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366 YORK.
he was translated to York, in 1595. In the following
year, on the death of the Earl of Huntingdon, he
was appointed Lord President of the Council of the
North.
"Those who have written least favourably of
Button's character," says Surtees, "allow him the
credit of strong talent, sound learning, and a manly
and persuasive eloquence. His ungovernable violence
of temper, which has been recorded on more than
one occasion, has given some writers room to impute
to his whole character a shade of sour and puritanic
asperity. Yet the author of the beautiful and pathetic
letters in favour of Lady Margaret Neville ^ can scarce
be accused of want of feeling. It is not always easy
to define the exact bounds between human virtues
and human frailties : and if a strong consciousness of
talent, and a reliance on his own powers, sometimes
broke forth into asperitj- and violence, Hutton's conduct
on other occasions is equally stamped with an
honourable independence of sentiment which was by
no means general in his age or profession. That
prelate was no sycophant who durst preach before a
court on the instability of kingdoms and the change
of dynasties, and durst ring in Elizabeth's ear the
funereal knell of a successor." -
The " funereal knell " which Archbishop Hutton
sounded in Elizabeth's ear was prophetic. The great
Queen passed away on the 24th ISLirch, 1603.
'
Daughter of the Earl of Westmoreland, whose part in the
Rebellion of 1569 was the ruin of himself, his family, and the
great house of Neville.
- Surtees' " Hist. Durham,'' i. p. Ixxxiv.