State-worthies, or, The states-men and favourites of England since the reformation their prudence and policies, successes and miscarriages, advancements and falls, during the reigns of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, King James, King Charles I.

Observations on the Life of William Earl of Pembrook.

HE was an ancient Gentleman of good re∣pute, and therefore well esteemed; a pro∣per person, well set, and of graceful deport∣ment, and therefore well beloved of King Iames and Queen Anne: His inclination was as ge∣nerous as his extraction, and manners ancient as his Family. One of his Ancestors is renowned, for that he would cond••scend to deliver his Embassies in no Language but Welch; and he is commended for that he would comply with no customs in his con∣verse but the old English,—though his Contem∣poraries make that his defect rather than his orna∣ment; proceeding from his want of Travel, rather than his observance of Antiquity: He having had only (saith the Historian) the breeding of Eng∣land, which gave him a conceited dislike of For∣reign men, their manners and mode; or of such English as professed much advantage thereby: so

that the Scots and he were ever separate; and therefore he was the only old Courtier that kept close to the Commonalty, and they to him, though never suspected by either of his Sovereigns; not because he was not over-furnished with Abili∣ties (as that pen insinuates) to be more than Loyal, but because he had too much integrity to be less. Being munificent and childless, the University of Oxford hoped to be his Ex••cutor, and Pembrook-Colledge his Heir. Pembrook-Colledge, I say, called so not only in respect to, but also in expectation from him, then Chancellor of the University: and probably had not cut noble Lord died suddenly soon after (according as a Fortune-teller had in∣formed him, whom he laughed at that very night he departed, being his Birth-night) this Col∣ledge might have received more than a bare name from him.

He was (saith one of his own time) the very picture, and Vive Essigies of Nobility; his per∣son rather Majestick than Elegant; his presence, whether quiet, or in motion, full of stately gra∣vity; his mind generous, and purely heroick; often stout, but never disl••••al: so vehement an opponent of the Spaniard, as when that Match fell under consideration, he would some∣times rouze to the trepidation of King Iames, yet kept in favour still; for that King knew plain dealing, as a Jewel in all men, so was in a Privy-Councellor an ornamental duty. An instance of his familiar converse with King Iames, was, that the King observing that he naturally hated a Frog, threw one into his neck; and he in requi∣tal, caused a Pig (of an equal disgust with the same

Prince) to be put under his Close-stool: where, though it produced no extraordinary ill effect for the present, yet after the prank had been descant∣ed upon, and worst of Interpretations made by some (the title of Iews being at that time bestowed on the Scots) the King was much affected with it; and the more, because it was done at Wilton the Earls own house. —Though Kings when free and sociable, break out to sprightful and faceti∣ous extravagancies with Courtiers, yet must they not presume, lest their words are interpre∣ted, not by their meaning, but others jealousie: free spirits cannot be too circumspect. And the same true-heartedness commended him to King Charles, with whom he kept a most admirable correspondence, and yet stood the firm Confident of the Commonalty; and that not by a sneaking cunning, but by an erect and generous pru∣dence, such as rendred him as unsuspected of ambition on the one side, as of faction on the o∣ther; being generally beloved and regarded.