by Lee Miller
85 Camden, The History (1688), p. 355.
86 Ibid., p. 355. Among those things that Babington confessed was a conversation broached by Robert Poley, Walsingham’s agent, about the possibility of killing Leicester and Burghley! Pollen, Mary Queen of Scots, p. 69.
87 Camden, The History (1688), p. 341; see Walsingham’s letter to Phelippes regarding the forged postscript, dated August 3, 1586, British Museum, Cotton Mss. Appendix L, f. 144.
88 Camden, The History (1688), pp. 355-6.
89 Ibid., pp. 362, 364, 370-1.
90 Ibid., pp. 371, 386.
91 Ibid., p. 379; Nicolas, Life of William Davison, p. 79.
92 For the Stafford Conspiracy and Walsingham’s role in it, see Haynes, Invisible Power, pp. 80-2; Read, Walsingham, ill, pp. 62-3.
93 Calendar of State Papers, Spain, 1580-1586, no. 505, p. 656.
94 Calendar of State Papers, Scotland, ix, no. 429, p. 530. The executioner was contacted by Walsingham’s servant, Anthony Hall, while another of Walsingham’s employees — named Digby — escorted him to Fotheringhay disguised as a serving man; Fräser, Mary Queen of Scots, pp. 612-13.
95 B.M., Additional Mss. 32091, f. 262; Read, Walsingham, 11, p. 124.
17 THE MOTIVE
1 Camden, The History (1688), p. 91.
2 Welwood, Material Transactions, p. 14; Read, Walsingham, 111, p. 173.
3 Walsingham’s statement in Digges, Compleat Ambassador, p. 426.
4 Walsingham’s dislike of Raleigh may have been similar to the antipathy expressed by Lord Cobham for the youthful Essex; “I have disliked some of your ambitious courses, which could not but breed danger to the state, in which respect I sought to hinder their growth.” Jardine, Criminal Trials, p. 350. See Read, Walsingham, in, p. 406, n. 3, for instances in which Raleigh’s agenda thwarted Walsingham’s plans in Scotland and in the Netherlands. Ironically, Babington himself—aware of Raleigh’s influence with the Queen — offered him a bribe to obtain his pardon; Edwards, Raleigh, 1, pp. 68-9. Although Raleigh did not accept it, Walsingham nevertheless must have felt the potential of his power. According to Aubrey, Raleigh was opposed to putting Mary Queen of Scots to death; Brief Lives (1898), 11, p. 186.
5 Read, Walsingham, in, p. 1. “Machiavel’s two marks to shoot at,” said Raleigh, are “riches and glory,” History of the World, Book 1, chapter 1. Babington netted Walsingham neither.
6 Haynes, Invisible Power, p. 48. As early as 1570, while still ambassador to France, Walsingham ran so deeply into debt on account of his intelligence efforts that an appeal was made to Leicester for assistance; Strype, Annals, 11, i, p. 34.
7 Morris, Troubles, 11, p. 169. According to the imprisoned Jesuit Father Weston (ibid.), Walsingham paid agents in gold and silver; Read, Walsingham, 11, p. 320. Lodge, quoting Camden, said that Walsingham employed spies “with so great an expense that he lessened his estate by that means, and brought himself… far in debt.” Walsingham’s own will confessed to the “greatness of my debts”; Lodge, Portraits, 11.
8 Read, Walsingham, 1, p. 394.
9 Nicolas, Hatton, p. 179.
10 Haynes, Invisible Power, p. 48; Read, Walsingham, 11, p. 371; 111, p. 419. Walsingham’s salary was supplemented by various sources, such as the farm of the customs, in which — in return for a lease paid to the Queen — he was allowed the income from customs duties levied at ports in western and northern England. Despite this, Walsingham’s finances were poor. He died, bankrupt, in 1590.
11 Nichols, The Progresses, in, p. 28.
12 For a description of events relating to Sidney, see Lloyd, Worthies, p. 501; Naunton, Fragmenta Regalia (1810), pp. 135-6; Lodge, Portraits, 11, pp. 5-12.
13 Nicolas, Hatton, p. 211. A large part of Sidney’s fortune was apparently sunk into a failed project to establish a base in America from which to attack Spain (see Chapter 15, n. 83). From the Netherlands, Sidney wrote a cryptic letter to his father-in-law, noting that Walsingham seemed troubled and “full of discomfort which I see … you daily meet with at home,” acknowledging that “my part of the trouble is something that troubles you”; Lodge, Portraits, p. 9.
14 Read, Walsingham, 111, p. 168.
15 November 2, 1586, State Papers Domestic, Elizabeth, cxcv, 1; Read, Walsingham, in, p. 167.
16 Bruce, Correspondence of Robert Dudley, p. 457. For a description of Sidney’s extremely elaborate funeral, see Nichols, The Progresses, 11, pp. 484-5.
