no longer, privately hath agreed on
a match with Sir John Villiers for hys youngest daughter Franche, the
mother's Darling, with which the King was acquainted withall and writt
to have it done before hys coming backe."

And presently he says:--

"The caryadge of the business hath made such a ster in the Towne as
never was: Nothing can fully represent it but a Commedye."

A letter written on the same day by Sir John Finet mentions the
projected marriage of Sir Edward Coke's daughter with Sir John
Villiers, who would have L2,000 a year from Buckingham, and be left
heir of his lands, as he was already of his Earldom, failing the
Earl's male issue. He adds that Sir Edward Coke went cheerily to visit
the Queen, and that the common people said he would die Lord
Treasurer. Such gossip as that must have been anything but amusing to
Bacon.

The Coke-Villiers engagement had now become almost, if not quite, a
State affair. Nearly three weeks later Sir Horace Vere wrote to
Carleton:--[25]

"I hear nothing so much spoken of here as that of Sir John Villiers
and Sir Ed. Coke's daughter. My Lady Hatton doth continue stiff
against yt, and yesterday I wayted upon my wife to my Lady of
Northumberland's. She tould my wife that she gives yt out that her
daughter is formmerlie contracted to an other and to such a one that
will not be afeard to plead his interest if he be put to yt."

Six days afterwards a third candidate for Frances Coke was talked
about. George Gerrard wrote to the same correspondent:--[26]

"The Lady Hatton's daughter to be maryed to one Cholmely a Baronet. Of
late here is by all the frendes of my Lady Hatton a Contract published
of Her Daughter Frances to the Erle of Oxford which was sent him to
Venice: to which he hath returned and answer that he will come
presently over, and see her fayre eyes and conclude the what he shall
thinke fit for him to doe: I have sent your Lordship Mis Frances
Coke's Love Letter to my Lord of Oxford herein concluded: I believe
you never read the like: Thys is like to become a grate business: for
the King hath shewed himselfe much in advancing thys matter for Sir
John Villiers."

He says that Lady Elizabeth offers to give Lord Oxford "besydes her
daughter ... ten and thirty hundred pound a year, which will before
twenty years passe bee nigh 6000L a yeare besydes two houses well
furnisht. A Greate fortune for my Ld. yett it is doubted wheather hee
will endanger the losse of the Kin