regiment, Lucius Carey, Viscount Falkland, fell from his horse, pierced
by a musket-ball. His body was not found till next morning. Thus, at the
early age of thirty-four years, died one of the most remarkable men of
his age and country. A true patriot, a loyal and attached subject,
learned, witty, wise, honourable, and of so gentle and winning a
disposition, that all men could not choose but love him; a soldier, a
scholar, deeply attached to the Protestant faith, he withstood all the
endeavours of his mother, a strict Roman Catholic, and a woman of great
power of mind, to gain him over to her way of thinking.
He was very studious, and used to say he pitied ‘unlearned gentlemen on
a rainy day.’ ‘Lord Falkland had dark hair and black eyes, in stature
low, and of no great strength.’
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No. 6.
THE LORD KEEPER COVENTRY.
_In robes of office._
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No. 7.
EDWARD SACKVILLE, FOURTH EARL OF
DORSET.
BY CORNELIUS JANSEN.
BORN 1590, DIED 1652.
_White and black slashed dress, gold buttons. Jewel of the Garter._
HE was the second surviving son of Robert Earl of Dorset, by Lady Mary
Howard, only daughter of Thomas, fourth Duke of Norfolk, of that family;
he went to Oxford, and studied there for three years. He seems to have
been a great favourite with Lord Clarendon, who paints his portrait in
glowing colours: ‘His person graceful, beautiful, vigorous, his wit
sparkling, his other parts of learning, of that lustre, that he could
not miscarry in the world, the vices he had were of the age.’
His grandfather, Buckhurst, the Grand Treasurer, took delight in his
education, left him a good fortune, and helped him to a wife, who was
heir to another.
In early life, Edward Sackville appears to have yielded to the
dissipated examples by which he was surrounded, and a fatal duel with
Lord Bruce, a young Scotch nobleman, caused him to incur many a
remorseful hour in after days. The quarrel was so inveterate that the
two young men went to Flanders and fought under the walls of Antwerp,
with only two ‘chirurgeons’ as witnesses, having bound themselves by the
obligation not to stir, till one or other of the antagonists fell. Lord
Bruce was the victim, but his adversary narrowly escaped death also, for
Bruce’s surgeon, seizing his Lord’s sword, fell suddenly on Sackville,
till stayed by the cry of the dying man, ‘Rascal! hold thy hand!’ Edward
Sackville took refuge in a monastery, there to have his wounds dressed,
and to repent his crime at leisure. The cause of the quarrel did not
transpire, but from a hint which Lord Clarendon lets drop, it would
appear there was ‘a lady in the case.’
No notice (to use a familiar expression) was taken, either publicly or
privately, of this tragical incident, and Sackville continued high in
favour at the Court of James I. He was made Knight of the Bath in 1616,
was a leading member of the House of Commons, and spoke very eloquently,
more especially in defence of the Lord Chancellor Bacon, when accused of
corruption.
His powers of oratory seem indeed to have been of a superior order, and
a speech he made on the subject of supplies to the Palatinate, was
highly commended. His chivalrous nature was roused in the cause of the
Princess Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia. He spoke of the daughter of their
King (in his appeal to Parliament), ‘who scarce knew where to lay her
head, or, if she did, not in safety.’
He had a command in the forces sent to the aid of Frederic, King of
Bohemia, and fought at the battle of Prague, went afterwards to France,
as Ambassador, and on his return was made a Privy Councillor.
In 1624 he succeeded to the title of Earl of Dorset, on the death of his
brother, who had greatly impoverished the estates by his extravagance.
On the accession of Charles I. he received the Order of the Garter, and
was named Chamberlain to the Queen’s Majesty. Subsequently Lord Dorset
was employed in many important offices, such as Joint-Commissioner, with
other noblemen, for the management of Irish affairs, likewise for
treating with Holland respecting the marriage of Princess Mary and
William of Orange.
Dorset was wont to carry matters with a high hand, and at the time of
the Bill against the Bishops, finding a mob had been brought down to
intimidate the House of Peers, he, as Lord-Lieutenant of Middlesex, in
command of the Trained Bands, ordered them to fire, which soon put the
affrighted rabble to flight. The House of Commons was very irate, and
talked of impeachment, but nothing came of it.