17 Letter of Dr. William Gifford, Lansdowne Mss. 96, f. 69.
18 Ibid.
19 December 6, 1586, State Papers Domestic, Elizabeth, cxcv, 64.
20 Edwards, Raleigh, 1, p. 70
21 Ibid., p. 71.
22 Ibid., p. 70-1.
23 Virginia doubled England’s dominion. Walsingham, meanwhile, slid into bankruptcy. He died in 1590 “at his house in Seething Lane, so poor, it is said, that his friends were obliged to bury him late at night, in the most private manner, in St. Paul’s Cathedral”; Nichols, The Progresses, 111, p. 28.
18 THE GAME
1 Raleigh, The History of the World, preface.
2 For Rastell and the sabotage of his voyage, see Reed, “John Rastell’s Voyage”; Records of the Court of Requests, 3/192; Williamson, The Voyages of the Cabots, pp. 85-8, 244-8; Quinn, England and the Discovery of America, pp. 164-7.
3 The Earl of Surrey was Lord Thomas Howard. Henry VIII was, of course, Queen Elizabeth’s father.
4 Reed, “John Rastell’s Voyage,” pp. 143, 145; for Rastell’s condemnation by historians, see Quinn, England and the Discovery of America, p. 166. Quinn labels White “amateurish” and “weak,” whose portrayal of Fernandez as a “sabotaging villain” is “somewhat hard to accept”; Raleigh and the British Empire, pp. 73, no; Set Fair, p. 276. White’s suspicion of Fernandez — an Assistant — is an example of his “paranoia.” Regarding Fernandez: “The strangest thing is that he should have involved himself so deeply in the enterprise, become one of the Assistants … and so had, one would imagine, every incentive to keep the colony on the track that had been agreed upon”; Quinn, Set Fair, pp. 277, 282. Yet the Rastell episode demonstrates that Fernandez’s intimate position within the company was perfect for sabotage.
5 Records of the Court of Requests, 3/192; Reed, “John RastelPs Voyage,” p. 143.
6 Bacon, “Of Cunning,” Essays (1887), p. 225. Walsingham himself was an investor and Assistant in the Muscovy Company since 1569, which would imply interest in its welfare. Yet it was rumored that both he and Sir Jerome Horsey were involved in a private trade deal to Russia in violation of the Muscovy Company’s monopoly; Read, Walsingham, 111, p. 371. For an example of Walsingham employing delaying tactics — in this case, with the French ambassador to Scotland — see ibid., 11, p. 183.
7 Rowse, Grenville, pp. 89-110; Williamson, Age of Drake, p. 170. According to Rowse, Walsingham was Drake’s protector and friend; Expansion, p. 285.
8 For Gilbert’s patent, see Chapter 14, n. 3.
9 Read, Walsingham, 11, pp. 51, 81-2; Rowse, Grenville, p. 158; Taylor, Troublesome Voyage, pp. xxviii-xxix. Drake’s project may have been behind the 1581 Privy Council order for Gilbert to surrender his North American patent. The order, however, was later rescinded; Acts of the Privy Council, 1581-2, p. 240.
10 Quinn, Gilbert, 1, p. 73; 11, pp. 255-6.
11 Ibid., pp. 74-6; 11, pp. 278-9. Investors’ fears may have been the reason why Gilbert’s departure plans for July 1582 suddenly collapsed for that year; ibid., 1, pp. 62, 75; 11, pp. 364-5. Peckham, in association with Sir Philip Sidney (Walsingham’s son-in-law), is the only Catholic investor who appears to have maintained interest in North America despite Spanish threats. His True Report of the Late Discoveries, dedicated to Walsingham, was published in November 1583.
12 Taylor, Two Richard Hakluyts, 1, pp. 26-7.
13 For the suggestion to relinquish Gilbert’s patent, see Quinn, Gilbert, 1, p. 82; 11, pp. 339-41; “especially seeing I have …” Gilbert to Walsingham, February 7, 1583, S
tate Papers Domestic, Elizabeth, clviii, 59; for Gilbert selling his own estate, Quinn, Gilbert, 1, p. 26. 1583 was the second time Gilbert’s patent was almost taken from him: in 1581, he was ordered to turn it in after the Privy Council was tipped off that he was using his privileges to export food to Europe. Significantly, he was also ordered to give Walsingham the names of his associates; ibid., 11, p. 242. Gilbert exonerated himself, and the patent was kept.
14 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1600), m, p. 182. That this was preposterously short notice for the Bristol ships to prepare is a point made by Quinn in Gilbert, 1, p. 76.
