Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/257

 THE SALISBURY LINE 221

child took place in the chapel at Court, " whence the Queen, Prince Palatine, Lady Elizabeth's highness, and all the company conveyed it home, and went by water to the banquet." l

We hear little of Lord Salisbury for the next few years, and may conclude that he was immersed in the affairs of his estate and of his rapidly growing family. His first son, James, was born in May, 1616, but though " the King was his godfather in person and held him at the font all the while he was christening, and gave him the reversion of all his father's places and offices, yet all these favours could not prolong life," 2 and the child died in the following October. Another son, Charles (born, 1619), lived to have a large family in his turn, though, dying before his father, he did not come into the title.

Salisbury continued to enjoy the Royal favour, and was created a K.G. by James, in 1624. Two years later he was admitted by Charles to the Privy Council, and he also received a promise of the reversion of the office of Master of the Court of Wards, held so long by his father and grand- father, and now administered by Sir R. Naunton. 3 But when the latter resigned in 1635, ne was passed over and Lord Cottington was selected for the post. " Salisbury," says Gardiner, " was notoriously incompetent to fulfil the duties of

1 Court and Times of James I., I. 229.

a Chamberlain to Carleton, November gth, 1616 (ibid., I. 436).

3 July zyth, 1630 (Cal. S. P. Dom.). The promise is qualified by the reservation: " unless, in the meantime, the King shall take some pther occasion to express his esteem for him."

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