January. Henry Earl of Kent died intestate. His brother Charles Grey succeeded him, a man of failing years. He was buried Mary 14.
February. Intense cold and abundant snow, especially on the 12th and 14th, nor did the ice melt before the 26th.
25 Sir Arthur Ingram sworn into the office of Treasurer of the Royal Household after the resignation of Sir Robert Vernon, though the Court officials grumbled.
Rudd, Bishop of Meath died. Dominus Melbourne, Dean of Rochester, succeeded him.
7 The King visited the University of Cambridge, where acadmic degrees have been prostituted by the admission of unlearned men.
13 Elizabeth’s Annales have begon to be printed.
25 Baroness St. John of Bletsoe buried at Westminster in the evening.
April. Proclamations barring the exportation of gold and silver, the sending of boys to seminars, and about the conservation of deer.
24 Viscount Fenton and William Baron Knollys admitted to the Order of the Garter.
Priests deported at Wisbech.
George Villiers appointed a Gentleman of the King’s Bedchamber and knighted.
25 The Queen betook herself to Greenwich.
Oliver St. John fined £5000 in the Star Chamber.
Cotton, Bishop of Salisbury, and Neville, Dean of Canterbury, died.
May 17 Owens, from that family of Godstow in the County of Oxfordshire, was condemned for treason, because of his opinion that princes excommunicated by the Pope could legitimately be killed.
Thomas Parry, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster died. John Dacombe succeeded him.
June 8 The Annales are published.
Charles Cornwall, Lord Sharpe, and John Hoskins freed from the Tower.
14 Oliver St. John made his submission in the Star Chamber.
29 James Hay, upon whom the King conferred the name and title of Lord Hay, so that he would be next in rank to the Barons of England (though without place and vote in the English Parliament), and this at the suggestion of Henry Earl of Northampton, now, by the handing over of letters patent under the great seal of England in the presence of witnesses in the private chamber of Grenwich at nine o’ clock at night, without any outward show of ceremony, is elevated to the state, rank, and dignity and honor of Baron Hay of Sawley in the County of York, for him and the heirs masculine of his body. And the legalists advised that the manner of creating a Baron without investiture and the other ceremonies is sufficient, while the letters patents are themselves the essence of the creation.
30 On the following day Sir Robert Dormer of Wing is formally created Baron Dormer of Wing, introduced in scarlet surplice trimmed with ermine, girt with a sword, between Barons Sheffield and Compton in their parliamentary robes, and with Baron Carew likewise clad bearing his robe before him, and Garter King of Arms carrying the letters patent and handing them to the Chamberlain. And receiving these from him, Secretary Winwood on bent knee read them and at the word we place upon you the King placed the robe on the new Baron. When the letters had been read aloud, the King handed them to Baron Dormer, who humbly gave his thanks as trumpets were blown and drums beaten. Baron Sheffield was irritated at Garter King of Arms, because he said that the collar of St. George was not to be used in this ceremony, albeit he belonged to the Order of St. George, inasmuch as on this day the other members of the Order did not wear collears. [But in the creation of the Earls of Hertford And Southampton in the ***th year of Henry VIII the Earls who participated in the induction wore collars.] The style of the Baron was not proclaimed since their was no banquet, the King removing to Westminster.
July. Henry Neville of Billingbere in the County of Berkshire died.
Jane Sibyl, widow of Arthur Baron Grey of Wilton, daughter of Richard Morison, died.
9 A question about the sword borne before the King by Lord Roos, and whether he is Baron Roos, which title the King supports, since he acknowledged him as Baron Roos in connection with his embassy to the Emperor Matthias and at other times.
10 Baron Zouche was made Warden of the Cinque Ports.
A great hostility is brewing up at Court against the Earl of Somerset.
Dominus Milborn is consecrated Bishop of Meith.
21 The King begins his progress.
Arthur Ingram has been ejected from the office of the Treasurer.
A great drought everywhere through the entire preceding month, and even until the 30th day of this one.
31 A quite rainy day.
August. Marquis Bonnivet arrives in England.
George Lloyd, Bishop of Chester, died. Likewise Robinson Bishop of Carlysle is gravely ill.
21 Arthur Agard, a scribe under the Chancellor of the Exchequer and distinguished antiquarian, died and was buried in the Westminster close.