15 Hakluyt, Princip all Navigations (1600), in, p. 182.
16 Lansdowne Mss. 37, no. 72; Taylor, Two Richard Hakluyts, 1, pp. 26-7.
17 Brown, Genesis, 1, p. 12. Quinn noted that Carleill’s proposed colony, largely financed by the Muscovy Company, who insisted on a royal patent of their own, could not have been granted while Gilbert’s patent was active and that both Walsingham and Carleill appeared to be double-crossing Gilbert; Gilbert, i, pp. 78-9, 81.
18 For Hakluyt, see Taylor, Two Richard Hakluyts, 1, p. 27. Dee, claiming enemies at Court, fled to Cracow; Deacon, John Dee, pp. 184-7; “a dream of being naked” and his dream of Walsingham, see Fell-Smith, John Dee, p. 64.
19 See Chapter 15, n. 26.
20 Fell-Smith, John Dee, pp. 107-9.
21 Quinn, Gilbert, 1, p. 94; 11, pp. 438-9.
22 For Raleigh’s patent, see Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), pp. 725-8; “levelled your line …” Holinshed, Chronicles, 11 (1587), sig. A33-3V. In 1584 merchant adventurers violated Raleigh’s license to export cloth. When the Queen arrested their ships, Walsingham defended them, accusing the Queen of damaging the trade to the ruin of the company; State Papers Domestic, Elizabeth, clxxi, 35.
23 Read, Walsingham, 111, p. 102.
24 Andrews, Elizabethan Privateering, p. 92.
25 “will stomach …” Lemnius, Touchstone (1865), p. 80; “cherish a plot…” Lodge, Portraits, 11, p. 26.
26 While Walsingham’s fortune plummets, Raleigh’s successes in 1586 mount. He is granted eighty thousand acres of land in Munster, more than six times the usual allotment, along with Lismore Castle and the College of Youghal. His prosperity continues into the next year: he is awarded Babington’s estates; made Captain of the Queen’s Guard — regarded as a stepping stone to higher public office; and John White’s colony departs for the Chesapeake Bay, a move predicted to make Raleigh both powerful and tremendously rich.
27 Calendar of State Papers, Spain, 1587-1603, 23, p. 24; Read, Walsingham, in, p. 231.
28 Ibid., pp. 166, 172-3.
29 Lodge, Portraits, 11, pp. 52-9. The marriage is assumed to have occurred in 1591, since April of that year saw the birth of the couple’s first child. However, a letter written by William Gifford to a friend in the spring of 1587 dates the marriage to sometime before May 1587. If so, it was kept secret from Queen Elizabeth for four years, until the pregnancy made concealment impossible; Read, Walsingham, ill, p. 170.
30 Walsingham, “A Memorial for Needham,” Harleian Ms. 1582, f. 53. Naun-ton stated that Essex was introduced to Court by Leicester, Fragmenta Regalia (1810), p. 146. Lodge, following Naunton {Portraits, 11, p. 53), dated the event to 1584 as Leicester’s means of lessening public suspicion that he poisoned Essex’s father. Yet, he added, “it has been said that Essex was inclined to reject his proffered friendship.” However this may be, it is evident that the agent responsible for promoting Essex’s interests at Court was not Leicester, but Walsingham. In September 1587 Herllie adroitly informed Leicester, who was away in the Netherlands, that Raleigh was jealous of Essex, who was effecting “good offices” at Court on Leicester’s behalf; Cotton Ms., Galba Dii, f. 27. Walsingham must have smiled when he noted that Raleigh thought Essex had been “brought in as he supposed” by Leicester. It was at this time, in 1587, that Essex married Walsingham’s only daughter.
31 Walsingham’s agent was Francis Needham, Leicester’s own secretary; Harleian Ms. 287, f. 41; “I find there is some dealing…” August 2, 1587. Cotton Mss. Galba Di, f. 230. Read, Walsingham, m, p. 250, n. 1, also believes that this reference was to Raleigh.
32 September 21, 1587. Cotton Mss. Galba Dii, f. 27.
33 Nicolas, Hatton, p. 296.
34 Calendar Rutland Papers, 1, 234.
35 Hakluyt’s dedicatory preface to Raleigh of Peter Martyr’s Decades, translated from Latin by Taylor, Two Richard Hakluyts, 11, p. 367. White, of course, threw Walsingham for a loop. His company was independent of investor interests. Willing to finance their own voyage to America, they thus preserved Raleigh’s patent.
36 Hakluyt, translated from Latin by Taylor, ibid., 11, p. 368.
37 Read (Walsingham, 111, p. 336, n. 3) notes the unusual bond forming between Walsingham and Essex, while at the same time, Walsingham “distrusted and opposed” Raleigh. In July 1587 Essex staged a scene before the Queen in which he violently slandered Raleigh. When it was over, he sent an account of the incident to a friend, eagerly requesting that it be shown to his mother and to Walsingham; Devereux, Lives and Letters, 1, p. 189. Raleigh spoke sadly of corruption in which mankind has learned to “provide for ourselves by another man’s destruction” and “to destroy those whom we fear”; History of the World, Book 11, chapter iv, pt. 6. Raleigh, said Fuller, had “many enemies”; Worthies, 1, p. 420.
