January 2 George Villiers Earl of Buckingham, being handed letters patent with no investiture, is (beyond the expectations of all men) created Marquess of Buckingham, for himself and the heirs masculine of his body, with the Keeper of the Seal, the Treasurer, the Duke of Lennox, Marquess Hamilton, the Chamberlain, the Earls of Arundel and Montgomery, and Vicounts de l’Isle, Wallingford, Fenton and others present as witnesses.
2 Walter Ralegh seized the town of St. Thomas, and his son was killed there.
3 George Earl [sic] of Buckingham entertained the King and the Peers with a most elegant banquet.
4 The Keeper of the Seal becomes the Chancellor of England, with the Seal surrendered in the Chancellor’s name.
On the same day the Muscovite Ambassador is given a banquet at the King’s resident.
6. On the Day of Epiphany a dramatic performance is put on by the Prince for the King, attended by the Spanish Ambassador, to the indignation of the French Ambassador.
8 Departing Westminster, the King appoints Robert Naunton, Master of Requests and Surveyor of the Court of Wards, the second of his Principal Secretaries.
10 Bailiff, who deserted Ralegh, is committed to close custody.
11 In his [Naunton’s] place Hugh May is substituted as Master of the Court of Wards, and Ralph Freeman as Master of Requests, and a little later Sidney Montagu and Lionel Cranfield, so that now the are four officials.
19 Louis Conquest, younger son of Conquest, appointed executor in his testament, and his elder brother are haled before Delegates acting on behalf of the Earl Marshal, that they prepared all the funeral hangings for their father’s burial without consulting the Geralds, and hung them in the church. The delegates decided that they should pay ten crowns (?) to the College of Heralds, defray the cost of York Herald’s journey, and pay two pounds to Clerencieux King of Arms..
Quarrel between the Chief Justice of the Royal Bench and Anthony Benn, Recorder of London.
Thomas Edmonds becomes Treasurer of the Household upon Baron Wotton’s resignation, Henry Clay the Comptroller, and Henry Mildmay, younger son of Humphrey Mildmay, Master of the Revels.
27 Sir John Dacomb, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, died, whose daughter married Thomas Smith, or Neville, son and heir of Sir Thomas Neville of Holt in the County of Leicester.
He was Chancellor from the month of May, 1616, when Thomas Parry died.
31 Simon Digby returns from Spain with letters.
Peter Ally, sent back by Ralegh, reported he is in poor health, and that a number of volunteers have perished of disease.
Francis Blundell is made Master of Requests for Ireland, upon the resignation of Humphrey May, and afterwards knighted. He was a servant of Secretary Ralph Winwood, and born in Buckinghamshire.
February I Henry Carey was made Comptroller of the Royal Household, and Thomas Edmonds Treasurer in place of Baron Wotton.
The sun did not shine on the Feast of Mary’s Purification. See if a greater freeze is not to come according to rustics’ observations and the rhyme.
6 Baron von Winninburg, Ambassador of the Palatine Elector, paid a call on the Queen, and invited her, together with Prince Charles and the other royal children to make her pledge in connection with the baptism of his newborn little son.
8 Edward Talbot, eighth Earl of Shropshire of that family, died without issue, and on the tenth day was buried at night at Westminster.
14 The King arrives at Westminster.
Francis Leigh, son of Francis Leigh, Knight of the Bath, by Mary, daughter of Thomas Egerton, Chancellor of England, wed, daughter of John Butler by Villery, sister of the Marquess of Buckingham and widow of Francis Anderson, second son of Edmund Anderson, Chief Justice of the Common Bench.
The King was peeved at Secretary Thomas Lake because of Lady Roos’ slanders against the Countess of Essex.
20 William Monson’s son, a handsome lad who, being bribed, courted the King’s favor, was ordered in the King’s name by the Chamberlain, since he was son of such a father, a Papist, and brought up in the court of the Archduke Albert, not to foist himself on the King any further, and not to come to Court.
