for uneasiness to her royal husband. And yet, her manners were, in some points, too strict for the rude courtiers of the North, for she discountenanced the perpetual insults, which they had been accustomed to offer to all the females in the palace. Anne's first son, Henry, was born in Stirling Castle in 1594, and by the custom of Scotland was left there to be brought up under the care of the Earl of Mar, the hereditary guardian. When James journeyed to England to take the crown, the queen was left behind, and a grave dispute arose out of Lady Mar's refusing to give up the heir apparent. On Anne's arrival in England, it being half a century since there had been a queen-concert, her privileges and endowments had become almost obsolete; James however settled on her a jointure of £6,376. From this period, though the king always spoke lovingly of his spouse in public, he almost entirely separated himself from her, for she possessed a strength of will which James could not control.

Her increase of means tended to increase her fondness for amusements, and the ladies of her court were continually taxed to find some new kind of diversion. At great festivals, masques, written by Ben Jonson and others, were performed with great splendour and at great expense, and not unfrequently conducted with but little attention to decorum. Her extravagance made her always in debt, and James was obliged to add £3,000 a year to her income. The latter part of her life was one of lingering sickness, and therefore spent in comparative privacy at Hampton Court and Greenwich, till she died of dropsy in 1619. Anne is said to be inferior to most English queens in education and intelligence, and to have been characterised by excess of petulance and frivolity. Generally, she took little part in public affairs, though it is mentioned to her credit, that she was a kind friend to Sir Walter Raleigh, and did what she could to save his life. Anne had some leanings towards popery; some affirm that she was a Catholic, and received presents of beads and reliques from the pope, together with his thanks, for not communicating with heretics at the coronation. This fact is thought to explain, in part, the misfortunes into which her descendants fell. Sully greatly dreaded her influence in favor of Spanish interests, and says that none doubted but that she was inclined to declare herself absolutely on that side.

The royal children were Henry Frederic, 1594-1612: Charles, who became king: Elizabeth, who married Frederic, Elector Palatine: and four others who died in infancy.

ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA. 1596-1662. Elizabeth was born in the palace at Falkland. Of her youth we know but little, though that little is favorable to her. She had many suitors, among whom the most distinguished were Philip III. of Spain, the Prince of Piedmont, and the Elector Palatine. James selected the latter, and in February 1612, Elizabeth_married at Whitehall, Frederic V., Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, and Elector, Cupbearer, and High Steward of the Empire, a man "weak, good-natured, and penurious". Her husband's acceptance of the crown of Bohemia, commenced a series of misfortunes, which ended only in her death. Driven from her home, she and her husband were compelled to depend on the bounty of strangers, which did not always preserve them from positive want. In 1625, she lost her father, and Frederic her eldest son, who was drowned in the Haerlem Mere, and in 1632,

her husband died of a fever. Elizabeth then resided principally at the Hague, where she was joined by other members of the royal family of England, during the civil war. At the Restoration, Charles II. invited her to England, but before she had been in her native country twelve months, she died at Leicester House. "In prosperity modest and unassuming; in adversity surmounting difficulties and dignifying poverty, her character was regarded with sympathy in her own time, and has won for her the admiration of posterity". She bore her husband thirteen children, among whom were the princes Rupert and Maurice, and Sophia, who married the Elector of Hanover.

LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1577-1615. Arabella Stuart was the only child of Charles, Earl of Lennox, the brother of Lord Darnley. In consequence of the early death of her parents, she was brought up by her maternal grandmother, the Countess of Shrewsbury. Next to James and his children, she was the lineal heir to the crown, and having been brought up in England, by some her title was thought superior to that of her cousin's, James being an alien born. Arabella was proposed by the Spanish party in the Main Plot, on the supposition that she would not object to become a Catholic, though there is no proof that she was a consenting party in any way. In 1604, she received a grant of an annual pension of a thousand pounds for life; she now resided in the palace, and partook of the Queen's amusements. The king however was determined that Arabella should live a single life, lest peradventure some danger should grow up to the succession. But she thought otherwise, and in 1610 privately married Sir William Seymour, the second son of Lord Beauchamp, the son of Catherine Grey. For this grave offence, both were committed to custody. In 1611, Seymour escaped from the Tower and reached Flanders in safety; it may be added that he figured during the civil war as Lord Hertford, one of the most faithful of Charles's followers, and that at the Restoration, Charles II. restored to him the dukedom of Somerset, forfeited by the attainder of his great-grandfather, the Protector. Arabella escaped from Highgate in male attire, and got off to sea, but was captured by an English vessel, brought back and committed to the Tower, where under confinement and constant grief, her reason gave way. She died in the fourth year of her imprisonment, and was privately interred by the side of Mary of Scots at Westminster. James's treatment of his kinswoman was as illegal as it was cruel, and the unsinning Arabella fell a victim to injustice, "through the oppression of a kinsman whose advocates are always vaunting his good nature," and of whom Hume says, all his qualities were "embellished with humanity".