38 Adamson and Folland, Shepherd of the Ocean, p. 104.
39 “the whole court doth follow” and “best-hated man …” see Chapter 14, nn.
39, 51.
40 Lloyd, Worthies, p. 515.
19 THE FALL
1 Edwards, Raleigh, 1, p. 686.
2 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), pp. 771-2.
3 From 1585 onward, England was in constant fear of attack by Spain; Rowse, Grenville, p. 245; Read, Walsingham, 11, p. 299. In June 1585 Sir George Carey informed Walsingham of reports coming into the Isle of Wight that Spain was planning an offensive against England; Corbett, Spanish War, p. 34. In December word reached Dartmouth that an Armada was preparing and 62,000 troops were gathering in Lisbon for the campaign, the first target being the Isle of Wight; ibid., p. 52. For the stay of shipping since October 9, see Acts of the Privy Council, 1587-8, p. 254.
4 Rowse, Expansion, p. 245; State Papers Domestic, Elizabeth, cc, 46, April 27, 1587. Drake sailed against Spain in April 1587, the same month that White’s colonists were allowed to leave for Roanoke. Surely the crisis was vastly more acute then! Could there really have been greater danger in October with the Spanish fleet destroyed? Furthermore, negotiations were still under way: peace overtures were initiated with Spain in November 1587, with such effect that Walsingham complained to Leicester that the Queen was lulled into a “dangerous security” and all warnings of “perils and dangers are neglected”; November 12, 1587, Cotton Mss. Galba Dii, f. 178. In December, Elizabeth commanded Walsingham and Burghley to negotiate a peace treaty with Spain on any terms; December 27, 1587, Calendar of State Papers, Spain, 1587-1603, p. 184. In April 1588 Walsingham was again instructed to make peace overtures; Read, Walsingham, 111, p. 276.
5 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), p. 772.
6 State Papers Supplementary, 9/55 (ii); Quinn, Roanoke Voyages, 11, pp. 559-60. I agree with Quinn’s suggestion that Raleigh’s instructions to John to let certain ships “steal away” referred to Gilbert’s squadron; p. 560, n. 3.
7 “seven or eight…” and for word leaking out, see Acts of the Privy Council, 1588, pp. 7-8.
8 Hakluyt, Princip all Navigations (1589), p. 772.
9 Ibid., p. 772; “Ancient prophecies …” Van Meteren, Miraculous Victory (1600), 1, p. 412; for the earthquake and the Glastonbury Abbey tablets, see Deacon, John Dee, pp. 242-3. The book refuting the prophecies was Tymme’s A Preparation Against the Prognosticated Dangers of 1588. Deacon {John Dee, p. 243) suggests that Dee himself may have been spreading rumors of disaster as part of a counterespionage plan.
&n
bsp; 10 Acts of the Privy Council, 1588, p. 8. It was Walsingham’s job to prepare the business agenda for Privy Council discussions and report back to the Queen; Read, Walsingham, 11, pp. 267-8, n. 4, p. 300.
11 Watts got two ships out in April, the Drake and the Examiner. These sailed in company with two other ships. One of these, the Chance, was probably Sir George Carey’s vessel; Andrews, Elizabethan Privateering, p. 194; Quinn, Roanoke Voyages, 11, p. 556. These may or may not have been the four ships Spaniards sighted in the West Indies in July; Wright, Further English Voyages, doc. 63, p. 235. Raleigh’s brother, Sir John Gilbert, also got a ship out, though he was in trouble for it from the Privy Council; Rowse, Grenville, p. 258. Other vessels may have left as well — the Black Dog certainly did; Quinn, Roanoke Voyages, 11, p. 557.
12 “straightly charged …” Acts of the Privy Council, 1588, p. 8; “their Lordships …” ibid., p. 27.
13 Ibid., p. 27.
14 Hakluyt, Princip all Navigations (1589), p. 772.
15 Acts of the Privy Council, 1588, p. 27.
16 Rowse, Grenville, p. 264.
17 Hakluyt, Princip all Navigations (1589), p. 772. The following account of the Brave, along with all the quotes contained therein, is found in White’s account in Hakluyt, pp. 771-3. White’s subsequent bitterness toward the crew of the Brave was owing to the ship’s having chased vessels during the entire voyage out, with the intention of making a privateering attack. Their consort, the Roe, became permanently separated from them giving chase to a foreign ship.
18 Camden, The History (1688), p. 404; for the Mendicant monks, see Sams, Conquest of Virginia, p. 276.
