"Sir _Thomas Kiriell_ was beheaded with the Lord _Bouvile_ the
day after the second battell at _St. Albons_, in the raigne of
king Henry the sixth: or slain in the battell according to John
Harding.
'The Lords of the north southward came,
To Sainct _Albones_, vpon fasting gang eve
Wher then thei slewe the Lord Bouvile I leve
And Sir _Thomas Kyriell_ also of Kent,
With mekell folke, that pitee was to se.'"
The old chronicler Hollingshed describing this unhappy transaction
tells us with greater truth,--
"When the daie was closed, those that were about the king (in
number a twenty thousand) hearing how euill their fellowes had
sped, began utterlie to despair of the victorie, and so fell
without anie long tarriance to running awaie. By reason whereof,
the nobles that were about the king, perceiving how the game
went, and withall saw no comfort in the king, but rather a good
will and affection toward the contrarie part, they withdrew also,
leauing the king accompanied by the Lord Bonneuille and Sir
Thomas Kiriell of Kent, which vpon assurance of the king's
promise, tarried with him and fled not. But their trust deceived
them, for at the queenes departing from Saint Albons they were
both beheaded, though contrarie to the mind and promise of her
husband."
No record exists of Lord Bonville's burial place. At the first battle
of St. Alban's, in 1455, the Abbot craved the bodies of the slain
nobles from the victors, and buried them in the choir of the Abbey
Church. But after this second engagement, Margaret's ill-paid,
freebooting soldiers pillaged the town and abbey, so that probably
those that perished were hastily interred near where they fell. This
plundering the abbey "entirely changed the worthy Abbot Whethamstede's
politics, and from being a zealous Lancastrian, he became a Yorkist."
Lord Bonville's ancestors in the direct line were mostly, if not all,
buried in the choir of Newenham Abbey Church, near Axminster, of which
hardly a trace now remains.
At the death of Lord Bonville, his brother Thomas of Tamerton-Foliot,
was still alive, and survived until 11 Feb., 1467. He left one son
John, who deceased in 1494, leaving a daughter Anne, married to
Philip Coplestone. Some years anterior to this, the little
child-heiress of Shute, Cicely Bonville, grown to woman's estate, was
wedded,--and so, before the fifteenth century had closed, the antient
and influential name of Bonville was extinct.[15]
[15] There was a natural strain of the Bonvilles, settled at
Combe-Ralegh, and later at Ivybridge where, "by virtue of a
remainder, this land came unto William Lord Bonvill, which gave
it unto John Bonvill, his naturall sonne, begotten on his
concubine Elizabeth Kirkby, which John Bonvill, having only
daughters, gave it to his natural son, &c." (Pole). There were
several generations of them, and used for their arms those of
Bonville with the addition of _a bend sinister_; they also became
extinct.
It is with feelings of relief that we turn away, at least for a time,
from these scenes of horror. The Wars of the Roses appear to us, we
regret to say, to have been imbued with very little, if any, chivalry.
They were in the main, only fought for the selfish purpose, lust of
power, and as a consequence, were attended by the congenial sinister
characteristics of cruelty, treachery, and revenge. It is noteworthy
however, that notwithstanding so many of the common people shed their
blood and lost their lives thus freely, and it may be added
ignorantly, partly lured and partly compelled probably to take part in
these conflicts, at the bidding of their superiors in station and
wealth striving for the mastery, it was not upon them as a class the
great social misfortunes of the war fell. As a general result, the
engagements being over, their little houses and surroundings were
scarcely ever ravaged or destroyed, the humble partizans in these
sanguinary encounters, if victors, do not seem to have laid waste or
appropriated their beaten neighbours' possessions, but simply kept
their legions together, until their antagonists had time to rally, and
again gather themselves in array for another trial of strength; an
extraordinary, in its way, but by no means uncommon hallucination,
that has first and last, in the world's history, cost millions of
lives, wasted to determine the unmanly and degrading sentiment as to
who should be a nation's master and rule over them;--a totally
opposite aspiration to a people engaged fighting against a tyranny for
liberty. But not thus comparatively scatheless, did the great actors
in and promoters of this sanguinary drama, come off from the effects
of the internecine strife. These men were desperate gamblers for high
stakes, and the loss of the game to them was a fatal mischance,
resulting in the deprivation of their lives, the confiscation of their
estates, and occasionally--as with Bonville and the elder strain of
Courtenay, extermination of their race also. No such terrible social
quarrel ever convulsed England, nor heart-rending dissension so
bitter, sown between the nearest and dearest relatives and friends,
that the very commonest ties of humanity were outraged, dyed in blood,
and trampled under foot, until at last the majority of the most
illustrious families in the land were wrecked in misery and
destruction.
