Ireland grew louder, and the reprehenfions from England ftronger. This greatly difgufted him, fo that he frequently folicited to be recalled, but without effect. However, notwithstanding the complaints that were made against him, and the rebukes that he received from England, he ftill continued to act upon the fame principles as before, relying upon the merit of his fervices, and the uprightnefs of his intentions. But the queen being much displeased with his conduct, he was at length recalled from his government, in 1588. Thus difgraced at court, he failed from Dublin to his caftle of Carew in Pembrokeshire, where he arrived with as fplendid a retinue as ever attended any LordDeputy out of Ireland. But he did not long enjoy the fweets of his retirement; for a charge of high treafon being preferred against him, he was taken into cuftody, and after being fome time confined in the Lord Treasurer's houfe, he was committed prifoner to the Tower of London; from whence, on the 27th of April, 1592, he was brought to his trial before a fpecial commiffion in Westminster-Hall. The grounds of the indictment against him were, " for having treated the "perfon and character of the queen contumelioufly; for relieving Po"pifh Priefts; for keeping a fecret "correfpondence with the Duke of "Parma, and Elizabeth's ene"mies; and for foftering the civil "commotions in Ireland." He 66 3 made a noble defence, but acknow ledged his indifcretion in speaking difrefpectfully of the Queen: for indeed nothing was fairly and judicially proved against him, but fome paffionate difrefpectful words against Elizabeth's perfon*, which having been reported to her, had greatly exasperated her against him. But Popham, the attorney-general, who knew that Elizabeth made it a point that he fhould be convicted, produced a fet of fcandalous, and some of them infamous, witneffes, ta prove the charge, and fupported it with all his venal eloquencet. And at last, after a long trial, the jury brought him in guilty; and he received fentence of death on the 16th of June following. It is faid, that after he was condemned, Sir John Perrot exclaimed, "God's death! will the Queen fuffer HER "BROTHER to be offered up as a "facrifice to the friskof envy my ing adverfaries?" It was thought that Elizabeth intended to have pardoned him, but he died in September following, a prifoner in the Tower. Sir John Perrot was a man of great courage, and ftrong natural parts, though not much enlightened by literature. He was in his perfon remarkably tall, well made, and of great ftrength of body. He had a majestic air, a piercing eye, and a commanding afpect. He was of a noble and generous fpirit, but proud, choleric, and imprudent, * "His mortal words were those in the Great Chamber of Dublin, when the "Queen fent him fome refpectful letters after her expoftulatory ones, with an intimation of the Spaniards' defign: Lo, now (faith he) he is ready to p-fs berfelf, for fear of the Spaniard; I am again one of her white boys." -Lloyd's State-Worthies, Vol. I. P. 397. See alfo Biograph. Brit. where it is obferved, that feveral of his fpeeches of this kind were told by his Secretary Williams, who betrayed him. + Vid. Guthrie's Hift. of England, Vol. II. P. 499. and and too much addicted to licentious amours. He was married to a fifter of the earl of Effex, by whom he had a fon, Sir Thomas Perrot, to whom the queen restored his father's eftate. Some account of Sir Robert Dudley, fon to the Earl of Leicester; from the British Biography. SIR : IR Robert Dudley was fon to the Earl of Leicester, by the Lady Douglas Sheffield, and born at Sheen, in Surry, in the year 1573. His birth was carefully concealed, in order to prevent the queen's knowledge of the earl's engagements with his mother. He was, however, confidered and treated as his lawful fon, till the earl's marriage with the countess dowager of Effex and then he was declared to be only his natural iffue by lady Douglas. Out of her hands the earl was very defirous to get him, in order to put him under the care of Sir Edward Horfey, governor of the Isle of Wight; which fome have imagined to have been done, not with any view to the child's disadvantage, whom he is faid to have always loved tenderly, but with a view of bringing him upon the ftage at fome proper time, as his natural fon by another lady. He was not, however, able to get him for fome time; but at laft effecting it, he fent him to school at Offington, in Suffex, in 1583, where he was under the care of one Owen Jones, to whom, upon a certain occafion, the earl is faid to have expreffed himself to this purpose. "Owen, thou knowest that "Robin my boy is my lawful fon; "and as I do, and have charged "thee, to keep it fecret, fo I "charge thee not to forget it; and "therefore fee thou be careful of "him." After remaining four years in this private fchool, he was removed, in 1587, to the univerfity of Oxford, and there entered of Christ-Church, by the ftile of CoMITIS FILIUS, i. e. an earl's fon. In about a year after he came to the univerfity, and when he was about the age of fifteen, his father died, leaving him, after the decease of his uncle Ambrofe, Earl of Warwick, his noble caftle of Kenelworth, and the lordships of Dənbigh and Chirk, and the bulk of his