isking adversary?" He
died a natural death in the Tower in September 1592. It is probable that
had he lived the Queen would have pardoned him. It was rumoured at the
time that she intended to do so. While such an intention appears
probable from the fact that after his death his son was restored to his
estates, it is more likely that Perrot's death, while under the Queen's
disfavour, softened her resentment toward his family. Perrot's son, Sir
Thomas, who inherited his estates, had incurred the ill-will of
Elizabeth some years before by his clandestine marriage to Dorothy
Devereux, sister of the Earl of Essex. She vented her displeasure upon
every one remotely concerned in this transaction. Essex, who was
entirely innocent of any complicity in it, was frowned upon for a time,
and Bishop Aylmer, under whose surreptitiously obtained licence the
marriage ceremony was performed, was called before the Council. The
Queen for years declined to receive Lady Perrot, and upon one occasion,
when visiting the Earl of Essex, refused to remain in his house upon the
arrival of his sister, and was pacified only when Lady Perrot removed to
a distant neighbour's.

It thus appears that the rancour of Elizabeth towards Sir John Perrot,
which led to his imprisonment in 1591 and his later prosecution, was
intensified by the fact of his family connection with the Earl of Essex,
who at this same period was deep in her disfavour owing to his own
unauthorised marriage to Lady Sidney. We may then infer that Court
circles were divided in their attitude towards Perrot, and that while
Sir Christopher Hatton and his followers were antagonistic to him, that
Essex and his faction were correspondingly sympathetic.

I am convinced that Shakespeare's first recast of _The Troublesome
Raigne of King John_ was made at about this period, at the instigation
of a court of action friendly to Perrot and antagonistic to Hatton, with
the intention of arousing sympathy for Perrot by presenting him
inferentially in heroic colours in the character of Falconbridge.
Whatever animosities his outspoken criticisms and arbitrary demeanour
may have aroused, amongst the courtiers and politicians, it is likely
that his romantic history, his personal bravery, and his interesting
personality had made him a hero to the younger nobility and the masses.
It is evident that the author of _The Troublesome Raigne of King John_
had Perrot in mind in the composition of that play, which i