Personal letters

Meet the Earl and his nearest concerns

The image of the Earl cultivated by Oxfordians is hard to relate to his personal correspondence, particularly when trying to relate what he actually wrote to what everybody except Oxfordians know he didn’t. Oxford did not, in moments of truth, have a high opinion of his own literary talents.

“To be more plausable vnto yow then her to fore, and desirowes and diligent to seke welconceiuinge of me, and from those lothsume (I can not tell how to terme them,) but as bakfriendes vnto me, I most ernestlye desire yow to beleiue misfortune hether to I haue donne of myne owne wrightinge. Sithe I haue bene behouldinge to senister reportes of induringe defectes, ordinarie accomplishment and badd succes whiche certefie I pretendethe of qualite. Althoughe feringe the worst in my selfe, I doo aspire towardes beinge lyghtned and disburdned”.” Letter 43, 1580

Title	Description
Letter 01	Oxford’s earliest surviving letter, written in French to William Cecil in August 1563. The pencilled annotation on the manuscript notes it ‘smells strongly of the young Lord’s tutor’, suggesting Cecil’s influence on its composition.
Letter 02	Written to Cecil in November 1569, Oxford acknowledges recovery from illness and Cecil’s care, then appeals for Cecil’s help in obtaining the Queen’s licence to serve abroad in the current military campaign.
Letter 03	Written September 1572, Oxford reports on the management of his estates, acknowledging past negligence in trusting his affairs to unreliable agents, and then turns to the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France, urging Burghley to have a care for both his own safety and the Queen’s, warning that as the chief Protestant minister in England he is as much a target for Catholic plotters as the Admiral of France had been.
Letter 04	Written 22 September 1572, Oxford asks Burghley to procure him a royal licence for active service, expressing a strong preference for service at sea above all other forms of employment.
Letter 05	Written 31 October 1572 from Wivenhoe, Oxford acknowledges a reconciliation with Burghley and appeals for his continued favour, asking him not to give too ready an ear to those who would undermine their renewed goodwill.
Letter 06	Written 17–18 March 1575 from Paris, Oxford reports the birth of a child and declines to cut short his travels on that account. He asks Burghley to ensure his creditors are patient and his affairs properly managed in his absence, and notes he is avoiding Milan on account of the Inquisition and plans to travel through Germany.
Letter 07	Written 24 September 1575 from Venice, Oxford reports recovering from a fever that disrupted his travels, asks Burghley to extend his licence for a further summer, requests repayment of a loan of 500 crowns, and seeks to recover leases from a servant, Luc Atslow, who has converted to Rome.
Letter 08	Written 27 November 1575 from Padua, a brief letter instructing Burghley not to delay the sale of his lands and to proceed with the arrangements Oxford had set in train before his departure.
Letter 09	Written 3 January 1576 from Siena, Oxford instructs Burghley to sell a further hundred pounds a year of land to discharge his debts, dismisses an agent named Hulbert for dishonesty, and reflects at length on the difficulty of his financial situation, concluding he intends to continue his travels rather than return while his affairs remain so encumbered.
Letter 10	Written 27 April 1576 from Greenwich, Oxford bluntly informs Burghley that he does not intend to resume cohabitation with his wife Anne, citing private grievances he declines to specify. He consents to Anne being received into Burghley’s household and asks not to be pressed further on the matter.
Letter 11	Written 13 July 1576 from Charing Cross, Oxford sets out the limited terms on which he agreed to allow Anne to return to court — that she should not be present when he was there, nor speak with him — and warns Burghley not to exceed those terms or exploit his conditional agreement.
Letter 12	Written 21 May 1578, a registered copy not in Oxford’s hand, pledging an investment of £1,000 in Martin Frobisher’s third voyage in search of the Northwest Passage to Cathay.
Letter 13	Written around July 1581, Oxford thanks Burghley for interceding with the Queen for his release from confinement, relays the Queen’s message to him via Walsingham concerning Howard, Southwell and Arundell, and asks Burghley to keep reminding her of his case lest it be forgotten among other business.
