in January, 1570, he was nominated Comptroller of her Majesty's Household.

"Yesterdaye the Quene's Majestie, when Christmas was doone, bestowed staves in this sorte: Šir Fr. Knolls is treasorer; Sir Ja. Crofts comptroller of houshold, but who shall be vichamberlan or capten of the gard I know not. I thynk Mr. Kennady shall be tresorer of the chamber; Sir Rob. Stafford is serjeant porter. These thyngs was suddenly doone yesterday, preter spem multorum, because Christmas was ended. From Wynsor, the 8 of Januar, 1569, [1570]1."

About that time he was likewise constituted a Privy Counsellor; for on the 14th of the same month he was one of the council who signed a letter to Sir Ralph Sadler 2. The passage which has been cited from Burghley's memoranda renders it probable that Croft was mainly indebted to the Earl of Leicester for this advancement; but it is equally likely that a remembrance of his conduct towards Elizabeth, whilst in the Tower, in no small degree produced it; and that it was at length allowed to wash away the stain which his conduct at Leith is Isaid to have cast on his character.

The duties of Comptroller of the Household are not of a description to produce an official correspondence, hence for several years few facts are recorded relating to Sir James Croft, excepting that he was present at the greater part of the councils which were held; and he may consequently be included amongst those statesmen, by whose sagacity the affairs of the realm were so admirably conducted. We are not without some memorials of the Comptroller's attention to his office; for in December, 1583, he presented "Remembrances" for a reform in the royal household.

In the same year he petitioned the Queen to grant to him her letters patent for ten years, for the discovery of " concealed lands;" the papers and correspondence on which subject are preserved in one of the Lansdowne manuscripts; and though some of them are curious, the only one of sufficient interest for insertion is a very characteristic letter from him to Burghley, urging the Treasurer to support his petition on account of the destitute state of his finances, of which he draws a very affecting picture.

TO THE RIGHTE HONORABLE, THE LORDE TRESORAR OF INGLANDE YEVE THES.

I do moste humbly thanke your Lordship for your honorable delyng in my cause, withoute whos helpe, I do assuer my selfe to

1 Sadler's State Papers, vol. ii. p. 98. 3 Lansdowne MSS. 34. art. 35.

Ibid. p. 131.

4 No. 37.

optayne no thinge at hir Majestys handes, knowing my unskilfull manor of delyng for my selfe, my necessyte being never so grete, and as I can compare no mans to be lyke in longe servis with waste of patrimony, therfore if hir highnes upon the disiountyve sholde graunte me so smale a portion in fee farme, as wolde not in tyme relyve my necessyte, then sholde I lyve hartlesse, ether to serve according to my desier or peradventure unhappely to ende my mysserable daies, having my sonne so farre in dette as for a time, he muste leve the realme, my plate and wyves jewells layd to gage, and I presentely selling of lande to releve my necessyte, tyll I shall finde concelementes, therfore my good Lorde, yf hitte be possible, lette me be lefte to a lymitation of yeres, wherin yf my gaynes shall seme grete, her Majestie may stay hir graunte, but yf any resonable gaine shall come, my necessyte being relyved, I mene to bestowe hit upon suche a one as reson and necessyte requiereth to be cared for, and that to your Lordships good lyking. And so I beseche God longe to continue your Lordship with longe lyfe and helthe. At my chamber the 15th of July 1583.

Your Lordshippes moste bounden

JAMYS CROFT 1.

His necessities were partially relieved in September, 1586, when the Queen granted him "lands of 100l., with a grant also in lease of 607. in reversion 2. In October following, Sir James Croft was appointed one of the Commissioners for the trial of Mary Queen of Scots; but whether from accident or prudence he was not one of the counsellors who directed the warrant for her execution to be forwarded, and he therefore escaped the tempest which so nearly overwhelmed those who officially sanctioned that flagitious deed; nor is his name mentioned by Secretary Davison among the officers of the household, whom he states were aware of the Queen's intention to put her kinswoman to death. Sir James was, however, one of the personages who sat on Davison's trial before the Star Chamber on the 28th March, 1587, when, according to one account, he observed that he loved Davison well, and so had cause, saying, " that he had no lack of good will, but yet had grievously offended;" though agreeably to another statement, his observations were much more consonant with justice. "He showed," we are told, "his mind indifferently, with protestations of his good will and good opinion of Davison; that it was a rare example, and committed, as he thought, for want of experience more than for want of duty." Although he dared not defend the man whom Elizabeth had marked out for vengeance, he did not seek to propitiate her by that intemperate

1 Lansdowne MS. No. 37, art. 41, original.

2 Murdin's Burghley Papers, p. 785.

3 Life of Davison. Appendix.

and disgusting zeal, which disgraced so many of his colleagues; and Lord Grey and himself are almost the only individuals who evinced the slightest feeling of honour, humanity, or justice, on the occasion.

Sir James was seneschal of Hereford in 1559, and represented that county in Parliament in the 5th, 13th, 28th, 29th, 30th, and 35th of Elizabeth'. In January, 1588, he was joined in a commission with the Earl of Derby, Lord Cobham, and Doctor Dale, to treat with the Commissioners of the King of Spain at Bourbough, which affair was attended with most unfortunate results to him. Many of his official letters on the occasion are still extant, and from a few of them some extracts will be given, because they explain his conduct in a more satisfactory manner than a narrative compiled from them could possibly do.

He wrote the Queen from Dover on the 15th February, in that year, and after expressing his hope "that this colloquy would bring forth a most honourable and firm peace," he thus speaks of that well known navigator, Sir Francis Drake.