eftate, which, before he was of age, he in a good measure enjoyed, notwithstanding the enmity borne him by the countefs dowager of Leicester. He was at this time looked upon as one of the finest gentlemen in England: in his perfon tall, and well-fhaped, having a fresh and fine complexion, but red haired; learned beyond his age, more especially in the mathematics; and of parts equal, if not fuperior, to any of his family. Add to all this, that he was very expert in his exercifes, and particularly in riding the great horse, in which he was allowed to excel any man of his time. His, genius prompting him to great exploits, and having a particular turn to navigation and difcoveries, he projected a voyage into the South-feas, in hopes of acquiring the fame fame thereby, as his friend the famous Thomas Cavendifh, whofe fifter he had married. But after he had taken much pains, and spent a great deal of money, in preparations for this defign, the government would not fuffer him to proceed, looking upon it as a dangerous dangerous voyage, in which they thought it not fit to hazard the lives of the queen's fubjects. However, notwithstanding this difappointment, he fitted out a fmall fquadron for the river Oroonoque, and the coasts adjacent, of which he took the command in perfon. He failed from Southampton in November, 1594, and returned to St. Ives, in Cornwall, about the end of May, 1595, having in the course of his voyage taken and destroyed nine fail of Spanish fhips, one of which was a man of war of fix hundred tons. An account of this voyage, written by himself, is publifhed in Hakluyt's collection. In the following year he fitted out two fhips, and two pinnaces, for the South-feas, under Captain Benjamin Wood, at his own expence; and attending the earl of Effex, and the lord high admiral, in their expedition against the Spaniards, he received the honour of knighthood, for his gallant behaviour at the taking of Cadiz. In the latter end of queen Elizabeth's reign, having buried his firft wife, he mar ried Alice, the daugher of Sir Thomas Leigh. He then began to entertain hopes of reviving the honours of his family and in the beginning of the reign of king James I. he commenced a fuit in the archbishop of Canterbury's Court of Audience, with a view of proving the legitimacy of his birth; and the plague being then at London, he obtained a commiffion, directed to Dr. Zachary Babington, chancellor of the diocefe of Litchfield, to examine witnesses on that head, which was accordingly done. But no fooner had Lettice, countefs of Leicester, notice of these proceedings, than fhe procured an in formation to be filed, by Sir Edward Coke, the king's attorney-general, in the Star-chamber, against Sir Robert Dudley, Sir Thomas Leigh, Dr. Babington, and others, for a confpiracy; and, upon the petition of Lord Sidney, an order iffued out of that court for bringing in all the depofitions that had been taken by virtue of the archbishop's commiflion, fealing them up, and depofiting them in the council cheft. In order, however, to keep up fome appearance of impartiality, Sir Robert Dudley was allowed to examine witnesses, as to the proof of his legitimacy, in that court; which, when he had done in as full a manner as in fuch a cafe could be expected, a fudden order was iffued for ftopping all proceedings, and locking up the examin ations, of which no copies were to be taken, but by the king's licence. This unfair proceeding was fuch a blow to the hopes of Sir Robert Dudley, and gave him fuch disgust, that obtaining a licence to travel for three years, which was eafily granted him, he quitted the king dom; leaving behind him Alice Dudley his wife, and four daughters. He did not, however, go abroad without a female; for, as he inherited fome of the vices, as well as most of the great qualities of his ancestors, he prevailed upon a young lady, at that time efteemed one of the finest women in England, to bear him company in the habit of a page. The name of this lady was Elizabeth Southwell, and fhe was daughter to Sir Robert Southwell, of Woodrifing, in Norfolk. He was afterwards married to her, by virtue of a difpenfation from the Pope. Though Sir Robert Dudley had a licence to travel for three years, yet, under a pretence of his affuming, in foreign countries, the title of Earl of Warwick, he was in a fhort time commanded to return home; and, on his refufing to obey, his whole eftate was feized during his life, by the crown. A few years after, his right to the magnificent. caftle of Kenelworth, with the manors adjoining, were purchased, in confequence of an agreement with him, by Henry, prince of Wales, for 14,500l. of which, though much less than the value, but 300ol. was ever paid, and that to a merchant, who foon after failed. count of that great project which he formed, of draining a vast tract of morafs, between Pifa and the fea for by this he raised Livorno, or Leghorn, from a mean and pitiful place, into a large and beautiful town: and having engaged his ferene highnefs to declare it a free port, he, by his influence, drew many English merchants to fettle, and fet up houfes there. In confide:ation of his fervices, and for the fupport of his dignity, the grand duke beftowed upon him an handfome