22 Lady Roos is committed to the Bishop of London’s custody, her maid to Doubleday, and Thomas Lake’s attorney and Luke Hutton were imprisoned.
Trinity Island near Greenland is conceded to the citizens of Hull for fishing, in despite of the Muscovy Company.
The King suffers from a flux in the knee, and is not able to attend sermons.
28 Viscount Haddington’s little son, is buried at night at Westminster.
Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Spenser, married first to George Baron Hunsdon, and then to Baron Ever, President of Wales, died at this time, and was buried at night at Westminster next to her first husband.
At this time three Barons were created in Ireland, Theobald de Burgo Baron of Bretta, Oliver Lambart Baron of Cavan, and Monjoy Blount, bastard of Charles, Earl of Devonshire, Baron of Fort Montjoy.
March 1 Sir Henry Peyton, whose mother was a daughter of John Bourchier Earl of Bath and father the customs officer of Plymouth, brought up by George Bourchier in the Irish wars, who had married Mary Rogers, daughter of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, with King’s permission enlisted soldiers to support the Venetians against Ferdinand, King-elect of Bohemia.
2 Robert Abbot, Bishop of Salisbury and brother of the Archbishop of Centerbury, died after occupying the See for two years and three months. In his place was elected Martin Fotherby, Prebend of Canterbury.
4 Sir George Sandys was hanged for a felony.
5 The Spaniard Juan Luis, a monk of the Cictercian order, an impious blasphemer, having thrice been duly warned, was handed over to the secular arm in Zamoria on the river Duero.
Baily is freed.
Lady Roos is freed from the Bishop of London’s custody.
6 The house of the Court of Stannary at Clegford collapsed, crushing Everly the Seneschal, Cottle, and others.
9 Humphrey May is appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and in his place Benjamin Ruddier is substituted as Master of the Court of Wards.
13 John Jegon, Bishop of Norwich, dies after occuping the See for fifteen years. He is succeeded by Overhall, Bishop of Lechfield, whose place is taken by Fenton, Bishop of Bristol.
16 The King departed for Oakham, having been laid up for fourteen days with the gout.
John Bridges, Bishop of Oxford, dies.
Many discussions about reducing the King’s domestic expenses.
There died:
Samuel Lennard
Baron Morley
Robert Darcy, Usher of the Prince’s Bedchamber; in his place is substituted
John North
April 8 A foot race is run between two foot soldiers, with the King present and a great throng coming together, though the weather is foul. By this crowd John Hubbard, son of the Chief Justice of the Bench of Common Pleas, who had married the daughter of Viscount de l’Isle, was gravely trampled.
Frequent hailstorms unto the 13th.
Marrais the French Ambassador said his farewell to the King.
22 The trees began to put forth leaves.
Ships hired by the Venetians left port.
23 Nobody was elected to the Order of the Garter on St. George’s Day, because no place was vacant.
The Archbishop of Spalato is made Master of the Savoy, Balancquell the Scotsman resigning.
25 A rumor (but an empty one) circulates about the return of John Digby from Spain.
May 3 Anthony Maxey, Dean of Windsor, dies. The Archbishop of Spalato is substituted in his place.
Francis Ashley was made Sergeant at Law.
7 John Digby, come back from Spain, returns to Court.
Baron Delaware sails to Virgina. Put in at S. Michaels, he is lavishly entertained by the governor, but setting sail from there, he dies with thirty others, not without suspicion of poison.
9 The King pays a call on the Queen, who is staying at Greenwich.
11 The question of Racline’s suit (?) against Randall MacDonell is discussed.
13 The Earl of Pembroke is taken off by a tertian ague.
John North, Baron North’s brother, announced bad news to the King about the unhappy expedition of Walter Ralegh to Guiana, with his son killed in an assault upon a Spanish fortification, Keim dead by cutting his own throat out of grief, and the fleet scattered.