Over such a relation as this, friend of mine, fraught with
contingencies and evils so desperate, let us close the record for
awhile.
* * * * *
Old Shute Park! A royally descending gift of demesne,--as such, sacred
from the intrusion of despoiling hands, and therefore happily
preserved to us undesecrated of Nature's abounding charms and native
beauty.
Here we are, seated on one of its pleasant knolls, throned in
luxuriant ferns, surrounded by magnificent trees, and a calm, sunny,
summer evening. Overhead a congregation of noisy rooks are flapping
about, quarrelling with us apparently for thus intruding on the
solitude of their domain. Below, across the openings of a densely
foliaged avenue, a shadowy train of flying horn and bounding hoof has
passed noiseless as an apparition into the adjoining covert, where
they presently assemble in timorous conclave, at safer distance, alert
and watchful.
"Gold of the reddening sunset, backward thrown
In largess on these old paternal trees,
Thou with false hope or fear did'st never tease
His heart that hoards thee; nor is childhood flown,
From him, whose life no fairer boon hath known
Than that which pleased him earliest, still should please:
And who hath incomes safe from chance as these,
Gone in a moment, yet for life his own?"
Such is the commentary Nature suggests, as we linger on this
delightful acclivity. But what to us is the inspiration of the hour,
whose minds are now busy in contemplation of the olden doings of her
sons?
Look along that glade of venerable oaks, huge, gnarled, and twisted,
the duration of whose lives may be reckoned by centuries, yet still
hale, vigorous and leaf-arrayed, whose outward and visible aspect
during the little cycle of mortal existence that at present looks upon
them, has shewn no appreciable change, and will probably with
unvarying regularity continue to display their perennial Spring
garniture, to many succeeding generations, long after the eyes that
now behold them have closed for ever.
Among them yonder is a veteran with a regal appellative--called after
him, surnamed of Lackland,--"King John's Oak," with which monarch,
tradition delivers it was in existence contemporary. And who is to say
the legend is not correct, especially as every lineament of this aged
grandee of the forest's appearance, goes to confirm it. Could a tongue
be given thee, old tree, what a history mightest thou relate. Then,
probably in the vigour of early youth, thou mayest have witnessed the
_first_ Bonville, that claimed the ownership of this acclivity, pass
cross-bow in hand under thy branches. His influential descendant who
lies at rest in the valley of the far distance, and his still more
celebrated but unfortunate grandson--both, when in the flesh,--with
little doubt thou hast seen. Aye, even the little Lady Cicely--the
_last_ hope of their unfortunate race,--may have toddled and prattled
beneath thy shade, and afterward escorted by her noble husband,
accompanied by his august relative, the moody and astute Henry VII.,
and followed by her fine family, rested beside or near thee, when
that monarch and his host exercised their skill as bowmen in these
delightful glades.
Then a season of desertion and gloom fell for a time over these
erstwhile pleasant precincts; but when the star of the last Tudor
sovereign was in the ascendant, then it again became thy destiny to
welcome the new owner of this historic and time-honoured appanage, and
thenceforward from time to time to greet each succeeding inheritor
down to its genial possessor of the present hour. Here, may we not
appropriately say,
"Beneath thy shadowing leafage dense
What stories have been told;--
Perchance of booty won and shared
Beneath the starry cope,--
Or beauty kept an evil tryste,
Ensnared by love and hope,--
Of old intrigues,
And privy leagues,
Of traitor lips that muttered plots,
Of kin who fought and fell;
Performed long generations since,
If trees had tongues to tell."
