King James received Raleigh roughly, and at once superseded him as Captain of the Guard; Cecil was raised to the peerage as a mark of favour. In May 1603, Raleigh, in terms of a royal warrant, was required to surrender Durham House to the Bishop of Durham. He had expended large sums upon the “rotten house” to which, as was now stated, he had “no right.” The order to quit was most arbitrary and unjust. He had received no notice, and was required in the space of a few days to clear out his retinue of forty persons and twenty horses, with the provision laid in for them.
James was favourable to Spain and the Catholics; Raleigh never repressed or concealed his hostility to both. Raleigh became involved with Lord Cobham and George Brooke, brothers-in-law of Cecil, in an alleged treasonable plot, the lines and objects of which it would be difficult to define. Raleigh was arrested on 17th July, and immured in the Tower on the information of his dastardly and dangerous friend, Lord Cobham, the Judas who should have been consigned to the dungeon, in place of his too confiding and credulous friend. In his depression and desperation he attempted suicide. Anticipating death, he wrote an extremely touching letter to his wife:—
“Receive from thy unfortunate husband,” he writes, “these last lines.... That I can live never to see thee and my child more! I cannot! I have desired God and disputed with my reason, but nature and compassion have the victory. That I can live to think how you are both left a spoil to my enemies, and that my name shall be a dishonour to my child! I cannot!... Unfortunate woman, unfortunate child, comfort yourselves, trust God, and be contented with your poor estate. I would have bettered it, if I had enjoyed a few years.
“What will my poor servants think, at their return, when they hear I am accused to be Spanish, who sent them, at my great charge, to plant and discover upon his territory! O God! O intolerable infamy!... For the rest I commend me to thee, and thee to God, and the Lord knows my sorrow to part from thee and my poor child, and let him know his father was no traitor. Be bold of my innocence, for God—to whom I offer life and soul—knows it.... And the Lord for ever keep thee and give thee comfort in both worlds.”
On 21st September, Raleigh, Cobham, and George Brooke were indicted at Staines. The charge was “of exciting rebellion against the king, and raising one Arabella Stuart to the crown of England.” This Arabella Stuart was first cousin to James, being the daughter of Charles Stuart, fifth Earl of Lennox, Darnley’s elder brother. Raleigh’s bitter enemy, Lord Thomas Howard, afterwards Lord Howard of Bindon, and yet again created Earl of Suffolk, had powerful influence amongst the higher powers, and exercised his influence virulently against Raleigh to the full extent of his power. Raleigh was repeatedly examined, and on Thursday, 17th November 1603, put upon his trial before a Court of King’s Bench, the court-room having been fitted up in the old episcopal palace at Winchester. Lord Chief Justice Popham presided, and had with him on the bench as commissioners, Sir Robert Cecil, Sir W. Wood, the Earl of Devonshire, and Howard of Bindon, Earl of Suffolk, with judges Anderson, Gawdy, and Warburton. Sir Edward Coke, Attorney-General, prosecuted, with Serjeant Hale as his “junior.”
The indictment against Raleigh was in effect—
That he did conspire, and go about to deprive the king of his government, to raise up sedition within the realm, to alter religion, to bring in the Roman superstition, and to procure foreign enemies to invade the kingdom. That the Lord Cobham, the 9th of June last, did meet with the said Sir Walter Raleigh in Durham House, in the parish of St. Martins in the Fields, and then and there had conference with him, how to advance Arabella Stuart to the crown and royal throne of this kingdom, and that then and there it was agreed that Cobham should treat with Aremberg, ambassador from the Archduke of Austria, and obtain of him 600,000 crowns to bring to pass the intended treasons. It was agreed that Cobham should go to Albert the Archduke to procure him to advance the pretended title of Arabella, from thence, knowing that Albert had not sufficient means to maintain his own army in the Low Countries, Cobham should go to Spain to procure the king to assist and further her pretended title.
It was agreed, the better to effect all this conspiracy, that Arabella should write three letters, one to the Archduke, another to the King of Spain, and a third to the Duke of Savoy, and promise three things: first, to establish a firm peace between England and Spain; secondly, to tolerate the popish and Roman superstition; thirdly, to be ruled by them in contracting of her marriage.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH CONFINED IN THE TOWER.