23 Sir Robert Digby, brother of John the Vice-Chamberlain, died at Essex House.
On the same day Secretary Thomas Lake, because he suggested to the Countess of Suffolk that she retire from the city when the King was angry at her, thanks to the urgings of his enemies was ordered to confine himself to his house.
Oliver Lambart, Baron of Cavan, died.
24 By proclamation the King grants permission to everyone everyone (as previously has been permitted in the County of Lancaster) who has attended evensong on Sonday, that after their prayers they may entertain themselves in honest relaxations, dancing, bowls, archery, and likewise raising poles in May, indulging in May games and Morris dances. But those who have shall have refused to attend prayers are admonished to refrain from these entertainments.
30 Dudley Carleton, Ambassador to the United Provinces, returned to England.
31 On Trinity Sunday the Lord Mayor of London paid his customary visit to the King at Greenwich. The King admonished him about maintaining the channel of the river Thames, about the aqueduct at Middleton, about intinerent vagrants, and about the insolence of the London carters.
On the same day Dudley Diggs, Ambassador to Russia, bade farewell to the King as he was about to depart. I do not know if he was removed under a show of honor, since because of the King’s anger against Lake many men are grasping at the Secretary’s post.
June 5 The Countess of Shrewsbury, widow of Gilbert, a woman born for troublemaking, said that Arabella [Stuart] had borne a son to William Seymour, and that he was being brought up in Belgium at his [her?] expense. She is committed to the custody of the Bishop of London.
6 Weather most chilly and hail.
8 She [the Countess of Shrewsbury], disdaining to respond to the Privy Councellors about this matter, is clapped in the Tower of London.
9 An proclamation against Walter Raleigh is published, in which he is rebuked for having violated his authority, entrusted him with a caution, by invading the Spanish King’s territory in America in a hostile manner, and for having done his best to violate the peace confirmed between the two sovereigns. The King disapproves of and disowns these things, and hence grants to one and all the power to make public what they know about this act, and that this man be dealt with according to the law, and they who are convicted of such a great crime be visited with exemplary punishment.
19 The minister Thrask, who converted to Judaism, is condemned in the Star Chamber, defrocked, placed in the stocks, has his ears cropped, and is given a whiping.
24 The Marquess of Buckingham, Baron Hay, and the Countess of Dorset are godparents for John Packer’s daighter at her baptism in Westminster Church.
25 Thomas Watson lavishly entertains the King, and is honored with a knighthood.
The Countess of Shrewsbury is fined £20,000 for contempt in failing to answer, and is imprisoned at the King’s pleasure.
26 The Marquess of Buckingham most lavishly entertains the King at his manor of Wansted, which he is reported to have given to the King at this time.
27 William Baron Roos died in the suburbs of Naples, in the Roman faith.
30 The King departed Greenwich.
Randall MacSurley returned to Ireland to be created Viscount of Dunluce.
July *** The King amuses himself at Winsor by hunting.
He returned to Westminster, and the following day to Wansted.
7 Foul rain until noon.
10 At Chesilhurst, at his baptism the son of the younger Thomas Walsingham has for his godparents the Duke of Lennox, the Marquess of Buckingham, and the younger Countess of Derby, and is named Thomas.
12 The Treasurer is accused of fiscal maladministration.
The Chancellor is created Baron of Verulam, with investiture, and new Earls are created by patents, de l’Isle the Earl of Leicester, Compton the Earl of Northampton, Rich the Earl of Clare, and Cavendish the Earl of Devonshire.
At London people are rioting against the Spanish Ambassador, since a little boy was accidentally injured by the Spaniard while he was riding.
16 Didaco Sarmiento, Count Gondomar, the Spanish King’s Ambassador, has departed, entertained en route by Baron Teinham and Wotton. He set sail (with Priests released from prison at his request) on the 20th.
St. Swithin’s day is clear, and the following days rainy.
Humpreys, secretary to Viscount Wallingford, is placed in custody, his archives examined. He is accusing the Treasurer and others of extortion.