Dorset was a staunch adherent of the King, upholding him by word of
mouth, supplying him with money, and fighting by his side in the field,
at the battle of Edgehill, where he distinguished himself, and recovered
the royal standard from the hands of the enemy. He was, as Clarendon
says, ‘of most entire fidelity to the Crown,’ attending on the royal
person constantly, and using every endeavour to bring about peace
between Charles and his subjects. It is said, on the authority of Sir
Edward Walker, that so deeply did the noble Earl of Dorset take to heart
the murder of his royal master, that he never stirred out of his house
after the King’s execution.
He married Mary, daughter and co-heir of Sir George Curzon of Croxhall,
county Dorset, a lady of large fortune, most virtuous and accomplished.
Indeed, so highly esteemed and honoured was she, that at her demise in
1645, both Houses of Parliament decreed her a public funeral. By his
wife, Lord Dorset had one daughter, and two sons, the eldest of whom
succeeded him, and the second, when in arms for the King, was taken
prisoner by the Roundheads and barbarously murdered.
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No. 8.
HENRY RICH, EARL OF HOLLAND.
BY CORNELIUS JANSEN.
EXECUTED 1649.
_Breastplate. Order of the Garter. White collar. White and gold sleeves.
Flowing hair._
He was the second son of Robert Rich, first Earl of Warwick, by the Lady
Penelope Devereux, daughter of Walter Earl of Essex.
Clarendon says of him that ‘he was a very handsome man, of a lovely and
winning presence and genteel conversation.’ He went to France in his
youth, was afterwards in arms in Holland; and returning to England,
presented himself at Court. Here he attracted the notice and favour of
George Duke of Buckingham, then all-powerful with King James I. Young
Rich was said to have flattered his patron not a little, and certainly
if he did so, it was to some purpose. It seems to have been through
Buckingham’s intervention that he married the rich heiress of Sir John
Cope of Kensington, of which place Rich shortly bore the title of Baron.
He also held offices at Court, both about the King’s person and that of
Henry, Prince of Wales, was made Earl of Holland, Knight of the Garter,
Privy Councillor, and sent Ambassador to treat, concerning the marriage
of Prince Charles, first in Spain and afterwards in France. On the
latter occasion, it was rumoured that his beauty and courtliness made a
deep impression on the heart of Henrietta Maria.
He also went to Holland with the Duke of Buckingham on matters regarding
the Palatinate, etc.
In 1639, on the first breaking out of an insurrection of the Scots, he
was made General of the Horse in that expedition, and though not in arms
at the commencement of the Civil War, when evil days fell on the King,
Holland joined him with many other Royalist noblemen, and being
appointed General of the King’s army, numbers flocked to ask commissions
from him. But in July 1648, after several fluctuations of fortune, Lord
Holland was pursued, and taken prisoner near St. Neot’s, in
Huntingdonshire, whence he was conveyed to Warwick House, and finally to
the Tower.
A High Court of Justice was appointed to sit for the trial of the Duke
of Hamilton, the Earl of Holland, and other Peers; he was in ill-health,
and when examined, answered little, ‘as a man who would rather receive
his life from their favour, than from the strength of his defence.’
But he was condemned with the rest of the Lords, in spite of the
influence of his brother, the Earl of Warwick, and the Presbyterian
party, who to a man voted for his life. There was a majority against him
of three or four votes only; but Cromwell, it appears, had an inveterate
dislike to him. Accordingly, on the 9th of March 1649, on the scaffold
erected before Westminster Hall, Lord Holland suffered death,
immediately after the Duke of Hamilton.
Spent by long sickness, he addressed but few words to the people,
recommending them, with his last breath, to uphold the King’s government
and the established religion.
He left four sons and five daughters. Robert, the eldest, succeeded to
his father’s honours, and likewise to the earldom of Warwick, on the
death of his uncle in 1672.
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No. 9.
MALE PORTRAIT—UNKNOWN.
_Black gown and cap. Holding a carnation. A scroll with the words
‘Supplicatur vos.’ The rest is illegible._
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No. 10.
HENRY THE EIGHTH, KING OF ENGLAND.
BY HOLBEIN.
BORN 1491, DIED 1547.
_Inscription in background, ‘Anno reg. 36, etatis 54.’ Gold and jewelled
dress, slashed. White collar. Chain, alternate columns and H.S. A
disk of gold adorned with jewels. He holds a glove. Mantle trimmed
with fur. Sleeves of cloth of gold, very full. Hat and feathers._
THE eldest surviving son of Henry VII. by Elizabeth of York. Succeeded
his father in 1509. He married six wives, of whom ‘the best beloved’ was
Jane Seymour, with whose family, that of the Thynnes had much
intercourse and relationship.
