accordingly appeared irrefolute, but after waiting a few days, in expectation he would fue for a pardon, The was exafperated at his pride, and her own get: ting the better of any remaining affection for him, The figned the warrant, and ordered his execution, complying only with his wifh, in permitting it to be as private as poffible. A fcaffold was therefore prepared in the inner court of the Tower; and he was beheaded on the 25th of February, 1601, only a few of the aldermen, and fome noblemen of the court, being prefent, by the exprefs command of the queen.

The behaviour of Effex in his laft moments was truly penitent and devout, and though at the point of being cut off in the flower of his age, he did not exprefs any folicitude for life, or fear of death; but, unfortunately, he must have fuffered great pain; for the executioner gave him three blows of the axe before he fevered the head from the body.

Thus fell the gallant Earl of Effex, whofe military glory, loyalty to his fovereign (the treafon for which he fuffered excepted), zeal for the true intereft and profperity of his country, and many eminent virtues, would have rendered him one of the brighteft characters in the records of fame; if ambition, felf-conceit, and impetuofity of temper, which are but too frequently the companions of rapid profperity in the early ftages of life, had not tiomphed over fortitude, reafon, and integrity.

His royal miftrefs did not long furvive this do meftic calamity, and the ill ftate of health which Game upon her after the death of the countefs of Nottingham, has by moft hiftorians been attri buted to a confeflion made by the countefs on her death-bed to the queen concerning Effex. The particulars of this interview and fecret, will be Found in the fuccceding life of the earl of Nottingham,

tingham, which follows next in order, as his lordship, after the fall of Effex, was the queen's principal confident, and, in fact, her firft minifter of state.

The earl of Effex was a liberal patron of learned men, and feveral fmall tracts written by him, have likewise obtained him a place in the ingenious Mr. Walpole's catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, who bestows very great encomiums on a state of Ireland, drawn up by the earl and tranfmitted to the queen; ftyling it a mafterly compofition, in which the abilities of a great general and statesman are confpicuous, as well as the talents of a fine writer.

The earl was much courted by the poets of his own time, and was the fubject of numerous fonnets, or popular ballads. "I could produce evi"dence," fays Mr. Warton, "that lie fcarce ever "went out of England, or even left London, on "the moft frivolous enterprize, without a paftoral in his praife, or a panegyric in metre, which were fold and fung in the streets.”

Authorities. Camden's Annals. Baker's Chronicle. Winftanley's English Worthies. Birch's Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Eliza beth. Hume's Hiftory of England.

THE

THE LIFE OF

CHARLES HOWARD,

EARL OF NOTTINGHAM,

AND

LORD HIGH ADMIRAL OF ENGLAND.

Including an account of the laft Illness and Death of QUEEN ELIZABETH.

ΤΗ

[A. D. 1536, to 1603:1

HE glorious catalogue of immortal patriots, whofe valour, wifdom, and integrity, fupported the dignity, and preferved the independency of the realm of England, at a crifis, when the most formidable power of Europe, aided by the Roman pontiffs, and the fecret enemies of our happy conftitution, meditated her ruin, is now to be closed: with concife memoirs of the illuftrious admiral,. who had the command of the English fleet in that great and victorious engagement, which happily decided the fate of this country, and fixed the standard of religious and civil liberty on a fure: and permanent bafis.

Charles Howard was the fon of Thomas Howard, created baron of Effingham in Surry, by queen Mary in 1554, and raised to the dignity of lord. high admiral, in which office he was continued by

queen:

queen Elizabeth, till age and infirmities rendered him unfit for that active department, and then he was made lord-privy-feal, in which station he died in 1572. This, his only fon, was born in 1536, and in his early youth, having discovered an inclination for the fea-fervice, his father bred him up uhder him, and took him out with him upon fome cruifing voyages, in the reign of Mary. In the fecond year of Elizabeth, by his father's intereft with the queen, he was appointed ambaffador extraordinary, to compliment Charles IX. of France on his acceffion to the throne of that kingdom; and this his first promotion was confidered as a fignal inftance of the queen's favour, as he was then not quite twenty-three years of age. The next account we have of him is in the year 1569, when he was made general of the horse, under the earl of Suffex, warden of the northern marches, on occafion of the infurrection, headed by the earls of Weftmoreland and Northumberland, in favour of Mary queen of Scots. In this fervice he greatly fignalized himself, and greatly contributed to the fuppreffion of the rebellion, having obliged the earl of Weftmoreland to fly, and take refuge in Scotland, before the arrival of the earl of Warwick, who bringing a confiderable reinforcement from the midland counties, to the affiftance of the earl of Suffex, lord Charles Howard, and Sir George Bowes, completed the victory over the res bels, which they had partly accomplished..

In 1570, the command of a fleet of ten ships of the line was given to lord Charles Howard, with inftructions to receive the Imperial and Spanish. fleets, which were to convoy the emperor's fifter, Anne of Auftria, to the coaft of Spain, at their entrance into, and to efcort them through the British channel. Upon this occafion, our gallant commander bravely maintained the privileges of

the