Sir Edward Carey died.
18 The Queen departed Greenwich.
The King came to London from Theobalds.
That wealthy man William Craven died.
19 The Earl of Suffolk, the Treasurer of England, is removed from office, his staff taken away, having been accused of extortion, after he occupied this office for four years and ten days, and his assistant John Bingley is imprisoned.
20 James Montagu, Bishop of Winchester, died at Greenwich of dropsy, having occupied the See for two years, in the fiftieth year of his life.
The King has now left Westminster on his progress, when he had appointed the Bishop of Ely to Winchester, Fenton of Coventry to Ely, Harsnett of Chester to Coventry, and Dominus Bridgeman to Chester.
Baron Hay is created Viscount of Doncaster without investiture.
23 The Earl of Suffolk left London with his wife, most of their servants dismissed.
27 News is reported of the death of Baron Roos at Naples, not without suspicion of poison; of Utrecht occupied by Maurice, Prince of Orange; of Colonel Ogle (a supporter of the Arminians) ejected, with Horatio Vere substituted in his place; of the Frenchman Boississe sent to Holland to encourage the partisans of the Arminians and Catholics; and of our Dudley Carleton being sent back to Holland to the synod to be convened there. Mayerne the Royal Physician, lately sent to France by the King of England, was suspected of having come to create disturbances, and was ordered by the Councellors of France to depart the kingdom. He is a son of that Maiern who publicly attacked monarchs.
August 2 Viscount de l’Isle is invested as Earl of Leicester, and Baron Compton as the Earl of Northampton in a solemn ritual at Salisbury in the Bishop’s palace. Baron Rich, who affected the title of the Earl of Clare, becomes Earl of Warwick by letters patent (because the title of Clare, which is the same as Clarence, is a loftier honor than a rather new family should aspire to, and the honor of Clare was previously conceded to the Queen), and Baron Cavendish becomes Earl of Devonshire with no investiture. An proclamation about carriages, buildings erected hard by the city, and pedlars.
Likewise Mary de Belmont, mother of the Marquess of Buckingham, the wife of Thomas Compton, becomes Countess of Buckingham by patents, after the example of Margaret Countess of Norfolk, with her nephew Thomas Brotherton and his wife Elizabeth, brother of John Segrave, who was made Duke of Norfolk in the 21st year of Richard II; she herself was created Duchess of Norfolk for her lifetime, in Parliament, by imposition of the cap of honor. She however was of royal blood, namely the daughter of Thomas Brotherton, brother of King Edward I and the Count of Norfolk and Marshall of England. Hence a silly question has arisen, whether she should not have a place in Parliament.
8 I met Christopher de Neux, commended to me by Puteanus and Peirescius.
9 When Walter Ralegh was brought to London, he bribed his guardian Lewis Stukeley, and attempted flight with him. And, betrayed by I know not whom, he was intercepted on the Thames, fetched back, and clapped in the Tower.
Filmer, son of Sir Edward Filmer, marries the daughter of Martin Heton, Bishop of Ely.
11 The King departed to Cranborne.
At this time a ship returned from Greenland, which the Dutchmen call Spitzberg because of its sharp mountain peaks, and reported that the Dutchmen are oppressing the English and have killed no small number and stolen their oil. Which particularly vexes the Londoners because they had sent out eighteen ships for the whaling, and even more because a rumor is circulating that these same people have already been oppressing Englishmen in the East Indies.