ROBERT CECIL, EARL OF SALISBURY. 1550-1612. Robert was the son of William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, the minister of Elizabeth. On account of his feeble constitution he was schooled at home, and afterwards completed his education at St. John's College, Cambridge. Elizabeth conferred on him the honor of knighthood, and employed him in diplomatic services. In 1596, he was appointed under secretary of state, and on the death of Sir Francis Walsingham, he succeeded to the post of principal secretary. On the death of his father, he became prime minister to Elizabeth, and as her health declined,

Cecil put himself on good terms with James, offering him sound advice, and subsequently procuring for him a quiet accession to the throne of England. James was not forgetful of his services, and successively created him Baron Essenden, Viscount Cranbourne, and in 1605 Earl of Salisbury. In the face of much opposition and rivalry, Cecil maintained his ascendancy over his master, and being "no ill member of the Commonwealth" contrived in some measure, to repress the increasing encroachments of the crown. He is said to have been the ablest minister of his time, but he was cold-hearted and selfish to an extreme degree, and ready to sacrifice any one who stood in his way. The ruin, both of Essex and Raleigh, is ascribed to him, and he stands charged by some writers with having contrived the plot in which Sir Walter was involved. His principal forte was in the management of the House of Commons, and when that House became unmanageable his constitution rapidly sunk. Returning from the Bath waters, he died at Marlborough, observing "Ease and plenty quake to hear of death; but my life, full of cares and miseries, desireth to be dissolved". Cecil was never accused of corruption or dishonesty, which is to his credit in an age of dishonest practices. As a statesman, Bacon speaks of him as a more fit man to keep things from growing worse, but no very fit man to reduce things to be much better".

ROBERT CARR, EARL OF SOMERSET. 1588-1645. Robert Carr or Ker came of a respectable Scottish family, and had when a youth spent some time in France. Returning to Scotland, he became a page in the house of one of the nobles. Some writers say that Overbury brought him to London, be this as it may, he is found in 1609, in the service of Lord Hay, one of James's Scotch favorites. On the occasion of a tilting match at Whitehall, Carr fell, and breaking his leg, was conveyed to the palace, at the direction of the king, who had been struck with the beauty of his person. As soon as he recovered, he received knighthood, and a post in the king's household. James himself undertook to instruct. him in Latin and state-craft. In 1612, the favorite was created a Baron, and then Viscount Rochester; subsequently he was raised to the earldom of Somerset, and acted as prime minister in the place of Salisbury. Without experience or capacity for business, he depended principally on the guidance of Overbury. But the Countess of Essex was fated to ruin the fortunes of Somerset. Married at the age of thirteen to Robert Devereux, the son of Elizabeth's favourite, she was then committed to the care of a mother who neglected her morals. When her husband returned from the continent, where he had spent four years in travel, she refused to be his wife. James entered into the question of a divorce, in order that his favorite might take her to wife. Overbury, for urging on his master the scandal that would follow such a course, met an untimely death. The divorce was procured, and Lady Essex became the wife of Somerset.

Two years after, the murder of Overbury was completely established and four of the accomplices executed, but Somerset and his wife the principals were spared, though they lost their property, and were for a time imprisoned. In 1622, they were both released from the Tower, and sent to reside at a place appointed for them in the country; in 1624 James ordered a pension of £4000 a year to be allowed to his

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former favorite. The guilty pair lived together in mutual hatred, till her premature death in 1632; Somerset survived till 1645. The only child of this ill-fated union was Anne Carr, who became the wife of William Russell, Earl of Bedford, and thus the mother of Lord William Russell, executed in 1683. It is generally supposed that Somerset was in possession of some secret which greatly concerned the honour of James, and that it was this which led to all the precautions to prevent the Earl's speaking out at his trial, and afterwards to the lenient treatment which he received.

