Book I, Chap. II. LIFE OF SIR ROBERT 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 1, 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. Book I, Chap. II. LIFE OF SIR ROBERT COTTON. MS. Cott. chiefly from the Earls of Castilia, about 500 years since,' and the then King of Spain was yet in the infancy of his kingdom.' . Two minor and ancillary arguments in this tract are also notable: The Spanish throne, says COTTON, hath not, as hath the English and French, that virtue to endow the king therein invested with the power to heal the king's evil; for into France do yearly come multitudes of Spaniards to be healed thereof.' And he further alleges that 'absolute power of the King of England, which in other kingdoms is much restrained.' The time was to come when the close friend and fellow-combatant of ELIOT and the other framers of the great 'Petition of Right' would rank himself with the foremost in much restraining' the kingly power in England, and would discover ample warrant in ancient precedents for every step of the process. But, as yet, that time was afar off. Immediately on the accession of King JAMES, Sir Robert COTTON greeted the new monarch with two other and far f. 158; 160, more remarkable tractates on a subject bearing closely on Vesp. C. xiii, Beqq. (B. M.) 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 Saxon ence, James I, Kings,' which was graciously welcomed. In the following 1.3 (R. H.). September he received the honour of knighthood. In RETURNED 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 Domestic Correspond. vol. i, TO PARLIA- Chap. II. SIR ROBERT he took any active part in debate. Nor did he, at any BOOK I, time, win distinction as a debater. But in the labours of Lor 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. Bacon in the difficult attempt to frame acceptable measures vol. xxvii, for a union with Scotland. He also assisted Dom. Cor. as above; vol. xix, pp. 37 seqq.; pp. 44 seqq. (R. H.); MS. Cott. Jul. C., iii, (B. M.) The fame of his library and of his museum of antiquities 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 LIBRARY. Readers who can call to mind even mere fragments of FURTHER that superabundant evidence which tells of the neglect ANDSOURCES throughout much of the Tudor period of the public archives TONIAN 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 Book I, Chap. II. LIFE OF COTTON. had passed into the possession not only of English antiquarians, but of English booksellers-and not a few of them SIR ROBERT into that of foreigners-before COTTON was born. Other considerations bearing on this matter, and tending as it seems in a like direction, belong to a later period of Sir Robert's life. There is, however, a very weighty one which stands at the threshold of his career as a collector. COTTON AND CAMDEN TO NATIONAL LIBRARY. Almost the earliest incident which is recorded of CorTON's youthful days, is his concurrence in a petition in ATTEMPT OF which Queen ELIZABETH was entreated to establish a Public and National Library, and to honour it with her own name. ESTABLISH A Its especial and prime object was to be the collection and preservation, as public property, of the monuments of our English history. The proposal was not altogether new. It was a much improved revival of a project which Dr. John DEE had once submitted, in an immature form, to Queen MARY. It was the reiteration of an earnest request which had been made to Queen ELIZABETH by Archbishop PARker, at a time when COTTON was still in his cradle. The joint petition of COTTON and CAMDEN met with as little success as had attended the entreaties of those who had taken the same path before them. The petitioners were willing to (undated) in bind themselves, and others like-minded, to incur 'costs, and charges,' for the effectual attainment of their patriotic object, on the condition of royal patronage and royal fellowworking with them in its pursuit. When COTTON, upon bare presumptions, is charged to be an embezzler of records, this Petition comes to have a very obvious relevancy to the matter in question. The relevancy is enhanced by the fact that two, at least, of those who had (at various times) concurred in promoting its object, gave to the Library of their fellow-labourer in the field of antiquity, manuscripts and records which, had the issue of their project been Petition, &c. Cotton MS. Faustina, E. V, ff. 67, 68. |