in public affairs, added the peculiar one, for
this service, of a zealous attachment to the Romish faith, proved by his
determined opposition in the house of lords to the bill of uniformity
lately carried by a great majority. The explanations and arguments of
the viscount prevailed so far with Philip, that he ordered his
ambassador at Rome to oppose the endeavours of the French court to
prevail on the pope to fulminate his ecclesiastical censures against
Elizabeth. It was found impracticable, however, to bring him to terms of
cordial amity with a heretic sovereign whose principles he both detested
and dreaded; and by returning, some time after, the decorations of the
order of the garter, he distinctly intimated to the queen, that motives
of policy alone restrained him from becoming her open enemy.

For ambassador to the emperor she made choice, at the recommendation
probably of Cecil, of his relation and beloved friend sir Thomas
Chaloner the elder, a statesman, a soldier, and a man of letters; and in
these three characters, so rarely united, one of the distinguished
ornaments of his age. He was born in 1515 of a good family in Wales,
and, being early sent to Cambridge, became known as a very elegant Latin
poet, and generally as a young man of the most promising talents. After
a short residence at court, his merit caused him to be selected to
attend into Germany sir Henry Knevet the English ambassador, with a view
to his qualifying himself for future diplomatic employment. At the court
of Charles V. he was received with extraordinary favor; and after
waiting upon that monarch, in several of his journeys, he was at length
induced, by admiration of his character, to accompany him as a volunteer
in his rash expedition against Algiers. He was shipwrecked in the storm
which almost destroyed the fleet, and only escaped drowning by catching
in his mouth, as he was struggling with the waves, a cable, by which he
was drawn up into a ship with the loss of several of his teeth.

Returning home, he was made clerk of the council, which office he held
during the remainder of Henry's reign. Early in the next he was
distinguished by the protector, and, having signalized his valor in the
battle of Pinkey, was knighted by him on the field. The fall of his
patron put a stop to his advancement; but he solaced himself under this
reverse by the cultivation of literature, and of friendship with such
men as Cook, Smith, Cheke, and Cecil. The s