Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/135

 of Grave, the Spaniards immediately afterwards were admitted within its walls. Leicester ordered Hemart to be shot. Norris urged some milder measure, a course which Leicester warmly resented. Leicester informed Lord Burghley that Norris was in love with Hemart's aunt, and had allowed his private feelings to influence his conduct of affairs (, ii. 24). Norris's real motive was doubtless a desire to conciliate native sentiment.

Meanwhile Leicester's inexperience as a military commander rendered the English auxiliaries almost helpless, and their camp was torn by internal dissensions. Jealous of Norris's superior skill, Leicester was readily drawn into an open quarrel with him, and its continuance throughout the campaign of 1586 was largely responsible for the want of success. Leicester complained to Walsingham that Norris habitually treated him with disrespect. Norris ‘matched,’ he said, ‘the late Earl of Sussex,’ his old enemy at court. ‘He will so dissemble, so crouch, and so cunningly carry his doings as no man living would imagine that there were half the malice or vindicative mind that doth plainly his deeds prove to be. … Since the loss of Grave he is as coy and as strange to give any counsel or any advice as if he were a mere stranger to us’ (Leycester Correspondence, Camd. Soc., p. 301 seq.). Leicester surmised that Norris aspired to his command. Could not Walsingham secure Norris's recall? Was there no need of him in Ireland? Walsingham took seriously these childish grumblings which formed a main topic of Leicester's despatches, and he appealed to Norris to treat Leicester in more conciliatory fashion. But the queen understood Norris's worth, and declined to recall him. She openly attributed Leicester's complaints to private envy, and the earl found it politic to change his tone. In August (ib. p. 385) he wrote home that he had always loved Norris, and at length found him tractable. In the sight of other observers than Leicester, Norris combined tact with his courage. Writing to Burghley on 24 May from Arnhem, Thomas Doyley commended his valour and wisdom, ‘but above the rest, his especial patience in temporising, wherein he exceedeth most of his age’ (, pp. 101–522; cf., ii. 259).

Despite his uncongenial environment, Norris did good service in May 1586 in driving the Spaniards from Nymegen and the Betwe. But when he was ordered to Utrecht, in August, to protect South Holland, Leicester foolishly excluded from his control the regiment of Sir William Stanley, who was in the neighbourhood at Deventer, and thus deprived the operations of the homogeneity which was essential to success. Immediately afterwards he received from home a commission as colonel-general of the infantry, with powers to nominate all foot captains.

On 22 Sept. Norris took a prominent part jointly with Stanley in the skirmish near Zutphen, in which Sir Philip Sidney was fatally wounded. On 6 Oct. Leicester wrote: ‘Norris is a most valiant soldier surely, and all are now perfect good friends here.’ But before the end of the year Norris was recalled to England, despite the protests of the States-General, from whom his many achievements in their service had won golden opinions (, p. 834, cf. p. 931). At court the queen, despite her previous attitude, treated him with some disdain as the enemy of Leicester, but in the autumn of 1587 he was recalled to Holland. Lord Willoughby, who succeeded Leicester in the command in November 1587, wisely admitted that Norris was better fitted for the post; but he resented the presence of Norris in a subordinate capacity on the scene of his former triumphs. Disputes readily arose between them. The queen treated Norris with so much consideration that Willoughby declared him to be ‘more happy than a Cæsar.’ ‘If I were sufficient,’ he argued, ‘Norris were superfluous’ (, p. 187). This view finally prevailed, and at the beginning of 1588 Norris was at home once more. In April he was created M.A. at Oxford, on the occasion of Essex's incorporation in that degree (, Fasti, i. 278). During the summer, while the arrangements for the resistance of the Spanish Armada were in progress, he was at Tilbury, and acted as marshal of the camp under Leicester. He was also employed in inspecting the fortifications of Dover, and in preparing Kent to meet invasion (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1581–90, pp. 501, 511). But his active services were not required. After the final defeat of the Armada, he strongly recommended an invasion of Spain, and offered to collect troops in Ireland. In October he was ordered to the Low Countries in a new capacity, as ambassador to the States-General, to thank them for their aid in resisting the Armada, to consider with them the further prosecution of the war, and to arrange the withdrawal of troops to take part in an expedition to Portugal (, pp. 225–6). Willoughby, still the commander-in-chief in Holland, was directed to give Norris all the assistance in his power; ‘but he is so sufficient,’ Willoughby wrote, ‘to debate in this cause as my counsels are but drops in the sea.’

In April 1589 Norris took command, along with Drake, of the great expedition