GEORGE VILLIERS, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. 1592-1628. George Villiers was the son of Sir George Villiers of Brooksby, Leicestershire, by Mary Beaumont. At the age of eighteen he was sent to France, where he remained three years perfecting himself in bodily exercises. Being introduced at court, his fine person and graceful demeanor, won for him the favor of the king, who made him his cup-bearer, 1613. Honors and profitable employments came upon him in quick succession. In 1615, he was knighted and made gentleman of the bed-chamber, with an annuity of one thousand pounds out of the Court of Wards. The next year saw him a knight of the Garter, a Baron and a Viscount. In 1617, he rose to be Earl of Buckingham and privy-counsellor, and in 1622 Earl of Coventry and Duke of Buckingham. His royal master appointed him to the offices of Lord High Admiral of England, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Chief Justice in Eyre of all his Majesty's forests, Master of the King's Bench, &c. &c., and all places of good profit. James was completely infatuated with this favorite, and conferred on him the name of Steenie, a corruption of Stephen, in allusion to Acts vi. 15, where it is said of Stephen that, "all that sat in the council looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel".

Buckingham's history from this period is written in the annals of his country. By his wife Lady Catherine, daughter of the Earl of Rutland, he left two sons and one daughter. His son George succeeded him in his titles and estates, and won for himself a bad notoriety in the reign of the second Charles; Francis, the other son, fell as a brave cavalier in the civil wars; and Mary the daughter became Duchess of Richmond. Buckingham's fortunes were much superior to his capacity, and his powerful influence over the mind of his sovereign, enabled him to fill the chief offices of state with his parasites. This, with his excess of pride, kept truth out of the courtly circle, and it may well have happened, that neither he nor his royal master, knew the signs of the times. He was an unsuccessful general and an ignorant statesman, and in both capacities entailed disgrace upon the nation; his only redeeming virtues, were refinement of manners and magnificence of taste.

FRANCIS BACON, VISCOUNT ST. ALBAN'S. 1561-1626. Francis Bacon was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper to Elizabeth, and the nephew of Lord Burleigh. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself by his diligence and success. In the interval between his leaving Cambridge and his entering Gray's Inn, he was in France in the service of Sir Amias Paulet, the British ambassador. Called to the bar in 1582, his practice soon became considerable, but promotion followed slowly for the

Cecils represented him to the queen as a speculative man. In 1592, he entered parliament as member for the county of Middlesex, and distinguished himself on the popular side. On the accession of James, Bacon received knighthood among the host thus honored. He began now to rise, the king made him one of his counsel, in 1607 solicitor general, and in 1613 attorney general and a member of the privy council. Bacon, who for many years was not in affluent circumstances, became now a wealthy man; his wife was the daughter of a rich alderman, his attorneyship brought him £6000 a year, as Registrar of the Star Chamber he received £1000, and in addition to his professional practice yielded him large returns. In 1617, he was made keeper of the great seal, and the year following Lord Chancellor, and Baron Verulam; in 1620, he was raised to be Viscount St. Alban's. "Bacon chose this favorable moment for the publication of his "Organon", the object of his life-long solicitude. At the height and maturity of his genius, when possessing all the highest honors which talent and learning could give him in his native land, we find this "servant of posterity" committing to its slow but infallible tribunal a work, which in reference to science, has been almost universally pronounced the judgment of reason and experience in this rare instance confirming the boastings of youth-" the greatest birth of time". This work was the gradual formation of a creating spirit. It was wrought up and polished with the sedulous industry of an artist who labors for posterity.

Bacon's ruin immediately followed. His improvidence led to a perpetual craving for money, and at last undermined the principle of honor and honesty. Cases in Chancery were delayed fill their progress was quickened by a gift to the Chancellor, and occasionally a decision was influenced in the same way. An impeachment ended in his public degradation, and though his sentence was afterwards commuted by the king, his ruined fortune was never repaired. A pension was however allowed him, and the few remaining years of his life were spent in retirement, engaged mostly in scientific pursuits, which in the sequel caused his death. Hallam observes, "that, if all Lord Bacon's philosophy had never existed, there would be enough in his political writings to place him among the greatest men this country has produced".

"If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined,

The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind".

SIR EDWARD COKE, 1552-1633. Edward Coke, the son of Robert Coke a bencher of Lincoln's Inn, was born at Mileham in Norfolk. He received his early education at the Norwich Grammar School; at the age of fifteen he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a member of the Inner Temple. When called to the bar, the rapidity with which he gained an extensive practice was almost without a parallel. Professional honors crowded upon him; in 1592, he received the appointment of solicitor-general, and two years later, that of attorney-general. James continued him in the same office, in which he found full employment growing out of Raleigh's conspiracy, the Gunpowder Plot, and other seditious movements imputed to the Catholics. As the advocate for the crown, in trials for state offences, Coke frequently betrayed great intemperance and asperity, which in some cases amounted to cruelty: