Produced by David Widger
By Charles Dudley Warner
Queen Elizabeth being dead about ten o'clock in the morning, March 24,1603, Sir Robert Cary posted away, unsent, to King James of Scotland toinform him of the "accident," and got made a baron of the realm for hisride. On his way down to take possession of his new kingdom the kingdistributed the honor of knighthood right and left liberally; atTheobald's he created eight-and-twenty knights, of whom Sir RichardBaker, afterwards the author of "A Chronicle of the Kings of England,"was one. "God knows how many hundreds he made the first year," says thechronicler, "but it was indeed fit to give vent to the passage of Honour,which during Queen Elizabeth's reign had been so stopped that scarce anycounty of England had knights enow to make a jury."
Sir Richard Baker was born in 1568, and died in 1645; his "Chronicle"appeared in 1641. It was brought down to the death of James in 1625,when, he having written the introduction to the life of Charles I, thestorm of the season caused him to "break off in amazement," for he hadthought the race of "Stewards" likely to continue to the "world's end";and he never resumed his pen. In the reign of James two things lost theirlustre—the exercise of tilting, which Elizabeth made a specialsolemnity, and the band of Yeomen of the Guard, choicest persons both forstature and other good parts, who graced the court of Elizabeth; James"was so intentive to Realities that he little regarded shows," and in histime these came utterly to be neglected. The virgin queen was the lastruler who seriously regarded the pomps and splendors of feudalism.
It was characteristic of the age that the death of James, which occurredin his fifty-ninth year, should have been by rumor attributed to"poyson"; but "being dead, and his body opened, there was no sign at allof poyson, his inward parts being all sound, but that his Spleen was alittle faulty, which might be cause enough to cast him into an Ague: theordinary high-way, especially in old bo'dies, to a natural death."
The chronicler records among the men of note of James's time Sir FrancisVere, "who as another Hannibal, with his one eye, could see more in theMartial Discipline than common men can do with two"; Sir Edward Coke; SirFrancis Bacon, "who besides his profounder book, of Novum Organum, hathwritten the reign of King Henry the Seventh, in so sweet a style, thatlike Manna, it pleaseth the tast of all palats"; William Camden, whoseDescription of Britain "seems to keep Queen Elizabeth alive after death";"and to speak it in a word, the Trojan Horse was not fuller of HeroickGrecians, than King James his Reign was full of men excellent in allkindes of Learning." Among these was an old university acquaintance ofBaker's, "Mr. John Dunne, who leaving Oxford, lived at the Innes ofCourt, not dissolute, but very neat; a great Visitor of Ladies, a greatfrequenter of Playes, a great writer of conceited Verses; until suchtimes as King James taking notice of the pregnancy of his Wit, was ameans that he betook him to the study of Divinity, and thereuponproceeding Doctor, was made Dean of Pauls; and became so rare a Preacher,that he was not only commended, but even admired by all who heard him."
The times of Elizabeth and James were visited by some awful casualtiesand portents. From December, 1602, to the December following, the plaguedestroyed 30,518 persons in London; the same disease that in the sixthyear of Elizabeth killed 20,500, and in the thirty-sixth year 17,890,besides the lord mayor and three aldermen. In January, 1606, a mightywhale came up the Thames within eight miles of London, whose body, seen