For some time the English and the Dutch have been disputing about sailing-rights to Spitzbergen, and also the French and those who live in the north of Spain, these urging that according to international law the ocean is free. The English and the Danes claim ownership. The English, because the Englishman Willoughby was the first to discover it, in the year 1552, and the Danes because the English acknowledge that it is under their jurisdiction and pay tarriff on their fishing (though they have done this only since Elizabeth’s death). The Dutchmen claim that William Bernardi and Jan Cornelius first discovered it in the year 1596, and that the Greenland which had previously been found is far removed: this one is at latitude 52 degrees, that one extends from the 75th to the 82nd degrees, and that the English had not been brought there prior to 1608. They insiste the ocean is free, and that the English forbid others to fish contrary to international law and the laws of humanity, although the French Kings do not prevent fishing off New France, nor do the English Kings in Irish waters, and they complain that in 1612 the English overturned the monument which William Bernardi had established to commemorate his first discover, and in the preceding year had stolen their oil by force of arms.
12 Those who had rioted at the house of the Spanish Ambassador were called for questioning at Westminister City Hall in the presence of the Lord Mayor and certain delegates appointed to hear charges and determine penalties. Out of these the father of the injured boy and others were finded thousand poinds, and imprisoned at the King’s will.
Walter Raleigh, examined about his flight, confessed that for the first time he had erred against the King in contemplating this flight.
Because of this man’s daft plan for invading Guiana and the Londoners’ riot against the Spanish Ambassador’s house, not a few men thought that the hope of a marriage [for Prince Charles] with the Spanish King’s daughter had been quite weakened. For he had not made the proposal for marrying his children into France and Spanish for any other reason than, by creating family alliances, to sever these kingdoms from the United Providences and reduce them more happily to his command.
The Chancellor and other Privy Councellors often met and examined Walter Ralegh.
27 Eadge returned from Greenland or Spitzberg robbed of his oil and having had three of his men killed by the Dutchman, with the result that this year whaling had proven fruitless for the English.
In prison the Princess Condée gave birth to twins in prison, who soon died.
John Roper Baron Teynham of Teynham died, his son and heir Christopher left behind, whom he had fathered with the daughter of Parker.
Edward Baron Beauchamp died.
Cardinal Perron died of the stone, and warlike la Noue of the same disease.
Francis Mills, Clerk of the Privy Seal died at age 83, as did his colleague Allington, age 81.
On September 1 it did not rain, see if autumn will be drier.
September *** Two rich ships, the Charles and the Hope, returned from East India.
Rumor reports Baron Delaware to have died.
The King arrived at Windsor, and thence through Westminster into Essex to Wansted.
The Queen is doing poorly at Oatlands.
Baron St. John of Bletsoe died.
10 An proclamation in which the fines and incarceration inflicted on the rioters at the house of the Spanish Ambassador at the Barbican are remitted at the request of the Spanish Agent.
Anne, daughter of John Spenser, the Countess of Dorset (the widow of Robert Sackville Earl of Dorset), who had previously been married to Henry Baron Compton, died. She left Henry, a son and heir by Henry Baron Compton.
17. The King hunts at Havering, and thence to Theobalds.
The King came to Hampton Court, where he celebrates St. Michael’s Day.
Sir Thomas Vavasour, the Marshall, yielded his office to Edward Zouch, in exchange for Clerck, acting for the King of France in England, is ordered not to come to Court.
William Becher, acting for our King in France, is ordered to keep himself in his house.
October *** Gervase Baron Clifton died by his own hand.
13 I returned from Chesilhurst.
17 A messenger or chauz arrives at London from the Turkish Sultan.
Donato, spokesman for the Venetian Republic, arrives in England.
On the same day George Carleton, Bishop-elect of Llandaff, Hall, Dean of Worchester, Davenant, Master of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and Ward, President of Sidney Sussex College, depart London for the national council to be held at Dordrecht about the Arminian sect.
Ships are arrested.
The Earl of Oxford returns home from Italy.
Clerc, agent for the French King, depared London.
24 Walter Raleigh is informed by the Privy Councellors that the King has decided he is to be punished by death, and so should prepare himself for death.
28 He is brought to the King’s Bench, so he might say if he has any reason why the sentence of death brought against him in the year 1603 should not mandated for execution.
29 David de Noilon, Lord de Chesne, who had acted to free Ralegh, departed this life with him.
He is beheaded at age 66.
