Report to the Right honourable the master of the rolls upon the documents in the archives and public libraries of Venice / by Thomas Duffus Hardy.
- Thomas Duffus Hardy
- Date:
- 1866
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report to the Right honourable the master of the rolls upon the documents in the archives and public libraries of Venice / by Thomas Duffus Hardy. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![hiographer. The following notices respecting him will afford some notion of their value. Notice is given to the State by the secretary Carlo Scaramelli, in a letter dated Salisbury, the 13th of August, N.S., 1603, thus : — The conspiracy proves to be more and more replete with iniquity daily; and the conspirators are by no means in a state of safety, their offices having been already disposed of; and already has Walter Raleigh, a man of great authority and repute with the late Queen, attempted to stab himself to the heart, but the knife having struck one of his ribs prevented him from committing suicide, and his keepers in the Tower of London would not allow the blow to be repeated.* With regard to the conspiracy itself, and to the share taken in it by Raleigh, the Venetian ambassadors, Piero Duodo and Nicolo Molin, write in like manner from Salisbury on the 1st of December: — Concerning the eleven conspirators, six have been already con- demned to death, and one acquitted, owing to the strong proof of his innocence, the rest will be despatched next week; those mem- bers of the Privy Council who came hither to the Court for our audience having returned to Winchester for that purpose. From the discussion of the crimes of the aforesaid, it transpired that their intention was to take the King's life, and to make Arabella [Stuart] Queen, and that having demanded 600,000 ducats from the Archduke Albert's ambassador to be divided amongst them, he promised them 300,000 ready money; and that he would also obtain the other 300,000 on his next return to Flanders. The ringleader of the plot, Baron Cobham, wrote a letter to the Lady Arabella, so long back as last August, requiring her to write a letter to the King of Spain, binding herself to grant liberty of conscience to this kingdom, to make peace with Spain and Flanders, to abandon the States, and not to marry without the consent of his Catholic Majesty. This letter the Lady Arabella presented to the King sealed, without having even opened it, by which act of frankness she has now saved her life ; tho' it nevertheless behoved her to attend the meating of the judges at Winchester to justify herself, had it been necessary ; but she was very rightly exculpated by Walter Raleigh, one of the chief conspi- rators, after he himself had been convicted and sentenced to death. It is said that they intended to marry her to the Duke of Sivoy. On the 15th of December 1603, Nicolo Molin wrote to the Signory :— Only one of the eleven conspirators was acquitted ; the others were all condemned to death. The two priests have already been executed, and on Friday the like will be done to all the others, * There is a very curious letter from Sir Walter Raleigh to his 'wife, which, with this Venetian Despatch, throws light on the much vexed question whether or nof Sir Walter did attempt to kill himself while he was « prisoner in the Tower. The letter is printed in vol. ii. p. 93, of the Court of King James I. by Dr. Godfrey Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester, edited by the Rev. John S. Brewer, 1839. B](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21021284_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
