Pressures from the Court of James

The last decade of Camden's life saw the intensification of conflicts both large and small as the world changed around him. Signal dates and events from the period identify turning points in the changing mood within the Jacobean court and government. Although Camden was not always an actor in these affairs, they involved him indirectly through the principal players, the men and institutions whose ambitions drew him into their orbit. In particular, Robert Cotton's career as collector, courtier, parliamentarian, and political adviser became more complicated and politically directed as he was drawn into the shadows of the Jacobean patronage system. Serving very closely the interests of the royal favourites, Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Robert Carr, the Earl of Somerset, and Thomas Howard, Lord Arundel, successively, his career cut across the overlapping spheres of the antiquarian, the collector, the herald and College of Arms, and both houses of Parliament. His intimacy with Camden continued without interruption, but each man had a markedly different relationship to the events, ideas, and issues of the times. Cotton worked within the patronage system, and this was a full-time job. All three of the men he served tried to affect social change through reform of the College of Arms. Two of them, the two Howards, effectively acted as Earl Marshal, and each enlisted Cotton's antiquarian and literary skills in their causes. In contrast, Camden, while close to what was going on, avoided patronage ties.