penfion; which, however, went but a little way in his expences: for he affected magnificence in all things; built a noble palace for himself and his family at Florence, and much adorned the caftle of Carbello, three miles from that capital, which the grand duke gave him for a country retreat, and where he died in September, 1639. ap The place which Sir Robert Dudley chofe for his retreat abroad, was Florence; where he was very kindly received by Cofmo II. great duke of Tuscany; and, in process of time, he was made Great Chamberlain to his ferene highness's con fort, the arch-duchefs Magdalen, of Sir Robert Dudley was not only Auftria, fifter to the emperor Feradmired by princes, but alfo by the dinand II. with whom he was a learned; among whom he held a great favourite. He discovered in very high rank, as well on account that court, thofe great abilities for of his skill in philofophy, chemistry, which he had been admired in and phyfic, as his perfect acquaintEngland. He contrived several me- ance with all the branches of the thods of improving fhipping, in- mathematics, and the means of troduced new manufactures, excited plying them for the fervice and bethe merchants to extend their fo- nefit of mankind. He wrote fevereign commerce; and, by other ral things. His principal work is, fervices of ftill greater importance," Del Arcano, del Mare, &c." obtained fo high a reputation, that, at the defire of his mistress, the arch-duchefs, the emperor, by letters patent dated at Vienna, March the 9th, 1620, created him a duke of the Holy Roman Empire. Upon this, he affumed his grandfather's title of Northumberland; and, ten years after, got himfelf enrolled by Pope Urban VIII. among the Roman nobility. Under the reign of the grand duke Ferdinand II. he became ftill more famous, on ac Firenze, 1630, 1646, in z vol. fol. This work, which is very scarce, is full of fchemes, charts, plans, and other marks of its author's mathematical learning; but is chiefly valuable for the projects contained therein, for the improvement of navigation, and the extenfion of commerce. Mr. Wood tells us, that he wrote alfo a medical treatise, intitled " Catholicon," which was well efteemed by the faculty. There There is also another piece written by him, the title of which, as it ftands in Rufhworth, runs thus; A Propofition for his Majefty's fervice, to bridle the imperti66 nency of Parliaments. After"wards queftioned in the Star"Chamber*." This production will ever reflect the greatest difhonour upon Sir Robert Dudley; and fhews that, like his father, he fometimes employed his talents to very pernicious purposes. After he had lived fome time in exile, he still cherished hopes of returning to England; to facilitate which, and to ingratiate himself with king James, he was mean and wicked enough to draw up a fcheme for enflaving his country. This piece falling into the hands of fome perfons of diftinction, and being fome years after by them made public, was confidered as a thing of fo mifchievous a nature, as to occafion their imprisonment; but they were releafed upon the difcovery of the true author. Sir Robert Dudley was alfo the author of a famous powder, called "Pulvis comitis Warwicenfis, or, the earl of Warwick's pow"der;" he being known in Italy by the title of earl of Warwick, before the emperor created him a duke. Sir Robert Dudley, as he was filed in England, or the duke of Northumberland, as he was filed abroad, had by the daughter of Sir Robert Southwell, (who went into Italy with him, in the habit of a page, and to whom he was aftermards married, as we before obferved) a fon, named Charles, who affumed the title of earl of Warwick; and four daughters, who were all honourably married in Italy, viz. the eldeft to the prince of Piombino, the fecond to the marquis of Clivola, the third to the duke of Caftilion del Lago, and the fourth to the count of Carpegna, brother to the cardinal of that name. As to this lady of Sir Robert Dudley, though her following him into Italy, when he had another wife, juitly expofed her to much cenfure, yet her conduct was, in other refpects, without exception; and as the lived in honour and efteem, and had all the refpect paid her, that her title of duchefs could command, fo it is faid that Sir Robert loved her with great tendernefs to the laft, and caufed a noble monument to be erected to her memory, in the church of St. Pancratius, in Florence,where her body lies buried, and he by her. Sir Robert Dudley's other wife, who was left by him in England, Lady Alice Dudley, is faid to have been a woman of great parts, and of diftinguished piety. King Charles I. granted to her by letters patent under the Great Seal, the rank, ftile, and title of a duchefs, during the term of her natural life and alfo the fame privileges and precedences to her daughters, as if they had been duke's daughters; and in the weamble to the letters patent for this purpofe, the legitimacy of Sir Robert Dudley is afferted, and the injuftice that had been done him is acknowledged. Duchefs Dudley also, by the affiftance of her friends, fecured to herfelf and her daughters the remains of that great fortune which devolved to Sir Robert Dud * This piece is inferted at length in Rushworth's Collections, Appendix, P. 12.-17. ley, |