31 The King returned to Westminster in the evening, but did not attend Evensong.
November 1 He celebrated the Feast of All Saints, attended prayers, and received Communion.
He receives Donato, the Ambassador of the Venetian Republic.
3 The Turkish chanz paid a call on the King.
Richard Martin, elected Recorder of London after St. Michael’s Day, died.
4 The King visited the Queen, dropsical and in ill health, at Hampton Court, and returned to Westminster in the evening.
5 He celebrates the anniversary of the divine protection against the Plotters’ attempt to destroy King and kingdom by gunpowder.
8. Consultations about the corruptions of the recent Treasurer and others.
10 The King quit London for Theobalds.
Heath is made Recorder of London (since Richard Martin, elected after St. Michael’s Day, is dead).
Robinson, who forged the Great Seal, is executed.
14 William Becher, agent in France, was recalled, returned to London, and quickly went to the King.
18 A comet under the extreme part of Libra was visible to me.
False rumor of the Queen’s death.
21 The comet, climbing towards the north, was visible to me. At six in the morning it formed a triangle with Arcturus, Spica in Virgo, as it seems, in the 20th degree of Scorpio and fifteen degrees north.
Thomas Smith, son of the Governor of the East India Society, married the illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Devonshire without her father’s consent.
John Digby, Vice-chamberlain, is made Baron of Sherborne without investiture.
26 A son is born to Viscount Doncaster by the daughter of the Earl of Northumberland, and baptized privately. The godparents are the Earl of Leicester, the Scotsman George Hay, and Montjoy’s illegitimate daughter Isabella. It died after a few days.
Books written against Walter Ralegh appear.
Delegates from the United Provinces of Holland arrive at London.
Samuel Argall, the Governor of the Virginia Company, is accused of embezzlement, extortion, troublemaking, and maladministration of the colony, and of displaying the flag of Savoy against the Spaniards. Yardley is substituted in his place.
29 A petition of Lewis Stukeley appears concerning Ralegh’s slanders against him, and afterwards the King’s pronouncement about this matter.
December 2 Funeral of Richard Wiseman.
3 The comet seems to have disappeared, it was not seen by me when I scanned the sky, but was visible to others.
6 Viscountess Haddington, the wife of John Ramsay Viscount of Haddington and daughter of Robert Earl of Sussex, died at Westminster of the smallpox, by which a number of people have perished.
7 The comet was visible to me at six inthe morning, quite faded, next to Bootes’ left shoulder, at the latitude of 40 degrees above the Equator, so that now it is at the height of Virginia, Toledo, the Kingdom of Naples, etc.
On the same day the delegates from the United Provinces made their way to Newmarket, where the King is staying.
11 I saw the comet at six in the morning in Bootes’ left arm, about ten degrees from the final star in Ursa Major’s tale, in approximately the first degree of Scorpio and 45 degrees from the vertical at London, as Bainbridge observes.
21 The King comes to London.
Francis Leigh, son of Francis Leigh of Newnham, is made a knight and Baronet.
22 [The King] attended a sermoin, and I heard him discussing theology learnedly at dinner. There was consultation about the Ambassadors of the United Provinces, who had plenipotentiary power for dealing about fishing rights, but none for concluding a treaty.
He visited the invalid Queen at Hampton Court, and returned after dinner.
He caused Seldon trouble about the history of tithes.
27 Baron von Donau, Ambassador from the confederated German princes, was given audience, and told the King much about German affairs and the disturbances in Bohemia.
Balcanqual is sent to the national synod on behalf of the Scots Church, and Goad in place of the Dean of Worchester.
31 The Ambassadors of the United Provinces are given an audience. They request that nothing be done yet about the taking of herring, since this is the chief support of their nation, and the single relief of their people, and now things are most tumultous in their country.
Wita, wife of Baron Effingham, died.
The Lord Mayor of London had a private audience with the King.