Letter 14	Written around June 1583, Oxford intercedes with Burghley on behalf of Lord Lumley, his kinsman by marriage, asking for Burghley’s favour in easing Lumley’s payments to the Queen, and appealing to the close bond between their two families.
Letter 15	Written 30 October 1584, partly in an amanuensis’s hand. Oxford asks Burghley to help arrange a settlement of his debt to the Queen so that purchasers of his lands may be secured against encumbrance. In a postscript in his own hand he sharply rebukes Burghley for sending for his servants behind his back, insisting he is neither Burghley’s ward nor his child.
Letter 16	Written 25 June 1586, Oxford asks Burghley to lend him £200 to sustain his attendance at court while awaiting the Queen’s fulfilment of a promise, noting he cannot leave court to raise money in London for fear of missing the resolution of the suit.
Letter 17	Written 5 August 1590, Oxford asks Burghley’s written approval to dispose of his lease of Aveley in order to raise £300 to redeem leases at Hedingham, setting out the legal encumbrances that make the Aveley lease difficult to assign without Burghley’s express authority.
Letter 18	Written 8 September 1590, Oxford reports on a dispute with a tenant named Bellingham — noting his criminal record and forfeited pardon — and asks Burghley to allow time for his counsel to answer the complaints that will be made against his officers at the start of term.
Letter 19	Written 18 May 1591, Oxford thanks Burghley for taking action against his agent Hampton, whose fraudulent dealings with his legal affairs and tenants are detailed, and asks Burghley to press both Hampton and a second agent, Amis, into compliance. He then raises a separate proposal to purchase the demesne lands of Denbigh from the Queen, offering to offset part of the price against his Exchequer pension and his claim to Waltham Forest, in hopes of finally settling himself on a secure landed estate and making proper provision for his children.
Letter 20	Written 30 June 1591, Oxford reports that his agent Hampton had misled him about the terms of a lease and asks Burghley, now properly informed of the situation, to continue his favour and help secure a new lease from the Queen on the original intended terms.
Letter 21	Written 25 October 1593, Oxford recounts the long history of his claim to the keepership of Waltham Forest, including the Queen’s refusal to hear the Lord Chancellor’s arbitration report, and asks Burghley’s advice on whether to pursue a new suit for recompense or seek to revive the original legal claim.
Letter 22	Written 7 July 1594, Oxford asks Burghley to hear his attorney or counsel on abuses connected with his office that have prejudiced both the Queen and himself, hoping to obtain redress now that Burghley’s earlier favourable disposition towards the matter has been renewed.
Letter 23	Written 24 April 1595 to Cecil, Oxford reports that the Earl of Derby has failed to honour his promise of a £1,000 annual allowance for Oxford’s daughter Elizabeth, and urges Cecil as her uncle to press Burghley to compel Derby to fulfil his word.
Letter 24	Written 20 October 1595, Oxford again presses the Waltham Forest keepership claim with Cecil, setting out the history of the Queen’s refusal to hear the arbitration, and asks Cecil and Burghley to urge the Queen either to restore his right or proceed against him by law rather than by plain suppression. In a postscript he notes that Burghley fears the Earl of Essex may seek the office, a course Oxford refuses to forestall by petitioning Essex directly.
Letter 25	Written 21 October 1595, the day after the preceding letter, Oxford writes again to Cecil on the Waltham Forest suit, prompted by news that the Vice-Chamberlain is gravely ill and the keepership may fall vacant, asking Cecil to make his desire known to the Queen as the only person at court on whom he can rely.
Letter 26	Written 6 September 1596 from Cannon Row, Oxford reports that the relevant document is at his country house and he will retrieve and send it shortly, and clarifies that it was a Mr Barnardeux rather than a Mr Hicks who was employed by the Earl of Derby in the matter of his daughter’s jointure.
Letter 27	Written 17 September 1596, Oxford sends Cecil a document relating to his daughter Elizabeth’s financial settlement with the Earl of Derby, uncertain whether it covers her pension or her jointure. He asks Cecil, as her uncle, to take a fatherly interest in her affairs in Oxford’s absence and to advise him on the state of her situation.
