Great Ralegh

by Hugh De Sélincourt

But Ralegh was not to be inveigled into losing his presence of mind by Coke's insults, as Coke, of course, knowing Ralegh's temperament, intended him to do. Never did Ralegh show greater proof of his power than at this his trial, when circumstances were pressing most hardly upon him; he answered—there is the suavity of strength in his answer—"No, no, Master Attorney, I am no traitor. Whether I live or die I shall stand as true a subject as ever the King hath. You may call me a traitor, at your pleasure; yet it becomes not a man of quality or virtue to do so. But I take comfort in it. It is all that you can do, for I do not yet hear that you charge me with any treason."

The Lord Chief Justice Popham was here obliged to come to the help of the King's Attorney, who was finding the case more difficult than he expected. It was important that the people present, by whom the news of the trial would be spread through England, should not be impressed in the prisoner's favour. He said, realizing that Coke's last coup had been a failure: "Sir Walter Ralegh, Master Attorney speaks out of the zeal of his duty for the service of the King, and you for your life; be patient, on both sides."

Then Coke proceeded: "I charge Sir Walter Ralegh with contriving and conspiring all this that I have recited. And now I will read my proofs for it." He did so. That is to say, he read the most incriminating of the confessions which the distraught Lord Cobham had made. While Coke read this Declaration, there was silence in the hall—certainly a haunting silence. Then Ralegh spoke. "This is absolutely all the evidence that can be brought against me. But now I beseech you, hear me. I was examined at Windsor touching the Surprising Treason; next of plotting for Arabella; thirdly of practices with the Lord Cobham. From all which God knows I was free, for I never was privy to any of them. It is true that I suspected that the Lord Cobham kept intelligence with D'Arenberg. For I knew that long since—in the late Queen's time—he held that course with him in the Low Countries, as was well known to my Lord Treasurer, and to my Lord Cecil. La Renzi being a man also well known to me, I, seeing him and the Lord Cobham together, thought that was the time they both had been to Count D'Arenberg. I gave intimation thereof. But I was willed by my Lord Cecil not to speak of this; because the King, at the first coming of D'Arenbergh, would not give him occasion of suspicion. Wherefore I wrote to the Lord Cecil that if La Renzi were not taken, the matter would not be discovered. Yet if he were then apprehended, it would give matter of suspicion to the Lord Cobham. This letter of mine being presently showed to the Lord Cobham, he presently entered into a rage against me and spake bitterly and railingly of me; yet ere he came to the stairs'-foot, he repented him, and, as I heard, acknowledged that he had done me wrong."

Ralegh paused: up till now he had been speaking to the Court and to the jury, quietly replying to the charges that had been brought against him. Now he turned to Sir Edward Coke, the King's Attorney, and made this speech, magnificent in its effect even in the version of the reporter, even after more than three hundred years, now when no one feels anything but great friendliness towards Spain; you can see the man draw himself up to his full height, the man who had risked his life for his country—Spain's most dreadful enemy, as he faced the attorney whose business it was to brow-beat him to ruin.

"Master Attorney, whether to favour or to disable my Lord Cobham you speak as you will of him; yet he is not such a babe as you make him. He hath dispositions of such violence, which his best friends could never temper. But it is very strange that I, at this time, should be thought to plot with the Lord Cobham knowing him a man that hath neither love nor following; and myself, at this time having resigned a place of my best command, in an office I had in Cornwall. I was not so bare of sense but I saw that, if even this State was strong, it was now that we have the kingdom of Scotland united whence we were wont to fear all our troubles; Ireland quieted where our forces were wont to be divided; Denmark assured whom before we were always wont to have in jealousy; the Low Countries our nearest neighbours. And, instead of a Lady whom Time had surprised, we had now an active King who would be present at his own businesses. For me at this time to make myself a Robin Hood, a Watt Tyler, a Kett, or a Jack Cade! I was not so mad! I knew the state of Spain well—his weakness, his poorness, his humbleness at this time. I knew that six times we had repulsed his forces: thrice in Ireland, thrice at sea—once upon our coast, twice upon his own. Thrice had I served against him myself at sea, wherein for my Country's sake, I had expended of my own property forty thousand marks. I knew that where beforetime he was wont to have forty great sails, at the least, in his ports, now he hath not past six or seven. But for sending to his Indies, he was driven to have strange vessels—a thing contrary to the institutions of his ancestors who straitly forbade that, even in case of necessity, they should make their necessity known to strangers. I knew that of twenty-five millions which he had from his Indies, he had scarce any left. Nay, I knew his poorness to be such at this time, as that the Jesuits, his imps, begged at his church-doors; his pride so abated that, notwithstanding his former high terms, he was become glad to congratulate His Majesty and send unto him. Whoso knew what great assurances he stood upon with other States, for smaller sums, would not think he would so freely disburse to my Lord Cobham six hundred thousand crowns! And, if I had minded to set my Lord Cobham awork in such a case, I would have given him some instructions how to persuade the King. For I knew Cobham no such minion that could persuade a King that was in want to disburse so great a sum, without great reason and some assurance for his money. I knew the Queen of England lent not her money to the States, but she had Flushing, Brill, and other towns, in assurance for it. She lent not money to the King of France without she had Newhaven for it. Nay, her own subjects, the merchants of London, did not lend her money, without they had their lands to pawn for it. And to show I am not Spanish—as you term me—at this time I had writ a treatise to the King's Majesty of the present state of Spain, and reasons against the Peace."

