pported the creation
of the order of baronets, each of whom was to pay the crown L1000; and
in 1611 he himself received the title.

Cotton helped John Speed in the compilation of his _History of England_
(1611), and was regarded by contemporaries as the compiler of Camden's
_History of Elizabeth_. It seems more likely that it was executed by
Camden, but that Cotton exercised a general supervision, especially with
regard to the story of Mary queen of Scots. The presentation of his
mother's history was naturally important to James I., and Cotton himself
took a keen interest in the matter. He had had the room in Fotheringay
where Mary was executed transferred to his family seat at Connington.
Meanwhile he was enlarging his collection of documents. In 1614 Arthur
Agarde (q.v.) left his papers to him, and Camden's manuscripts came to
him in 1623. In 1615 Cotton, as the intimate of the earl of Somerset,
whose innocence he always maintained, was placed in confinement on the
charge of being implicated in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury; he
confessed that he had acted as intermediary between Sarmiento, the
Spanish ambassador, and Somerset, and had altered the dates of
Somerset's correspondence. He was released after about eight months'
imprisonment without formal trial, and obtained a pardon on payment of
L500. His friendship with Gondomar, Spanish ambassador in England from
1613 to 1621, brought further suspicion, probably undeserved, upon
Cotton, of unduly favouring the Catholic party. From Charles I. and
Buckingham Cotton received no favour; his attitude towards the court had
begun to change, and he became the intimate friend of Sir John Eliot,
Sir Simonds d'Ewes and John Selden. He had entered parliament in 1604 as
member for Huntingdon; in 1624 he sat for Old Sarum; in 1625 for
Thetford; and in 1628 for Castle Rising, Norfolk. In the debate on
supply in 1625 Cotton provided Eliot with full notes defending the
action of the opposition in parliament, and in 1628 the leaders of the
party met at Cotton's house to decide on their policy. In 1626 he gave
advice before the council against debasing the standard of the coinage;
and in January 1628 he was again before the council, urging the summons
of a parliament. His arguments on the latter occasion are contained in
his tract entitled _The Danger in which the Kingdom now standeth and the
Remedy_. In October of the next year he was arrested, together with the
earls of Bedford, So