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No. 11.
THOMAS LORD SEYMOUR OF SUDELEY.
BY HOLBEIN.
EXECUTED 1549-50.
_Black gown and cap. Badge of Garter suspended by a ribbon round his
neck._
HE was the fourth son of Sir John Seymour of Wulfhall, by Margaret
Wentworth. He was one of the twelve assistants to the executors of the
will of his brother-in-law Henry VIII., and on the accession of Edward
VI. he was advanced to great honour. Having already distinguished
himself as a sailor, he was made Lord High Admiral and Baron Seymour of
Sudeley, also Knight of the Garter. But these honours did not satisfy
the King’s ambitious uncle; he turned his thoughts to a royal alliance,
and asked the consent of the Council to his marriage with the Princess
Elizabeth, then only fifteen.
His suit was refused. He then, having in his pay a gentleman about the
King, bade him ask Edward whom he should marry. ‘His Majesty,’ says
Froude, ‘graciously offered Anne of Cleves,’ and then added he would
rather he married Princess Mary, in order that she might change her
opinions. But that would neither have suited the Council, nor Mary
herself, so Seymour was fain to put up with a Queen-Dowager instead of a
future Queen-Regnant, and he proffered his addresses in a quarter where
he knew they would be acceptable.
Between him and Queen Catharine Parr there had been love-passages, when
she was the widow of Lord Latimer, till a King became his rival.
Catharine at first refused to marry until her two years of widowhood
should be passed, but Seymour soon prevailed on her to consent to a
private union, and letters still extant show that she used to receive
him clandestinely, at the palace, Chelsea.
She shared her Lord’s hatred, and jealousy of his brother the Protector,
and his wife, and said, if they refused their consent, it would be of no
consequence. The amiable young King was easily persuaded to do as his
uncle wished, and begged Catharine to listen to Seymour’s suit. She also
desired her lover to ask the Council to intercede with her in his
behalf, when she was already his wife.
Princess Mary sensibly refrained from meddling, and while all these
schemes were being carried on, the whole truth was discovered. There was
a general outcry at the scandal, and it was no wonder that the Protector
was much displeased.
Besides, it was a question if it were not high treason to marry a Queen
widow, so soon after the Sovereign’s death, (at all events it was made
into a charge against Seymour later,) as it might possibly have added a
fresh difficulty to the vexed question of the succession to the Crown.
On the breaking out of the Scotch war, the Lord High Admiral was ordered
to take command of the fleet, but he preferred remaining at home, and
superintending the affairs of the Admiralty, and sent a substitute to
sea.
Strange as it may appear, after all that had happened, Princess
Elizabeth still remained where she had been placed for some time under
the guardianship of Catharine Parr. But after a while Seymour’s conduct
towards the King’s sister, his want of respect, and extreme familiarity,
scandalised the royal attendants, and roused the tardy jealousy of his
easy-going wife. The Princess was, in consequence, removed to safer
keeping; but Seymour had other noble wards,—the daughters of the Marquis
of Dorset, of whom one was the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey.
The deadly hatred which Seymour bore his brother was shared and fostered
by his wife, who writes to him on one occasion, ‘This schal be to
advertyse you, that my lord your brother has this afternoone made me a
lyttell warme. I am glad we were dystant, or I suppose I sholde have
bitten him.’
During the time the Duke of Somerset was in Scotland, Thomas Seymour did
all he could to injure and supplant him, telling Edward the invasion was
madly undertaken, and money wasted—that it was a pity he did not assert
himself more—that he was not allowed enough money to be generous to his
own servants, etc. Seymour also set about a report that the late King
never intended there should be a Protectorate, and he even went so far
as to write a letter, which he suggested, the King should copy and sign,
to both Houses of Parliament, in his (Seymour’s) own favour, but this
was refused.
Catharine had two grievances against the Duke and Duchess: one was the
question of precedency between her and her sister-in-law; the other a
matter respecting some jewels which Somerset had sequestered as Crown
Jewels, but which Catharine affirmed had been left her by the King.
Seymour tried to bring in a Bill to separate the offices of Protector
and Guardian, in order to gain possession of the King’s person, but he
was foiled on all sides. His conduct was so outrageous that he was
summoned before the Council to explain it; he defied, and disobeyed the
summons.