So spake Sir Walter Ralegh, summing up the whole question of policy which was occupying the minds of all men, and drawing attention to the great part which he had played in gaining naval supremacy for England.

He then went on to explain that the business which had brought him of late years so much in Cobham's company was of a private nature, concerning the improvement of Cobham's estate, and the purchase of a fee-farm from the Duke of Lennox. He showed that Cobham was a wealthy and prosperous man, not one who could easily be moulded to treason from despair at his poverty.

Then another examination of Cobham was read, in which a second time he had exclaimed, "O wretch, O traitor." The trickery is absurdly patent. It resembles a game of chess in which one player as often as his black queen is taken, hastily substitutes another black queen in its place. At this juncture the foreman of the jury, Sir Thomas Fowler, was ill-advised enough to ask a simple question. "I desire to understand of the Court the time of Sir Walter Ralegh's first letter, and of the Lord Cobham's accusation." The Court looked at him in amazement, and Lord Cecil rose to his feet and immediately began a long and cunning speech. "I am divided in myself and at great dispute what to say of this gentleman at the bar. For it is impossible, be the obligations never so great, but the affections of nature and love will show themselves. A former dearness betwixt me and this gentleman tied upon the knot of his virtues, though slacked since by his actions, I cannot but acknowledge; and the most of you know it." The speech was cunning and involved. He made no mention of time; he harped upon his personal sorrow in being obliged to speak against a man whom he once loved; his personal loyalty, which was stronger than his affection had ever been, alone compelled him. Two dates were all that were wanted; they could not be given. So Cecil gave vent to his sorrow. Hypocrisy could go no further.

Directly that Lord Cecil had finished, Sir Edward Coke, the King's Attorney, continued his accusation, trying to turn Ralegh's great outburst about the state of Spain to Ralegh's disadvantage, trying to prove it only another instance of his treachery. "Methinks it would have been better for you to have stayed in Guiana than to be so well acquainted with the state of Spain. As to the six overthrows of the King of Spain, I answer 'he hath the more malice' because repulses breed desire of revenge. As for you writing against the Peace with Spain, you sought but to cloak a Spanish traitor's heart," and more to the same effect.

When he had finished Ralegh rose to make his last claim on justice. "My lords," he said, "I claim to have my accuser brought here to speak face to face. Though I know not how to make my best defence by law, yet, since I was a prisoner, I have learned that by the Law and Statutes of this realm in case of treason a man ought to be convicted by the testimony of two witnesses. I will not take upon me to defend the matter upon the Statute of the twenty-fifth of Edward the Third, though that requires an overt act. But remember I beseech your Lordships, the Statute of the first of Edward the Sixth which saith: 'No man shall be condemned of treason, unless he be accused by two lawful accusers.' And by the Statute of the fifth and sixth of Edward the Sixth, those accusers must be brought in person before the party accused, at his arraignment if living!" He continued to instance other laws; he pointed out that Cobham was not only living but in the same town, in the same palace. He called to mind the case of Fortescue, who had condemned a woman to death on the witness of one man for the murder of her husband, and who could never forgive himself for the injustice when the servant of the man confessed at length to the murder. He drew instances from the Bible, and the Canon of God, and concluded with this appeal for justice: "If then by the Statute Law, by the Civil Law and by God's Word, it be required that there be two witnesses, at the least, bear with me if I desire one. Prove me guilty of these things by one witness only, and I will confess the Indictment, I stand not upon the niceties of the law. If I have done these things I deserve not to live; whether they be treasons by the law or no. I beseech you then, my Lords, let Cobham be sent for. Let him be charged upon his soul, upon his allegiance to the King; and if he will then maintain his accusation to my face, I will confess myself guilty." The Court were at first taken aback by this unexpected knowledge of the law, but not for long. The Lord Chief Justice Popham, who played the strange triple part of assistant in the examination, of witness for the prosecution, and of presiding judge, explained that such a course was quite out of the question. "The statutes you speak of in cases of treason were found to be inconvenient and were taken away by another law. Those of Edward the Sixth are general, but were repealed by the first and second of Philip and Mary, which you have mentioned, which Statute goes only to the treasons therein comprised, and also appoints the trial of treasons to be as before it was at the Common Law. Now the twenty-fifth of Edward the Third makes declaration what the Common Law was. All is now therefore put to the Common Law. And by the Common Law one witness is sufficient and the accusation of confederates or the confession of others is full proof." And Mr. Justice Warburton went one further in making this point strong for the prosecution; he added the personal touch of insult, which is characteristic of the trial. "I marvel, Sir Walter," he said, "that you, being of such experience and wit, should stand on this point. For many horse-stealers should escape, if they may not be condemned without witnesses. By law a man may be condemned upon presumption and circumstances without any witness to the main fact. As, if the King, whom God defend, should be slain in his chamber and one be shown to have come forth of the chamber with his sword drawn and bloody. Were not this evidence both in law and opinion, without further inquisition?"