Notwithstanding all the devices of man, for perpetuity of
remembrance,--Nature, changing yet changeless, silent, unobtrusive and
unobserved, often continues and preserves the clue that binds all our
generations together, long after our own mortal schemes and efforts,
though projected with the utmost care, have passed away; and carefully
and lovingly bridges the void of Time, if not by actual record, by the
even more true and gracious message of association.
And well it is so; in her tender keeping alone the memory of Bonville
is now seemingly vested, for of their former existence, residence, or
sepulture, otherwise not a vestige recalling their direct line, we
believe, remains. On the capitals of the pillars of Powderham church,
are shields displaying the _torteaux_ of Courtenay, impaling the
_mullets_ of Bonville, allusive to the marriage of Sir William
Courtenay, the Lord of Powderham, who died in 1485, with Margaret
Bonville, daughter of the noble and unfortunate victim of St. Albans,
and a further shield similarly charged, having relation to the same
alliance, is found on the capital of a pillar in Stockland church.
Beyond this, and until the girl-heiress of Shute had been many years
married, if not in her widowhood,--mementos which in due time will
engage our attention--no further trace has been discovered.
We descend from our pleasant elevation, and our steps lead us a short
distance over to what is now called Old Shute. The church stands on a
little acclivity to the left, but in addition to the tower, whose
supporting arches are of Early English type, coeval probably with the
first Bonville,--and were in being when the interesting christening
ceremony, previously recorded, took place,--there is apparently little
of the fabric that was in existence when the name was extinguished.
It is equally doubtful if any part of the present Old Shute House was
erected by them. The portion of the main fabric remaining, as also
the gate-house, are both of Elizabethan origin, and retain evidence of
having been erected by William Pole, Esq. (whose initials W. P. occur
in the spandrels of one of the doorways), who purchased the Bonville's
confiscated inheritance here of Secretary Petre, to whom Queen Mary
gave it, after the attainder and execution of the Duke of Suffolk,
last male representative of the Bonville blood.
And the mention of the name of the Duke of Suffolk brings us back
again to our little annals, and to Cicely, the girl-possessor of this
antient inheritance and a vast accumulation of other family property,
a baroness with the two titles of Bonville and Harington,--altogether
an heiress of the first magnitude.
After her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather's untimely
deaths, her mother the Lady Katharine, and her second husband Lord
Hastings, were constituted, as we have mentioned, her legal guardians,
and had custody of her estates until she was of age, which was fixed
at the mature period of sixteen. But this was considered quite a
marriageable age at that era; and which would have arrived at about
1476-7. We have also described how her stepfather Lord Hastings had
the wardship of her future husband, and so it fell out that in due
time "a convenient marriage was purveyed for her."
Thomas Grey was the eldest son of Sir John Grey of Groby, by his wife
Elizabeth,--daughter of Richard Widville, afterward Earl Rivers,--who
subsequently became Queen to Edward IV. Sir John Grey was killed
fighting on the side of the Red Rose at the second battle of St.
Albans, 18 Feb., 1460-1, the same engagement, after which Cicely's
great-grandfather lost his head.
He was first created Earl of Huntingdon 4 Aug., 1471, a title he
afterward relinquished on his being advanced to the Marquisate of
Dorset, an honour which was performed with great state ceremony 18
April, 1475, "_per cincturam gladii, et capae honoris et dignitatis
impositionem_, the coronet being omitted. Upon which day he sate in
his habit at the upper end of the table among the knights in St.
Edward's chamber."
The rich girl-bride was his second wife, and presumably he was
considerably her senior in years. His first wife was both of royal
descent and alliance, being his step-father's niece, Anne daughter of
the unfortunate Henry Holland, the last Duke of Exeter, found drowned
between Calais and Dover in 1473,--by his wife Anne, daughter of
Richard, Duke of York, and sister to Edward IV. There does not appear
to have been any issue of this marriage.
By his second wife Cicely Bonville, the Marquis is said to have had
the large family of fifteen (Leland makes it only fourteen) children,
seven sons and eight daughters.
Of the sons, Thomas the eldest succeeded his father to the title.
