n the 21st of April
1566 recalled him to England. On his return he was knighted in the
queen's presence, receiving at the same time the title of baron of
Buckhurst. With his mother he lived at the queen's palace of Sheen,
where he entertained in 1568 Odet de Coligni, cardinal de Chatillon. In
1571 he was sent to France to congratulate Charles IX. on his marriage
with Elizabeth of Austria, and he took part in the negotiations for the
projected marriage of Elizabeth with the duke of Anjou. He became a
member of the privy council, and acted as a commissioner at the state
trials. In 1572 he was one of the peers who tried Thomas Howard, duke of
Norfolk, and in 1586 he was selected to convey the sentence of death to
Mary, queen of Scots, a task he is said to have performed with great
consideration. He was sent in 1587 as ambassador to the Hague "to
expostulate in favour of peace with a people who knew that their
existence depended on war, to reconcile those to delay who felt that
delay was death, and to heal animosities between men who were enemies
from their cradles to their graves."[1] This task was further
complicated by the parsimony and prevarication of Elizabeth. Buckhurst
carried out under protest the foolish and often contradictory orders he
received. His plain speaking on the subject of Leicester's action in the
Netherlands displeased the queen still more. She accused him on his
return of having followed his instructions too slavishly, and ordered
him to keep to his own house for nine months. His disgrace was short,
for in 1588 he was presented with the order of the Garter, and was sent
again to the Netherlands in 1589 and 1598. He was elected chancellor of
the university of Oxford in 1591, and in 1599 he succeeded Lord Burghley
as lord high treasurer of England. In 1601 as high steward he pronounced
sentence on Essex, who had been his rival for the chancellorship and his
opponent in politics. James I. confirmed him in the office of lord
treasurer, the duties of which he performed with the greatest
impartiality. He was created earl of Dorset in 1604, and died suddenly
on the 19th of April 1608, as he was sitting at the council table at
Whitehall. His eldest son, Robert, the 2nd earl (1561-1609), was a
member of parliament and a man of great learning. Two other sons were
William (c. 1568-1591), a soldier who was killed in the service of Henry
IV. of France, and Thomas (1571-1646), also a soldier.

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