"There is come to my knowledge a marvellous spoil and deceit, committed by Sir Francis Drake and his accomplices, of a great mass of treasure. That he, Sir Francis, was animated to maintain a war, and that the like had been practised in Holland and Zealand, whereof I mean to make manifest proof hereafter. A thing practised in England, and delivered to that people with full assertions, that your Majesty mindeth not to make any peace at the treaty, but in discharge of your Highness's promises give a meeting, and to conclude no peace".

"

Sir James arrived at Dunkirk on the 25th, and from thence informed the Lord Treasurer that he had been detained at Dover, until five o'clock the preceding morning, in consequence of a hurt in his knee, produced by a fall from his horse. On the 28th, he met his colleagues at Ostend, and was joined by Mr. Robert Cecill, afterwards Earl of Salisbury. The suspicion and jealousy towards Sir James, which were so conspicuous throughout the mission, then first displayed themselves respecting the cause of his remaining at Dover, for the Earl of Derby remarked in his letter to the Treasurer,

"I think Mr. Comptrollers being at Dunkirk, and his treatment there will not be unskanned; though truly, sir, I think his mean

1 Duncombe's Collections.

2 In the MSS. in the British Museum.

3 Additional MSS. 4160, folio 34. Extracted from the original in the State Paper Office.

ing be most direct. He is in his health, but crazy, though not sick, this having proved a cold journey for his old years'."

In a letter from Sir James to Burghley, dated at Ostend, on the 4th of March, he expressed his wish,

"That the Queen's honourable meaning in the treaty might be made to the Duke of Parma, and that himself were out of the town, both for the filthiness of it, and the dissolution of the soldiers, who had already robbed the Earl of Derby, and offered the same to Lord Cobham, to me, and Dr. Dale1:"

and several other letters from him on the subject of his commission exist. From Ostend he went to Bruges, where he arrived on the 27th of April, and obtained an interview of the Duke of Parma without consulting his colleagues; his motive for which is thus explained by himself:

"The necessity of the time did drive me to go to the Duke, when otherwise the whole treaty should have been overthrown. Grounding myself to have reasonable cause for my going (though of self and without commission or authority), to assure the Duke of her Majesty's sincere proceeding, and likewise to understand the certainty of his Highness's intent'."

He proceeds to describe what took place on the occasion; and in another letter "submitted himself to her majesty's mercy" for what he had done. Dr. Dale, however, took care in the mean time to fill the mind of the Lord Treasurer with apprehensions of the worst effects from Sir James's proceedings, and on the 8th of May, the Queen wrote him a severe reprimand.

"We cannot forbear, first, to let you, our Comptroller, understand what cause of offence you did give to us, beside some discountenance to the noblemen, our commissioners, and others joined with them, in that you took upon you alone, without any warrant from us, or any determination of the rest of the Commissioners, to repair to the Duke of Parma and to his council, to treat with them, alone as you have done in sundry places, and in secret manner, assuring you that such an extraordinary attempt by a counsellor of your years, and a Commissioner no wise authorized to treat with any person, but jointly with others, being in commission, or by their instruction or consent, may be drawn to a farther reproof of you, than can be either answered or well endured by you, although you have by your letter submitted yourself to our mercy, for such your presumption, and require our gracious pardon; but thereby to the sight of the world we have no satisfaction. Besides that we think you have not considerately used the matter, to send the points of your treaty with the Duke, in an open writing by a man of no better reputation, or more secrecy than John Croft is accounted'."

But on the same day he was assured by the Treasurer that, upon

Addit. MSS. 4160.

her Majesty's perusal of the breviate of his proceedings with the Duke of Parma, she was somewhat qualified in her former offence against him, for going in such sort as he did to the Duke, by reason both of his humble letter to her, and of the fruits of his negotiations'."

66

The storm had not however blown over, for on the 21st of May, the Queen thus addressed him :

"We find it strange, that you, the Comptroller, being of such years, and bringing up as you are, should take upon you, without either direction from us, or the assent and privity of the noblemen and others of your associates, to enter into such particular dealing of so many several matters, and those of such weight; and, therefore, our pleasure is, that you, the Comptroller, shall forthwith make your present repair hither, to inform us upon what ground or reason you presumed to wade so far into such matters, or receive any answers thereto, without having any warrant or direction from us for the same1."

The Commissioners were directed to disavow all that Sir James Croft had done, but they were notwithstanding to state

"That the error committed herein, by the said Comptroller, proceeded of some over zeal he had to further the peace, as one that from the time of the first motion, made unto us in that behalf, hath showed himself most forward to advance the same, which only moved us to make choice of him to be named in the number as a commissioner, which otherwise we should not have done, he having been more trained in martial affairs than acquainted with matters of treaties1."

Sir James's letter to Elizabeth in reply to this reprimand, like those of his contemporaries when they incurred her displeasure, is remarkable for its abject humility. After acknowledging the receipt of her letter of recal, he implores

"Her accustomed grace, favour, and mercy, to the comfort of his gray and hoary hairs, that he might by further continuance there, with circumspection recompense the errors of his former proceedings in this matter, void of all malice or all intent, being at this time so mated with the conceit of your Majesty's displeasure, that my feeble and aged limbs retain not sufficient force, without present death, to put in practice your Majesty's said commandment'."

A passage in a letter from Dr. Dale would almost prove that he was not the Comptroller's enemy, were it not for the civilian's subsequent conduct; and it presents an amusing specimen of the reliance which Elizabeth's courtiers placed on words likely to excite her compassion:

Addit. MSS. 4160.