Queen Elizabeth herself, and London as it was in her time, with
sketches of Elizabethan England, and of its great men in the way of
social dignity, are here brought home to us by Paul Hentzner and Sir
Robert Naunton.
Paul Hentzner was a German lawyer, born at Crossen, in Brandenburg,
on the 29th of January, 1558. He died on the 1st January, 1623. In
1596, when his age was thirty-eight, he became tutor to a young
Silesian nobleman, with whom he set out in 1597 on a three years'
tour through Switzerland, France, England, and Italy. After his
return to Germany in 1600, he published, at Nuremberg, in 1612, a
description of what he had seen and thought worth record, written in
Latin, as "Itinerarium Germaniae, Galliae, Angliae, Italiae, cum
Indice Locorum, Rerum atque Verborum."
Horace Walpole caused that part of Hentzner's Itinerary which tells
what he saw in England to be translated by Richard Bentley, son of
the famous scholar, and he printed at Strawberry Hill two hundred
and twenty copies. In 1797 "Hentzner's Travels in England" were
edited, together with Sir Robert Naunton's "Fragmenta Regalia," in
the volume from which they are here reprinted, with notes by the
translator and the editor.
Sir Robert Naunton was of an old family with large estates, settled
at Alderton, in Suffolk. He was at Cambridge in the latter years of
Elizabeth's reign, having entered as Fellow Commoner at Trinity
College, and obtained a Fellowship at Trinity Hall. Naunton went to
Scotland in 1589 with an uncle, William Ashby, whom Queen Elizabeth
sent thither as Ambassador, and was despatched to Elizabeth's court
from Scotland as a trusty messenger. In 1596-7 he was in France,
and corresponded with the Earl of Essex, who was his friend. After
the fall of Essex he returned to Cambridge, and was made Proctor of
the University in 1601, three years after Paul Hentzner's visit to
England. Then he became Public Orator at Cambridge, and by a speech
made to King James at Hinchinbrook won his Majesty's praise for
Latin and learning. He came to court in the service of Sir James
Overbury, obtained the active friendship of George Villiers Duke of
Buckingham, and was sworn as Secretary of State on the 8th January,
1617. The king afterwards gave Naunton the office of Master of the
Court of Wards and Liveries.
Sir Robert Naunton wrote his recollections of the men who served
Queen Elizabeth when he was near the close of his own life. It was
after 1628, because he speaks of Edward Somerset, Earl of Worcester,
as dead, and before 1632, because he speaks of Sir William Knollys
living as the only Earl of Banbury. He was created Earl of Banbury
in 1626, and died in 1632. The "Fragmenta Regalia" were first
published in 1641, after Sir Robert's death. They were reprinted in
1642 and 1653, since which date they have appeared in various
collections.
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