Henry Neville (politician) - Later Life

Later Life

In 1599, Neville was appointed Ambassador to France and attended the Court of Henri IV. Although knighted for his services in France, he was unhappy with the way he was treated by the French and in 1600, complaining of deafness, he asked to be recalled to the Kingdom of England.

After his return he became involved with the plot of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He was stripped of his position and fined £5,000, which he agreed to pay in annual instalments of £1,000. After the death of Elizabeth I of England and the accession of James I a Royal Warrant was issued for his release.

After his release, he played a greater role in the political life of Great Britain and earned the antagonism of King James by advocating the King surrender to the demands of the House of Commons. It was this action that, on the death of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, lost him the possibility of becoming the Secretary of State. Although offered the position of Treasurer of the Chamber he turned it down.

Neville died in 1615 and was buried at the church of St Lawrence in Waltham St Lawrence.

Read more about this topic:  Henry Neville (politician)

Famous quotes containing the word life:

    She only said, ‘My life is dreary,
    He cometh not,’ she said;
    She said, ‘I am aweary, aweary,
    I would that I were dead!’
    Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)

    The life of a good man will hardly improve us more than the life of a freebooter, for the inevitable laws appear as plainly in the infringement as in the observance, and our lives are sustained by a nearly equal expense of virtue of some kind. The decaying tree, while yet it lives, demands sun, wind, and rain no less than the green one. It secretes sap and performs the functions of health. If we choose, we may study the alburnum only. The gnarled stump has as tender a bud as the sapling.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)