Book I, Chap. II.

LIFE OF

SIR ROBERT
COTTON.

full vigour of life when COTTON had given proof of his worthiness to be a fellow-labourer in the field of English antiquities. In 1599 they went, in company, over the northern counties; explored together many an old abbey and many a famous battle-field. When that tour was made, the evidences of the ruthless barbarism with which the mandates of HENRY THE EIGHTH had been carried out by his agents lay still thick upon the ground, and may well have had their influence in modifying some of the religious views and feelings of such tourists. Not a few chapters of the Britannia embody the researches of COTTON as well as those of CAMDEN; and the elder author was ever ready to acknowledge his deep sense of obligation to his younger colleague. For both of them, at this time, and in subsequent years, the storied past was more full of interest than the politics, howsoever momentous or exciting, of the day. But, occasionally, they corresponded on questions of policy as well as of history. There is evidence that on one stirring subject, about which men's views were much wont to run to extremes, they agreed in advocating moderate courses. In the closing years of the Queen, COTTON, as well as CAMDEN, recognised the necessity that the Government should hold a firm hand over the emissaries of the Church and Court of Rome, whilst refusing to admit that a due repression of hostile intrigues was inconsistent with the honourable treatment of conscientious and peaceful Romanists.

It was, in all probability, almost immediately after COTTON's return from the Archæological tour to the North which he had made with his early friend, that he received a message from the Queen. ELIZABETH had been told of his growing fame for possessing an acquaintance with the mustiest of records, and an ability to vouch precedents'

had Book I,

Chap. II.

LIFE OF

COTTON.

such as few students, even of much riper years, attained to. He was now to be acquainted with a dispute about national precedency which had arisen at Calais SIR ROBERT between Sir Henry NEVILLE and the Ambassador of Spain. It was Her Majesty's wish that he should search the records which bore upon the question, and send her ENGLISH such a report as might strengthen NEVILLE's hands in his contest for the honour of England.

THE TRAC

TATE ON

PRECEDENCY

OVER SPAIN.

Such a task could not fail to be a welcome one; and COTTON found no lack of pertinent evidence. The bent and habit of his mind were always methodical. He begins his abstract of the records by tabulating his argument. Precedency, he says, must have respect either to the nation or to the ruler of the nation. A kingdom must rank either (1) according to its antiquity, or (2) according to 'the eminency of the throne royal,' by which phrase he means the complete unity of the dominion under one supreme ruler. On the first title to precedency he observes that it may be based either upon the date of national independence, or upon that of the national recognition of Christianity. He claims for England that it was a monarchy at least four hundred and sixty years before Castile became one; that Christianity had then been established in it, without break or interruption, for a thousand years; whereas in Spain Cottoni Christianity was 'defaced with Moorish Mahumetisme,' Posthuma, until the expulsion of the Moors by FERDINAND, little more than a century before the time at which he was writing.

His assertion of the greater eminency of the throne royal' in England than in Spain is mainly founded on the union in the English sovereignty alone of supreme ecclesiastical with supreme civil power; and on the lineal descent of the then sovereign from Christian princes for 800 years,' whereas the descent of the Kings of Spain 'is

pp. 76, 77.

cheft from de Ears a Castia, near 100 vers since.' and die den Kaga Saa vene nicy of his therian.

Iv: nter mi nelay rymans

distract are state The Spanish rane, ss Comery, bath not, #ari the English and Fac. to endow the Cig den Tested via the power to hes the king's eri år ner Founce de yaad roue nutraces of Spaniards

te leed thered" And be firber Leges that ‘abszinte power of the King of Engand, with in other kingtoms # nich zescribed. The time was to come when the dose frend and fellow-cecbasant of Entor and the other frmers of the great Fection of Bagia" would rank himself virà de fremost in “mad restraining the kingly power n England, and would Eseover ampie warranz in ancient precedents for every step of the process. But, as get, that time is r

Immediately on the accession of King Jams, Sir Robert Conroy greeted the new monarch with two other and far more remarkable tractates on a subject bearing closely on our relations with Spain. Their political interest, as contributions to the history of public opinion, is great. Their biographical interest is still greater. But I postpone the consideration of them until we reach a momentous crisis in Sir Robert's life on which they have a vital bearing. He also wrote,—almost simultaneously,-a much more courtierLike Discourse of his Majesty's descent from the Saron mesi, Kinge, which was graciously welcomed. In the following September he received the honour of knighthood. In JAMES' first Parliament he sat for the County of Huntingdon, in fellowship with Sir Oliver CROMWELL, uncle of the future Protector. There is no evidence that at this period

he took any active part in debate. Nor did he, at any time, win distinction as a debater. But in the labours of Committees he was soon both zealous and prominent. Two classes of questions, in particular, appear to have engaged his attention:-questions of Church discipline, and questions of administrative reform. He also assisted Bacon in the difficult attempt to frame acceptable measures for a union with Scotland.

pp. 37 seqq.; vol. xxvii,

pp. 44 seqq.

(R. H.);

Jul. C., iii,

(B. M.)

The fame of his library and of his museum of antiquities Ms. Cott. continued to spread farther and wider. He had many P.10. agents on the Continent who sought diligently to augment his collections. His correspondence with men who were busied in like pursuits both at home and abroad increased. Much of it has survived. On that interesting point at which a glance has been cast already, its witness is uniform. He was always as ready to impart as he was eager to collect. Few, if any, important works of historical research were carried on in his day to which he did not, in some way or other, give generous furtherance. At a time when he was most busy in forming his own library, he helped BODLEY to lay the foundation of the noble library at Oxford.

GROWTH

OF THE COT

TONIAN
LIBRARY.

Readers who can call to mind even mere fragments of FURTHER that superabundant evidence which tells of the neglect AND SOURCES throughout much of the Tudor period of the public archives of the realm, can feel little surprise that Sir Robert COTTON should have been able to collect a multitude of documents which had once been the property of the nation, or of the sovereign. Those who are most familiar with that evidence ought to be the first to remember that, under the known circumstances of the time, the presumption of honest acquisition is stronger than that of dishonest, whenever conclusive proof of either is absent. English State Papers