Reference: Hatfield, MS 170/109
Citation: DCB/001/HTML/0673/008
Date: 02 March 1595
Note: The ink on this letter is extremely faded.
addressleaf
fol.110vAddressed: To the right honorable my very singular good Lord the Erle of Essex./
Later Addition: 2 March 1594
Later Addition: Dr Birch's Memoirs Page 216
lettertext
fol.109r
May it please your good L. It was your pleasure to will me, when I parted from home, to write of any thing whatseover, so I write unto yow often: which order I will folowe, till your L. be weery, and bidde me to take an other course. Master Denniston the Scottishe Ambassador ligger hath bin w[t me of pur- pose to ease his stomacke of dislike of this comming hi- ther of Coronel Stuart: aswell in respect of his demaunde of assistance, which if it be mony, he thinkes is wholy lost: as of the mariage solicited between the Erle of Orchney and the sister of Co. Maurice: under coulor wherof he saieth that Coronel Stuart doth practise somwhat els: and yet for ought I can per- ceave, he seemeth to be ignorant of his privat In- structions. And thus he uttereth his phansie not onely to me, but in secret communication to divers of the states: albeit as I am informed, he is a creature of the Chancellor aswell as the Coronel. Both by him and the rest of the nation heere Stuart is re- puted a papist, and a Spaniard in hart, and of a busie disposition: not, as they affirme, beloved of the King nor of many men in Scotland. And though they speake it I finde somwhat of the splene, yet [.] [.] in one common conceat, I will take it [.] [.] [.] his procee- dinges. The 26 of the last I sent your L. the copies of certaine lettres intercepted, in which was a note of speciall personage, that would be [wonne] as he thought, to doe a singular peece of service if meanes might be founde to recompense his losses fol.109v
I have bin somwhat inquisitive, to knowe among the Scottes, who that partie might be by their conjecture. But they are all in a muse, not knowing whome to ghesse at: though their chiefest suspicion [sturre] upon the L. Humes, by reason of alliance between him and Thomas Tyrie. The Coronel in his discourse doth rather ghesse the L. Athol, partly for the affection that he bea- reth to Bothwell, and partly for a [.] which he saieth is growen of late between him and Argile. I can not yet perceave by any [.] heere, that Stuart hath imparted his privat Instructions to any one of the state: which makes me thinke if his charge was to proceede in suche sort as he should finde mens dispositions: wherein I thinke he is deceaved. I have had a lettre from your L. by Captain Berry wher- of the date was omitted, and the [tenor was onely to] lette me now that her Majestie [complained] of my si- lence in which behalf I trust by this she is very well satisfied. And so I take my humble leave. From the Hage Marche 2 1594. Your L most humbly bounden Tho. Bodley
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