made `odious conditions' with Tyrone. Essex replied that he intended to submit himself entirely to the queen's will, but made an impassioned speech, denying the specific charges, and contesting the genuineness of the Irish letters. When he began to deny any disloyalty, he was informed that he was only accused of contempt and disobedience. Cecil admitted that the earl had cleared himself of having yielded to all Tyrone's demands, `though, by reason of Tyrone's vaunting afterwards, it might have some show of probability.' Coke made no reply. The lord keeper finally sentenced him, when nearly nine at night, to dismissal from all offices of state, and to remain a prisoner in Essex House at the queen's pleasure.
No full report of these proceedings is extant. Bacon drew up an apparently complete account, but only a fragment dealing with the first charge (the journey into Munster) survives. The rest has to be gathered chiefly from Fynes Morison's `History of Ireland' and paroled accounts of Essex's Irish action published officially after his death. The gist of the accusations lay in the negotiations with Tyrone, and no authentic record of these is accessible. Essex declared that he returned to England to submit Tyrone's proposals to the queen, and he doubtless informed her of them, although he had other objects in view in his hasty journey to London. On 6 Nov. 1599 Elizabeth described Essex's negotiation with Tyrone as `full of scandal to our realm and future peril to the state.' Essex seems to have entertained the notion of formally recognising the rights of Tyrone and the other Ulster chiefs to their lands, and this would fully account for the unfavourable construction placed on his intercourse with Tyrone. But his enemies asserted that he also promised to secure a full recognition of papal supremacy in Ireland. A document, entitled `Tyrone's Propositions, 1599,' is printed in Winwood's 'Memorials' (i. 119), and the alleged promise about the Roman catholic religion forms the first of the twenty-one articles which appear there. All of them undoubtedly derogated from England's predominance in Ireland, and aimed at the practical extirpation of protestantism there. But the whole document, although unsuspected by Mr. Spedding, is almost certainly the concoction of a hostile hand, a species of forgery at which the highest dignitaries at Elizabeth's court habitually connived. At his trial little appears to have been said as to the proposal to reinstate the Romish religion: Cecil clearly disbelieved that Essex had accepted it, and it is not mentioned in the contemporary correspondence of court gossips (Abbott, 134-47). At a later date vague confessions of Irish servants and retainers were produced to prove that Essex had discussed the probability of his becoming king of England, and had promised in that case to make Tyrone viceroy of Ireland. Mysterious hints, it was also stated, had been given out at Dublin of coming commotion in England. Essex had undoubtedly meditated at one time returning to England with an army, but this was before he went into Ulster, and it seems undoubted that he formed no real plan of action then. His relations with Tyrone undoubtedly contradicted his instructions, but they do not seem to have involved a treasonable conspiracy.
On 23 June the lord-keeper explained in a charge to the judges that Essex had been treated by the queen with exceptional clemency, and on 5 July Essex was allowed to leave York House for Grafton, Oxfordshire, the seat of his uncle, Sir William Knollys. After more humble appeals to the queen, Essex, whose health was again failing, was set at liberty on 26 Aug.
On obtaining his freedom Essex looked to regain his old position at court. He freely forgave Francis Bacon, who wrote to him on their former terms on 20 July, for appearing against him at his trial, and sent many letters to Elizabeth couched in very submissive language, and full of the personal flattery which she loved. But he was not 'freed of her majesty's indignation' (Carew MS. 29 Aug.) Francis Bacon, whose conduct it is difficult to regard as honest, fashioned a correspondence between Essex and his brother Anthony Bacon, which was to be shown to Elizabeth to prove the earl's humble frame of mind. On 22 Sept. Essex petitioned for a renewal of the patent of sweet wines, which had just expired, on 18 Oct. appealed for an audience, and on 17 Nov., the anniversary of her accession, sent a letter of congratulation. No replies were received. The Countess of Warwick advised him to lodge at Greenwich and waylay the queen when leaving the palace. But friends were about him who deprecated such counsel, and taunted him with making too many useless proffers of submission. Oppressed by a sense of impotency, Essex was easily drawn to reconsider the vague notion, entertained at Dublin, of recovering his position at court by a show of force. He convinced himself that to remove those of the queen's counsellors who had shown jealousy of his early successes in court-life would secure his reinstatement, and he felt convinced that he could obtain means to this end from Scotland.
While at York House Southampton and