Thomas Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, is added to the Privy Council at Farnham Castle.
September. Inquest on the death of Sir Thomas Overbury, who died in the Tower of London in 1613, not without suspicion of poisoning.
Sampson Lennard, the father of Henry Baron Dacre, died.
27 Arabella Stuart, daughter of Charles Earl of Lennox, the full brother of Henry Darnley, King James’ father, died in the Tower of London, and was buried at night at Westminster without funeral ceremony in the same tomb in which repose Mary Queen of Scots and Prince Henry. [A dictum of Charles the Fair at Papir. Mas p. 387, Those who die in a royal prison justly go without ceremony, lest they be thought to have been wrongly imprisoned.]
On St. Michael’s Day the King departed Greenwich.
The Earl of Lincoln died.
Cecily Countess of Dorchester died.
October 8 The Earl of Somerset is committed to the custody of the Dean of Westminster.
19 Weston is brought to trial for administering poison to Thomas Overbury, and stands mute.
23 He is produced in court again on the Monday and, acknowledging his deed, is condemned.
25 He is hanged, and after his dinner Somerset is examined at York House in the presence of the Chancellor, the Duke of Lennox, Zouche, and the Chief Justice of England.
28 On Simon and Jude’s Day, he examined again by the same men.
29 Robert Cotton, Baronet, is dismissed after examination.
Lumsden, a Scotsman, is imprisoned. Likewise Thomas Monson, as party to the poisoning, and Gervase Elwes, Governor of the Tower of London, is repeatedly examined.
Edward Sackville, John Wentworth, Bannaret, and Sir John Lidcott are imprisoned, and afterwards Sir John Hollis, on account of questions placed to Weston while on the gallows.
Savery, addicted to magical follies, is imprisoned.
November 1 The Duke of Lennox was made Senechal of the Royal Household.
Thomas Howard is committed to the Fleet. His mother, the Countess of Suffolk, is confined to her chamber at home.
2 The Seal is taken from Somerset. By means of Wotton he is commanded to yield the staff, insignia of the royal Chamberlain, and to present himself before the Delegates, by whom he is committed to custody in the Tower of London, with George Moore appointed Governor of the Tower.
7 The King quits London for Royston.
9 Anne Norton, widow of Turner, Doctor of Medicine, is condemned at Westminster for poisoning and magical impieties, which accusations she denied.
10 Sir John Holles, Sir John Wentworth, Bannaret, and Lumsden the Scotsman were fined in the Star Chamber, the one for £2000 because of his judgement against Westom, insolently written to the King, them £1000 apiece because of the questions put to Weston on the gallows, a false accusation against public justice.
11 Anne Turner of Witting, persuaded by a minister of the Word, confessed each thing she had denied at the bar, and more.
At this time Edward Earl of Lincoln died.
14 Anne Turner, genuinely penitent, is hanged at Tyburne.
18 Sir Gervase Elwes, Governer of the Tower of London, is condemned, and on the following Monday, the 20th of the month, hanged by the neck hard by the Tower.
Robert Cotton surrendered to the Justice bundled letters of Overbury.
27 For the same reasons the poisoner Franklin is condemned at Westminster Hall, and hanged some days afterward.
30 Sir Thomas Monson, about to be brought to trial at London City Hall, is dismissed because of the size of the crowd of spectators.
December 3 Robert Abbot, brother of the Archbishop of Canterbury, is consecrated Bishop of Salisbury at Lambeth.
4 Thomas Monson is again brought to trial and, the accusation having been read out, is sent to the Tower of London contrary to everybody’s expectation, bound over for treason.
9 The Countess of Somerset gave birth to a daughter, baptized at St. Martins-by-Ludgate with the Christian name Anne, on the 15th of the month.
14 The Chancellor, the Duke of Lennox, and the Chief Justice of England held conversation with Somerset in the Tower. They removed his servants Comminger and Andrews and imprisoned them.
18 Baron Knollys and Baron Hay were sent to Somerset by the King.
23 The King returned to Westminster, and appointed the Earl of Pembroke Chamberlain, the staff handed over.
25 On Christmas Day the King, tortured by the gout, was unable to attend service, but heard a sermon in private and partook of the Eucharist.
29 Robert Cotton was placed in the custody of Barkham, an Alderman of London.