In spite of this behaviour, and all these machinations against himself,
Somerset was lenient to his misguided brother, even to extremes; he
palliated his faults, and, ‘striving to bridle him with liberality,’
gave him fresh grants of land. But Seymour was not of the stuff that can
be softened by generosity; he grew desperate, and it was reported, and
believed, that he had entered into a treaty with certain privateers then
infesting the seas, and that his purchase of the Scilly Islands at this
juncture was with the view of acting in connection with them for his own
interest.
The Protector, who showed no signs of weakness in public affairs, mildly
expostulated with the headstrong man, who was speeding to his ruin, but
all his forbearance was thrown away.
Catharine Parr was confined of a daughter, and died a few days after,
not without some rumours of her husband having helped her exit from the
world; but he was out of favour now with almost all classes, and nothing
was too bad to be said of him.
Lady Dorset naturally wished to remove her daughter Jane from the
Admiral’s roof on the death of his wife, but he, knowing that the
Duchess of Somerset was bent on marrying the young lady to her eldest
son, so worked on the weakness of Lord Dorset, that Jane Grey remained
under Lord Seymour’s questionable care. Once more his thoughts reverted
to the Princess Elizabeth. He gained over two of her people, who were
instructed to praise him to the skies, and keep his name always before
her. But Elizabeth, though only sixteen, acted with discretion and
dignity, refusing to take any step without the consent of the Council,
and positively declining to receive Seymour, in spite of all his tender
messages.
The failures in Scotland, religious discontent, and many untoward
events, had shaken the Protector’s power, and his brother was working
strenuously against him. Seymour was warned of his danger; he was told
that his designs on the Princess, and his scheme of possessing himself
of the person of the King were discovered; but he defied advice,
remonstrance, and threats.
Again summoned before the Council, he again disobeyed. He appealed to
the Earl of Warwick, on the plea that he was the enemy of the Protector,
but Warwick said, if there were to be any change in the Government, it
should not be for the advantage of another Seymour, and so he was
arrested, and sent to the Tower. All his creatures and accomplices
turned upon him, and gave evidence against him, all his intrigues and
machinations were discovered; and two months after his committal the
Council went to the Tower and caused thirty-three charges against the
Lord High Admiral to be read aloud, in his presence. When called upon
for an answer, he refused to give any, (though urged to speak on his
allegiance,) and demanded an open trial.
The question now arose as to the manner of the trial, and the Chancellor
and the rest of the Council gave their opinions for an Act of Attainder,
while the Protector, pleading ‘what a sorrowful case this was for him,
did yet rather regard his bounden duty to the King’s Majesty and the
Crown of England than his own son or brother, and did weigh more his
allegiance than his blood, and therefore he would not resist their
Lordships.’
King Edward was present, and although his gentle nature always inclined
to clemency, he gave his consent to the decision. Seymour was brought
before a committee of both Houses, where he pleaded his own cause; but
as the charges grew graver, he stopped short, and refused to say any
more.
The next day the Bill was brought before the Lords, and passed without a
dissenting voice, the Lord Protector only, ‘for natural pity’s sake,
desiring licence to be away.’
Seymour had a small party of friends in the Commons, but having heard
the evidence, the Lower House also passed the Bill. It was sent to the
Crown with the request that justice might have place. The sentence was
given without reference to the Protector, who would still have
interfered to save the ungrateful brother whose inveterate hatred was
unconquered, but he was prevented.
The Bishop of Ely visited the prisoner to bid him prepare for death,
which he did, by writing to Elizabeth and Mary to incite them to
conspire against the Duke.
He concealed the letters in the sole of his shoe, and his last words, as
he knelt before the block, were to commission his servant to deliver
them.
He died with a courage worthy a better cause. Bishop Latimer said of his
death—‘Whether he be saved or no, I leave that to God. In the twinkling
of an eye He can save a man, and turn his heart. What He did I cannot
tell. And when a man hath two strokes with an axe, who can tell but
between the two strokes he doth repent? It is hard to judge; but this I
will say, if they ask me what I think of his death, I say that he died
very irksomely, dangerously, and horribly.’
Latimer says elsewhere that the Admiral was a man furthest from the fear
of God that ever he heard of in England. And yet in the picture in which
we are treating there are verses that laud him to the skies. Not only
his outward form—
‘Of person rare, stronge limbes, and manly shape;
Of nature framed to serve on sea and lande, etc.,
A subject true to Kinge, frinde to God’s truth’—
and so forth, concluding with the lines:—
‘Yet againste nature, reason, and just lawes,
His blode was spilte, giltless, without just cause!’
