Great Ralegh

by Hugh De Sélincourt

Earl Suffolk.—You, gentlemen of the King's learned counsel follow the same course as you did the other day.

Ralegh.—My lord, I pray you I may answer the points particularly as they are delivered, by reason of the weakness of my memory and sickness.

Lord Chief Justice Popham.—After the King's learned counsel have delivered all the evidence, Sir Walter, you may answer particularly to what you will.

Then spake the King's Serjeant at Law, by name Hele; of this man Edwards points out that "he was more notable as a brawler and a buffoon—and also as a moneylender, in which capacity he hoped to win a very large stake by the ruin of Lord Cobham—than as a lawyer." The tone of his short speech may be gathered from this typical sentence at the conclusion. "It appears that Cobham took Ralegh to be either a god or an idol. Cobham endeavours to set up a new king, or governor: God forbid mine eyes should ever see so unhappy a change! As for the Lady Arabella, she, upon my conscience hath no more title to the crown than I have, which before God I utterly renounce. Cobham, a man bred in England, hath no experience abroad; but Ralegh, a man of great wit, military and a swordman. Now whether these things were bred in a hollow tree, I leave to them to speak of, who can speak far better than myself."

Sir Edward Coke, the King's Attorney, then rose to his feet. It is well to remember that it was Coke's business, as the King's Attorney, to prove Ralegh guilty of treason, and that as he had almost no evidence in his support, his business was one of extreme difficulty. Cobham's accusation was his only evidence, and that must be used with caution, owing to Cobham's retractations. The trial was of the utmost importance; his professional reputation was at stake; the very difficulty put him on his mettle. He rose magnificently to the occasion. With such evidence at his disposal he could not quietly prove Ralegh's guilt. His chief weapons were the appeal to the jury's loyalty and abuse of the prisoner—especially abuse, by which he hoped to brow-beat him. His speech was long and learned. He began by dividing the mischief of treason into three divisions—imitation, supportation, and defence, and by enlarging upon the main conspiracy of the priests Watson and Copley, with which, as Ralegh pointed out, he was in no way connected, even in the indictment. Undeterred, Coke continued his oration. He gave instances of treason, he defined treason at length, and then he suddenly began to praise the character of King James, and, turning angrily to Ralegh, exclaimed: "To whom Sir Walter did you bear malice? To the royal children?" To which Ralegh answered: "Master Attorney, I pray you to whom or to what end speak you all this? I protest I do not understand what a word of this means, except it be to tell me news. What is the treason of Markham and the priests to me?"

Coke. "I will then come close to you. I will prove you to be the most notorious traitor that ever came to the bar."

Ralegh. "Your words cannot condemn me; my innocency is my defence. Prove against me any one thing of the many that you have broken, and I will confess all the Indictment, and that I am the most horrible traitor that ever lived."

Coke. "Nay I will prove all. Thou art a monster; thou hast an English face, but a Spanish heart."

Then Coke proceeded to give a minute account of Cobham's plots in such a way that, as Edwards notes, only the most unprejudiced and attentive listener would fail to be trapped into thinking that he was relating the plots of Ralegh. The device was clever, but it was unscrupulous. Ralegh, in spite of his recent imprisonment and his imminent danger, remained master of himself and of the situation. He withstood Coke's implications as resolutely as he withstood Coke's abuse. "What is that to me?" he asked the Court, after Coke had ended his clever recital of Cobham's practices. "What is that to me? I do not hear yet that you have spoken one word against me. Here is no treason of mine done. If my Lord Cobham be a traitor, what is that to me?"

At this the King's Attorney broke into savage abuse. "All that he did was by thy instigation, thou viper; for I thou thee, thou traitor! I will prove thee the rankest traitor in all England."