Blunt, was amoved into the ftar-chamber, where the king in an arbitrary manner put an end to the fuit, by ordering the examinations of the witneffes to be locked up, and no copies to be taken without the royal licence.

This act of injuftice determined Sir Robert Dudley to leave his native country, and at this time he was esteemed one of the moft accomplished gentlemen of his age. The Dudley family, for three defcents, had furnished men of very great abilities; but this reputed bafe fon, in learning, furpaffed them all, efpecially in the ufeful part of mathematics. And in the last years of Elizabeth, he had fitted out fome fhips, and made fome valuable difcoveries in navigation: he alfo took and deftroyed nine fail of Spanifh fhips; and he behaved fo gallantly at the fiege of Calais, that the queen conferred on him the honour of knighthood; but lie certainly did not receive the encouragement he appears to have merited, either in her reign, or that of her fucceffor.

Difgufted at the English court, he obtained a licence to travel for three years; but upon the death of his uncle the earl of Warwick, he affumed. his title abroad, which giving offence to king James, he was ordered home, and not thinking it prudent to comply, his eftate was confifcated, for his life, to the crown.

Upon this reverse of fortune he retired to Florence, where he was kindly received by Cofmo II. great duke of Tufcany; and for his eminent fervices to the manufactures and commerce of that country, the emperor, on the recommendation of the archduchefs, to whom he had been appointed chamberlain, created him a duke of the Holy Roman Empire in 1620; and he then affumed hist grandfather's title, that of duke of Northumberland..

He

He died at his country-feat near Florence in 1639, leaving a great character in the learned world for his fkill in philofophy, chemistry, and medicine; and in the means of applying them for the benefit of mankind.

He was an author of fome repute; and his principal work, entituled, Del Arcano del mare, &c. printed at Florence in 1630, and again in 1646, in two volumes, folio. is highly valuable and very fcarce. He was alfo the inventor of a fudorific powder, for a long time known, under the name of The Earl of Warwick's Powder.

Authorities. Camden's Annals and Birch's Life of Queen Elizabeth. Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire. Fuller's Worthies of Surrey. Melvil's Memoirs, edit. 1752. Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries of the English Nation, fol. edit. 1580.

THE LIFE of

SIR FRANCIS WALSINGHAM,

Secretary of State to Queen ELIZABETH,

FR

[A. D. 1536, to 1590.]

RANCIS WALSINGHAM was defcended of an ancient and good family, and born about the year 1536. He was educated at King'scollege in the univerfity of Cambridge. His friends fent him to travel in foreign countries while he was

very young and it was owing to this happy circumftance, that he remained abroad during the perfecuting adminiftration of queen Mary, to whofe fanguinary zeal he might otherwife have fallen a victim, for his declared attachment, while he was at the university, to the reformed religion.

A genius for political knowledge, directed his attention in early life, to the ftudy of the forms of government, legiflations, manners and cuftoms of the different nations of Europe; and of these he acquired fuch an extenfive knowledge, that, on his return to England, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, his abilities recommended him to Sir Wil liam Cecil, by whofe means he was employed in fome of the most important affairs of ftate. The firft of his public employments was an enbaffy into France, where he refided feveral years, during the heat of the civil wars in that kingdom. In Auguft, 1570, he was fent there to treat of a marriage between queen Elizabeth and the duke of Alencon, with other matters of the highest confe quence; and he continued at the court of France

till April, 1573. He acquitted himself in the character of ambaffador with uncommon capacity, fidelity, and diligence, fparing neither pains nor money to promote the queen's fervice to the utmoft. But Elizabeth was fo extremely parfimonious, that it was with great difficulty he could procure fuch fupplies of money, as were requifite for fupporting the dignity of his character. But on his return to England, he was appointed one of the principal fecretaries of ftate, and foon after he received the honour of knighthood.

It was on the promotion of his conftant friend and patron Sir William Cecil, now created a peer, and made lord-treasurer, that Walfingham was raised to his new dignity; but still he was the ju

nior fecretary, till the death of Sir Thomas Smith, which happened in 1577; from which time Sir Francis Walfingham may be confidered as fecond in the adminiftration of public affairs, and the firm, grateful fupporter of Cecil lord Burleigh's power and influence, against Leicester and his party.

Sir Francis was peculiarly happy in the difcovery of court intrigues, and treafonable confpiracies at home; and he was no lefs fuccefsful in procuring the earliest and most authentic intelligence of the fecret defigns of the principal powers of Europe.

This experienced fatefman was fent over to Holland in 1578, to affift at the congrefs held by the 'roteftant ftates of the provinces of Holland, Zealand, Friezland, and Utrecht. He acted as the reprefentative of queen Elizabeth at their meetings; but thofe writers who ftyle this private agency an embafly, forgot that the republic was not yet established, or in a capacity to receive ambaffadors. Walfingham, however, contributed by his political talents and influence to the formation of the alliance entered into by thefe provinces, the beginning of the following year, ftyled, The Union of UTRECHT, which was the object of his commiffion.

On his return home, he was confulted by the queen and Cecil on the conditions of the propofed marriage between her majefty and the duke of Anjou; and thefe being adjusted, he was appointed ambaffador to the court of France, for the third time, and he repaired thither in 1581; but Henry III. of France, rejecting the proposals, the embassy proved unsuccessful. Walfingham was recalled towards the clofe of the year; and the duke of Anjou finally quitted England, as we have related more amply, in the life of Leicester.

Upon every occafion, when fkilful addrefs and political intrigue were effentially requifite, Walfingbam was fure to be employed. As foon therefore

as

as the queen received intelligence that the young king of Scotland, afterwards James I. of England, had thewn a strong attachment to the earl of Arran, and had made him his chief confident, Walfingham was dispatched to Scotland, to endeavour to remove the earl; or if that could not be effected, to forın a party at court and in the kingdom against him. The latter he accomplished, and at the fame time, he purfued another fecret defign of Elizabeth, "which was to obtain from a man of Walfingham's penetration and difcernment, the real character of James." This we give on the authority of Hume, who farther adds, "that Walfingham was greatly deceived upon this occafion, entertaining higher ideas of his talents for public bufinefs than they merited." But this does not impeach the judgement of our statesman, who at the time of his arrival in Scotland, and during his refidence there, was in a very bad and declining ftate of health and in this fituation, James, who knew his fame as a man of letters, engaged him chiefly in converfations which tended to thew his own fcholaftic learning; and Walfingham, fays Lloyd, "fitted the humour of the king by paffages out of Xenophon, Thucydides, Plutarch, or Tacitus." In fuch literary conferences, the young monarch took great delight, and he generally exerted himself upon fuch occafions; fo that from his critical knowledge of ancient history and other branches of fcience, Walfingham was warranted to draw.a conclufion, that he would not prove fo miferably deficient, as we fhall find he was, in the application of his knowledge to practice.

In 1586, by his peculiar fagacity and manage ment, he unravelled the whole plot of Babington, and others, against the life of the queen.

Soon after this, he was appointed one of the commiffioners for the trial of the queen of Scots,