The Bishop and the Poet were at variance in the estimate of Lord Seymour
of Sudeley’s character.
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No. 12.
THOMAS WRIOTHESLEY, LAST EARL OF
SOUTHAMPTON.
BY VANDYCK.
DIED 1667.
_Order of the Garter._
HE was the second born, but only surviving son of the third Earl, by
Elizabeth, daughter of John Vernon of Hodnet, county Salop. He was
educated at Eton and Oxford, where he distinguished himself, and then
went on foreign travel. He tarried some time in France, where it is
probable he espoused his first wife, and afterwards proceeded to the Low
Countries.
His father had also gone thither in command of a military expedition,
accompanied by his eldest son, but they were both attacked by low fever.
The youth died, and the afflicted father, journeying home with the loved
remains, ere he was fit to travel, also succumbed, and died at
Bergen-op-Zoom.
Thomas, now Earl of Southampton, on his return to England, found public
affairs in great confusion, it was soon evident that he did not approve
of many of the Government measures, and that he had no sympathy with the
Earl of Strafford; in consequence of which, the discontented leaders in
Parliament strove hard to gain him over to their side; but neither did
he uphold their proceedings, which he considered disloyal, and would
take no part therein.
In 1641, he, with Lord Robartes, refused assent to Pym’s protestation
against ‘plots and conspiracies,’ which was signed by every other member
in each House. This incensed the Parliament, but pleased the King.
Southampton was appointed Privy Councillor and Lord of the Bedchamber,
and was henceforth, in every sense of the word, attached to the royal
person.
He was prudent and zealous in his master’s cause, often giving him
unpalatable advice, they were now seldom apart, Southampton frequently
sleeping in the King’s chamber, and trying to soothe his hours of mental
anguish. He treated (unsuccessfully indeed, but nobly, and with dignity)
between the adverse parties. In 1647, when the unhappy monarch fled from
Hampton Court, he took shelter with Southampton at Titchfield in
Hampshire, the family estate, and when brought back to the palace, in
the hands of his enemies, his first request was for the attendance of
his trusty friend.
Southampton was one of the last allowed to remain with the unfortunate
Charles, and one of the four to pay the last sad duties to the remains
of the master he so dearly loved, in ‘privacy and darkness.’ He kept up
a correspondence with the exiled King, supplied him with large sums, and
on Charles’s arrival in England, went to meet him, and was rewarded (at
the same time as other faithful adherents of the Crown) with the Order
of the Garter. He was shortly afterwards made Lord High Treasurer, in
which office, says Clarendon, ‘he had no dependence on the Court, or
purpose to have any, but wholly pursued the public interest.’
Consequently he offended the King by opposing to his utmost the Bill for
Liberty of Conscience, as it was called, both in Parliament and Council;
yet he was not removed from his office, but held it for a few short
years longer, although suffering from a terrible and painful disease,
which made business irksome to him. The testimony of Burnet and
Clarendon both go to prove that ‘he was a man of virtue, and of very
good parts, and incorrupt,’ and during seven years’ management of the
Treasury he made but an ordinary fortune, disdaining, unlike many of his
predecessors, to sell places.
‘He was by nature inclined to melancholy, and being born a younger
brother, was much troubled at being called “My Lord.” Great quickness of
apprehension, and that readiness of expression on any sudden debate,
that no man delivered more efficaciously with his hearers, so that no
man ever gave them more trouble in his opposition, or drew so many to
concurrence in opinion.’ The Earl of Southampton was thrice married. His
first wife was Rachel, daughter of Daniel de Massey, lord of Ruvigny, in
France, by whom he had two sons, who died young, and three daughters,
the second of whom was Rachel, the faithful wife and widow of William
Lord Russell, who was beheaded, her first husband being Lord Carbery, in
Ireland. The second Countess of Southampton was Elizabeth, daughter and
co-heir to Francis Booth, Lord Dunsmore, who brought him four girls, one
of whom was Elizabeth, Countess of Northumberland. The third wife was
the daughter of William, second Duke of Somerset, and widow of Viscount
Molyneux.
The Earl died at Southampton House, in Bloomsbury, of a violent attack
of the malady from which he had long suffered, and was buried at
Titchfield.
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No. 13.
GEORGE LORD LANSDOWNE.
BY SIR GODFREY KNELLER.
_Tawny dress. Blue velvet cap._