned by an intimate friend of his, how he stood up for thirty years together, amidst the changes and reigns of so many chancellors and great personages? why, quoth the Marquis, ortus sum ex salice, non ex quercu, I was made of the pliable willow, not of the stubborn oak; and truly the old man hath taught them all, especially William, Earl of Pembroke, for they two were always of the King's religion, and over-zealous professors. Of this it is said, that being both younger brothers, (yet of noble houses,) they spent what was left them, and came on trust to the court: where upon the bare stock of their wits, they began to traffic for themselves, and prospered so well, that they got, spent, and left more than any subjects from the Norman conquest to their own times; whereunto it hath been prettily replied, that they lived in a time of dissolution.

To conclude then, of any of the former

reign, it is said, that these two lived and died, chiefly, in her favour. The latter, upon his son's marriage with the Lady Katherine Gray, was like utterly to have lost himself; but at the instant of the consummation, apprehending the insafety and danger of an intermarriage with the blood-royal, he fell at the Queen's feet, where he both acknowledged his presumption with tears, and projected the cause and the divorce together; and so quick he was at his work, for it stood him. upon, that upon repudiation of the lady, he clapt up a marriage for his son the Lord Herbert, with Mary Sidney, daughter to Sir Henry Sidney, then lord-deputy of Ireland, * the

*This incident did not happen in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but in that of Queen Mary. The unfortunate Lady Jane Gray, and her sisters, Lady Catherine and Lady Mary, were married in the month of May 1553. Lady Jane's fate is well known. Lady Catherine was united to Henry Lord Herbert, son and heir of William Earl of Pembroke, then one of Lady Jane's firm friends. But when Pembroke turned with the tide to Queen Mary, he caused the union to be dissolved by divorce.

blow falling on Edward, late Earl of Hereford, who (to his cost) took up the divorced lady, of whom the Lord Beauchamp was born, and William Earl of Hereford is descended. * I come now to present those of her own election, which she either admitted to her secrets of state, or took into her grace and favour; of whom in their or

Mary Sydney was not, however, as alleged by Naunton, the immediate successor of Lady Catherine Grey; for the Lord Herbert was married after the divorce to Anne, daughter of George Earl of Shrewsbury, and on her death to Mary Sidney, as mentioned in the text.

* The unfortunate Lady Catherine Grey, when divorced from Lord Herbert, was married privately to Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford. For this offence, they were both committed to the Tower, and their marriage was annulled by the obsequious Archbishop of Canterbury. But as the unfortunate pair found means to have intercourse, even in their captivity, Hereford was accused in the star-chamber, 1. of debauching a virgin of the blood-royal; 2. of breaking prison; 3. of having intercourse with her a second time. And he was fined 5000l. on each charge, besides being condemned to nine years imprisonment. The poor Lady Catherine died in prison, after a long captivity. So jealous was Queen Elizabeth of all who could pretend the least title to her succession.

der, I crave leave to give unto posterity a cautious description, with a short character, or draught of the persons themselves; for without offence to others, I would be true to myself, their memories and merits distinguishing them of the militia from the togati, and of these she had as many, and those as able ministers, as any of her progenitors.

LEICESTER.

It will be out of doubt, that my Lord of Leicester was one of the first whom she made master of the horse; he was the youngest son, then living, of the Duke of Northumberland, beheaded primo Maria, and his father was that Dudley, which our histories couple with Empson; and both so much infamed for the caterpillars of the Commonwealth, during the reign of Henry the Seventh; who being a noble extract, was executed the first year of Henry the Eighth, but not thereby so extinct, but that he left a plentiful estate, and such a son, who, as the vulgar speaks it, could live without the tear; for out of the ashes of his father's infamy, he rose to be a Duke, and as high as subjection could permit, or sovereignty endure; and though he could not find out any appellation to assume the crown in his own person, yet he projected, and very nearly affected it for his son Gil