Leonard, was in 1536 created Viscount Graney in the peerage of
Ireland, and same year authorized to execute the office of Deputy of
Ireland under Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, natural son of king
Henry VIII., by Elizabeth daughter of Sir John Blount, and widow of
Gilbert, Lord Talboys. In 1540 he was recalled, and the next year
articles of high treason were exhibited against him, and although
he had shewn the king good services formerly both in France and
Ireland, was charged with a purpose to join Cardinal Pole and other
the king's enemies, and to that end had left the king's ordnance in
Galloway, and consented to the escape of his nephew Gerald (son of his
sister Eleanor), and being brought to trial confessed all. He was
thereupon beheaded on Tower Hill, and attainted by the Parliament then
sitting.
[Illustration: OLD SHUTE GATEWAY.]
This nephew, he had consented to the escape of, was Gerald, his
sister's eldest son, who subsequently became the eleventh Earl of
Kildare. He was born in 1525, and at the time of his half-brother's
execution about ten years of age. Henry VIII., "being very averse to
his whole family, and offering large sums of money for his
apprehension," the poor youth's peril was imminent, and his escapes
almost marvellous, from the treachery that environed him, and plots
laid to get possession of his person; besides disease and accidents of
extraordinary nature that otherwise threatened his existence. But he
contrived to keep safe until after the death of Henry VIII., when
Edward VI. reinstated him in much of his forfeited property, and Queen
Mary, at the intercession of Cardinal Pole, restored him, 13 May,
1554, to the titles of Baron Offaley and Earl of Kildare.
George was in holy orders. Edward and Anthony died young, and John, of
whom we have no further account.
Of the daughters,--Dorothy married first, Robert, the second Lord
Willoughby de Broke, and secondly, William Blount, seventh Lord
Montjoy, who died in 1594.
Cicely married John Sutton, seventh Lord Dudley,--"a man of weak
understanding, who became entangled in usurer's bonds, and at last
became exposed to the charity of his friends for subsistence, and
spending the remainder of his life in visits among them, was commonly
called _Lord Quondam_."
Mary, as his first wife, to Walter Devereux, Lord Ferrers of Chartley,
and Bourchier, created first Viscount Hereford, 1549, and K.G.
Margaret, as his second wife, to Richard Wake, of Hartwell,
Northamptonshire, second son and heir of Roger Wake of Blisworth in
the same county, who died 19 Henry VII., 1504.
Elizabeth, as his first wife, to Sir John Arundell of Lanherne,
Cornwall. He was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Arundell, K.B., who died
1 Oct., 1485, by Katharine, third daughter of Sir John Dinham, and
coheir to her brother John, Lord Dinham; their daughter Elizabeth was
wife of Giles, Lord Daubeney, K.G. "Sir John Arundell was made a
Knight of the Bath on the eve of All Saints, 31 October, 1494, Knight
of the Garter, 1501, and Knight Banneret in the expedition to
Terouenne and Tournay at the battle of 'the Spurs,' in 1513, Receiver
of the Duchy of Cornwall in 1506, and Receiver General for life, 1509"
(Dunkin). He died 36 Henry VIII., 1545. Their second son Thomas was
ancestor of the Lords Arundel of Wardour.
Their splendid and originally richly enamelled brass still exists in
the church of St. Columb-Major, Cornwall, in a fairly complete state,
the knight bare-headed, but otherwise in complete armour, between his
two wives (the second was Katharine, daughter of Sir Thomas
Grenville), in gowns, mantles, and pedimental head-dresses. Below them
were two smaller male figures, one partly perfect in armour, and
underneath again, six female children, of whom two remain. The
inscription, partly missing, is on a ledger-line,--
? =John Arundell Knyght of ye Bath and Knyght Banneret
Recey ... ye Duchye of Cornewall ffirst Ma ...
Elizabeth Grey Daughter to the Lorde Marques Dorse
& after Kateryn ye Daughter of Syr Thomas Gre ...
... ght of ffebruary the xxxvi yere of
the raigne of Kyng Henry the Eyght an^o domine 1545
and ye yere of his age=
There were formerly eight shields of arms; of these six remain
quartered as follows,--
(1.) _Baron_, quarterly of six:--1. ARUNDELL.--2. DINHAM.--3.
