The death of Queen Elizabeth on the 24th of March 1602-3 proved
a great misfortune to Raleigh; James her successor having been
prejudiced against him by the earl of Essex, who insinuated that
Raleigh was no friend to his succession, nor had any regard for his
family. And these prejudices were heightened by secretary Cecil in his
private correspondence with that pusilanimous, jealous prince, before
he ascended the Throne of England, or at least immediately upon that
event; for tho' Raleigh and Cecil had united against Essex, yet
after the ruin of that earl and his party, their seeming friendship
terminated in a mutual struggle for a superiority of power. But there
is another important cause of James's disgust to Sir Walter, which is,
that he, lord Cobham, and Sir John Fortescue, would have obliged the
king to articles before he was admitted to the throne, and that the
number of his countrymen should be limitted; which added to the
circumstance of Sir Walter's zeal to take off his mother, inspired his
majesty with a confirmed aversion to him; and indeed the tragical end
of the queen of Scots is, perhaps, the greatest error with which the
annals of that glorious reign is stained. Raleigh in vain endeavoured
to gain the affection of the new king, which he attempted by
transfering on secretary Cecil the blood of the earl of Essex, as well
as that of his royal mother; but this attempt to secure the affections
of a weak prince, ended in his ruin, for it exasperated Cecil the more
against him; and as Sir Walter was of an active martial genius, the
king, who was a lover of peace, and a natural coward, was afraid that
so military a man would involve him in a war, which he hated above all
things in the world. Our author was soon removed from his command as
captain of the guard, which was bestowed upon Sir Thomas Erskin, his
majesty's favourite as well as countryman[10], the predecessor to the
earl of Mar, whose actions, performed in the year 1715, are recent in
every one's memory.

Not long after his majesty's ascending the throne of England, Sir
Walter was charged with a plot against the king and royal family; but
no clear evidence was ever produced that Raleigh had any concern in
it. The plot was to have surprized the king and court, to have created
commotions in Scotland, animated the discontented in England, and
advanced Arabella Stuart, cousin to the king, to the throne. Arabella
was the daughter of lord Charles Stuart, youn