Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/176

 was early introduced by his father to the court, and appears to have entered eagerly into its amusements, especially that of tilting, in which he excelled. While still a youth, the Princess Elizabeth tied round his arm at a tournament a scarf of red silk. This he is represented as wearing in the fine portrait now the property of Lord North at Wroxton.

In 1555 he was elected knight of the shire for the county of Cambridge, and was re-elected to sit in the parliaments of 1558 and 1563 for the same county, which he continued to represent until, on the death of his father in 1564, he took his seat in the House of Lords. He was among the knights of the Bath created at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, and in July of the same year was, with the Earl of Ormonde and Sir John Perrot [q. v.], one of the challengers at the grand tournament in Greenwich Park. In February 1559 Sir William Cecil wrote to Archbishop Parker, begging that the bearer of the letter, Sir Roger North, might have a dispensation from fasting in Lent, ‘in consideration of his evil estate of health, and the danger that might follow if he should be restrained to eating of fish.’ In 1564, on his succession to his father's title, he set himself diligently to the management of his estates and domestic affairs. In 1568 he was elected alderman and free burgess of the town of Cambridge.

After North had spent two years in Walsingham's house, in some official capacity, he was sent, in 1568, with the Earl of Sussex, on an embassy to Vienna, to invest the Emperor Maximilian with the order of the Garter. The Archduke Charles was then paying court to Elizabeth, and it is said that North, in the interest of Leicester, sought to discourage the suit by putting forward an opinion that the queen would never marry. But on his return he was commissioned to present her with the archduke's portrait.

In May 1569 North, as a commissioner of musters for the county of Cambridge, threatened to enrol the servants of scholars of the university. On an appeal to the lords of the council, it was decided that the scholars' servants were privileged to exemption. On 20 Nov. in the same year he was appointed lord-lieutenant and custos rotulorum of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. In January 1572 he was one of the six-and-twenty peers who, with the Earl of Shrewsbury as president, were summoned to Westminster Hall at two days' notice to sit as judges on the trial of Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk [q. v.] The duke was condemned to death. Fresh duties were soon thrown upon North by his appointment to the high stewardship of the town of Cambridge; and in the exercise of his authority he often came into collision with the university. The latter made a remonstrance as to the countenance North—who was a great patron of players—gave to certain strollers who had performed at Chesterton in defiance of the vice-chancellor's prohibition.

It has been stated that North was on one occasion employed on a special mission to the court of Charles IX of France, but dates and details are wanting. A better known embassy was that of 1574, when, on the death of Charles IX, he was sent as ambassador extraordinary with letters of congratulation to Henry III on his accession, and of condolence to the queen-mother. North was also charged with the more delicate task of demanding a larger measure of toleration for the Huguenots, and of negotiating for a renewal of the treaty of Blois (first concluded in 1572), which provided that the sovereigns of England and France should assist each other when assailed, on every occasion and for every cause, not excepting that of religion.

North found an able and loyal supporter in Dr. (afterwards Sir) Valentine Dale [q. v.], master of requests, then resident ambassador at the court of France. But Henry and his mother were difficult to deal with. On some public occasion, moreover, the gentlemen of the English embassy were treated with rudeness by the Duc de Guise, and it was reported to North that two female dwarfs had been incited to mimic Queen Elizabeth for the amusement of Catherine de' Medici and her ladies. To crown all, a buffoon dressed in imitation of Henry VIII was introduced before the court in the presence of North and his suite. In spite of such annoyances, North's tact won him golden opinions; while his perfect mastery of the Italian tongue stood him in good stead with Catherine de' Medici and the king, who found pleasure in conversing with him in it. In November 1574 he set sail for England. He received 1,161l. for his expenses. Notwithstanding much discouragement, his mission was not in the end unfruitful. On 30 April 1575 the king of France solemnly renewed the treaty of Blois.

Soon after his return to England, North was directed by the queen to negotiate with Bishop Cox of Ely, in her behalf, for a lease of the bishop's manor and park of Somersham. The bishop had previously evaded the queen's request for the estate, and a bitter quarrel followed between him and North. Somersham was not then surrendered either to the queen or to North; but on the death of the bishop in 1581 it came into Eliza-