ARCHES.--4. CHIDEOCK.--5. CARMINOW.--6. ARUNDELL;--impaling _femme_,
quarterly of eight,--1. GREY.--2. HASTINGS.--3. VALENCE. 4. FERRERS OF
GROBY.--5. ASTLEY.--6. WIDVILLE.--7. BONVILLE.--8. HARINGTON. For Sir
John Arundell, and the Lady Elizabeth Grey, his first wife.
(2.) _Baron_, quarterly of six as before, impaling _femme_, quarterly
of four:--1 and 4. GRENVILLE.--2 and 3. WHITLEY. For Sir John Arundell
and Katharine Grenville his second wife.
(3.) _Baron_, as before, impaling _femme_, quarterly of four:--1.
HOWARD.--2. BROTHERTON.--3. WARREN.--4. MOWBRAY. For Sir Thomas
Arundell (second son of Sir John), and his wife Margaret Howard,
daughter of Lord Edmund Howard, and sister of Queen Katharine Howard.
(4.) _Baron_, quarterly of four:--1 and 4. EDGCUMBE.--2 and 3.
HOLLAND;--impaling _femme_, Arundell and other quartered coats as
before. For Richard Edgcumbe and Elizabeth daughter of Sir John
Arundell.
(5.) _Baron_, quarterly of eight:--1. RATCLIFFE.--2. FITZ-WALTER.--3.
BURNELL.--4. BOTETOURT.--5. LUCY.--6. MILTON.--7. MORTIMER OF
NORFOLK.--8. CULCHETH?;--impaling _femme_, Arundell with quartered
coats as before. For Mary (daughter of Sir John Arundell and his
second wife Katharine Grenville;) and her _first_ husband, Robert
Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex.
(6.) _Baron_, quarterly of four:--1. FITZ-ALAN.--2. Fitz-Alan of
Bedale.--3. Widville.--4, quarterly, 1 and 4 Maltravers. 2 and 3
Clun;--impaling _femme_, Arundell, &c., as before. For Mary Arundell,
as above, and her _second_ husband, Henry Howard, Earl of Arundel.
Although, from his memorial brass, Sir John Arundell is presumably
buried here, Weever, in his notice of St. Mary Woolnoth, London,
gives this inscription as being found in that church for him,--
"HERE LIETH SIR _JOHN ARUNDELL_ KNIGHT OF THE BATH, AND
KNIGHT BANERET, RECEIVOR OF THE DUCHY .................
GREY DAUGHTER TO THE LORD MARQUESE _DORSET_, WHO
DIED 8 FEBR: THE 36 OF THE REIGNE OF KING _HEN._ THE 8."
Of the three remaining daughters of Cicely Bonville, Marchioness of
Dorset, Eleanor married as his second wife Gerald Fitzgerald, ninth
Earl of Kildare, for a considerable time Lord Deputy of Ireland during
the reign of Henry VIII. In his prime, he is said to have been "one of
the fairest men then living," and led a very eventful and troubled
life, was greatly disliked by Wolsey, who twice got him cited to
England and sent to the Tower on charges of maladministration, and on
his third committal in 1534 to that fortress, he never emerged again
alive. During his incarceration his son--"called 'Silken Thomas,' of
tall stature, comely proportion, amiable countenance, flexible and
kind nature, and endowed with many accomplishments and good
qualities"--together with his five brothers, engaged in open
insurrection in Ireland. The news of this so "oppressed him with
grief," that it is said to have hastened his death, which took place
in 1534. Six months afterward, the five brothers and their nephew, his
son, "were all six condemned to suffer the punishment of traitors, and
were accordingly executed at Tyburn, on 2 Feb., 1535-6,--being hanged
up, cut down before they were dead and quartered." The Earl was buried
in the Tower Chapel, and on digging a grave therein for Ralph, son of
Sir Owen Hopton, Lieutenant of the Tower in 1580, his coffin was found
with this inscription on it,--
HERE LYETH THE CORPES OF THE L. GERALD FITZ-GERALD, EARLE OF
KYLDARE, WHO DECEASED THE 12TH OF DECEMBER, IN THE YEAR OF OUR
LORD M.CCCCC.XXXIIII. ON WHOSE SOLE JESU HAVE MERCY