Letter 28	Written 11 January 1597, Oxford defends his wife Elizabeth against a petition to the Privy Council by a man named Gurlyn, arguing that the complaint is wholly false since the matter predates their marriage and his wife had no knowledge of it. He thanks Cecil for alerting her to the petition and asks him to ensure Gurlyn receives appropriate censure.
Letter 29	Written 8 September 1597, Oxford returns letters from the Earl and Countess of Pembroke to Burghley and gives his opinion on the proposed match between his daughter Bridget and Pembroke’s son, expressing his approval of both the offer and the young man and urging that it be concluded without delay.
Letter 30	Written July 1600 from Hackney, Oxford asks Cecil to support his suit for the office of the Isle of Jersey, vacant on the death of Sir Anthony Paulet, appealing to their family alliance and arguing the grant would cost the Queen nothing since she must bestow it on someone.
Letter 31	Written 2 February 1601, Oxford asks Cecil to support his candidacy for the Presidency of Wales should the Queen be minded to confer it, requesting not that Cecil move the suit but that he encourage the Queen if she raises it herself.
Letter 32	Written around May 1601, Oxford warmly acknowledges a message from Cecil delivered by Henry Locke, invoking their close family ties through Oxford’s children — Cecil’s own nephews and nieces — and again presses the suit for the Presidency of Wales.
Letter 33	Written 11 May 1601, Oxford thanks Cecil for continuing to press his suit with the Queen and promises to come to court the following day to express his gratitude in person, commending the cause entirely to Cecil’s friendship.
Letter 34	Written 7 October 1601 from Hackney, Oxford thanks Cecil for attending the hearing of his cause and asks him to secure a warrant to his cousin Bacon and Sergeant Harris to perfect the book of grant from the Queen concerning the Danvers escheat.
Letter 35	Written 22 November 1601 from Hackney, Oxford excuses his delayed reply on grounds of illness, defends his agent Cauley against Cecil’s criticism, and asks Cecil to procure the Queen’s signed warrant for a grant of her interest in the Danvers escheat.
Letter 36	Written 4 December 1601, Oxford reproaches Cecil for what he perceives as a cooling of support, reminds him of his original encouragement and the Queen’s own gracious words at Greenwich, and urges him to bring the Danvers escheat suit to a conclusion.
Letter 37	Written January 1602, Oxford presses Cecil to bring the Danvers escheat to a resolution, noting that the judges have now heard the case, that his trust in both the Queen and Cecil may be misplaced, and that a year of delay has wearied him beyond the value of the suit itself.
Letter 38	Written 22 March 1602 from Hackney, Oxford demands a direct answer from the Queen via Cecil on whether she will honour her promise of a patent for the Danvers escheat, observing that a year of legal process has produced only confusion and that he wishes to be quieted by reason rather than by exhaustion.
Letter 39	Written 27 April 1603 to Cecil, Oxford expresses grief at the death of Elizabeth I, reflecting on the long service both he and Cecil gave her, and asks to be kept informed of arrangements for receiving the new king James I, explaining that his infirmity and distance from court leave him poorly placed to attend without notice.
Letter 40	Written 7 May 1603 from Hackney, Oxford sets out his ancestral claim to the keepership of Waltham Forest and Havering Park, tracing it back to before the Norman Conquest, and asks Cecil and the Lord Admiral to help him secure King James’s resolution in his favour.
Letter 41	Written 12 June 1603, a brief note to Cecil acknowledging the burden of his public responsibilities and asking him together with the Lord Admiral to procure a final resolution of the Waltham Forest keepership suit.
Letter 42	Written 16 June 1603, Oxford reports that the Attorney General requires a warrant signed by six Councillors before he can proceed with the keepership grant, and asks Cecil to procure that warrant as a matter of urgency.
Letter 43	Written 19 June 1603, Oxford urges Cecil to secure a final resolution of the keepership suit that very day, warning that the King’s imminent removal to Windsor will otherwise cause further indefinite delay.
Letter 44	Oxford’s last surviving letter, addressed to King James on 30 January 1604. Oxford reports abuses in Waltham Forest and Havering Park, submits depositions from witnesses, and petitions the King to punish Sir John Grey for unlawfully killing deer and to restore Oxford to full possession of both keeperships.