[Sidenote: Queen Elizabeth's favourite] Their services were dispensed with when Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, arrived in Dublin on April 15, 1599, his appointment dating from March 12, 1598. The Earl of Essex was one of the most romantic figures in the later court of Queen Elizabeth. When, as a boy of ten, Robert Devereux appeared at court, the queen was fascinated by his beauty and his charming manners. She sent for him later, and his early days were distinguished by the confidence of the queen. Elizabeth was an old woman when Essex was in {77} the first flower of his manhood, but he was as crafty as he was handsome, and he made every use of his power over the queen, a monarch aping youth with the aid of powder and paint. She made Essex the most powerful of courtiers, and he attempted to reserve her favour for himself. When the queen showed kindness to Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, Essex, ever passionate and prone to quarrel, sought out his rival and challenged him to a duel. The result was abortive, but it was only one of a series of incidents which showed Elizabeth that she was raising Essex higher than his peculiar temperament made promotion safe. On one occasion he actually reproached the queen, who in a moment of rage forgot her pose of youth, and boxed the earl's ears. But he was still in the royal favour when Elizabeth sent him to Ireland with fifteen thousand men, his mission being to crush the rebellion of O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. From her palace in London the queen wrote almost daily to the viceroy, seldom commending him, often hampering, and always petulant and capricious. Essex tried one or two encounters with the enemy, and found the battlefields of Ireland profitless and dangerous to the health of one whose chivalry was better suited to the drawing-room. He hastily concluded a treaty of peace with Tyrone, appointed Lords Justices to carry on the government, and repaired to England on September 24, having spent less than five months in Ireland. Only one who was certain of Elizabeth's favour could have dared to do such a thing, but Essex entered {78} London in the temper of a spoilt child, prepared to rail at the queen for having dared to criticize him, and no doubt expecting to receive her apologies. The queen upset his calculations by having him arrested promptly, and although the public offered up prayers for his restoration to the good graces of the queen, these prayers were unanswered, because Essex was not the man to believe in his sovereign's determination. The arrest he regarded as a joke--in bad taste, perhaps, but still a joke--and when its seriousness dawned upon him he tried to retaliate in kind. In 1601 he was executed. The charges against him were, first, with making a dishonourable treaty with the rebels, and, second, leaving his Government without the permission of the authorities--that is, the queen and Council. When released from the Tower and ordered to remain at York House, Essex