The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West
by W. H. Hamilton Rogers · English · Gutenberg #32675 · 700,062 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West
Author: W. H. Hamilton Rogers
Illustrator: Roscoe Gibbs
Release date: June 3, 2010 [eBook #32675]
Language: English
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THE STRIFE OF THE ROSES AND DAYS OF THE TUDORS IN THE WEST.
by
W. H. HAMILTON ROGERS, F.S.A.,
Author of "Memorials of the West," &c.
Illustrated by Roscoe Gibbs.
"WHAT FAME IS LEFT FOR HUMAN DEEDS
IN ENDLESS AGE?"
Exeter:
James G. Commin, 230 High Street.
London: W. W. Gibbings, 18 Bury Street.
M.DCCC.XC.
Torquay:
Printed by Shinner & Dodd.
M.DCCC.XC.
PREFACE
The subjects described in the following pages, have been chosen from
among the almost unlimited number that present themselves to notice,
during the stirring periods in which they are included, as they
appeared to lend interest and variety of incident, illustrative of the
days wherein they occurred. The concluding paper--not originally
written for this series--extends into the era of the early Stuart, and
has claimed admission from the comparatively unique features of its
history.
W. H. H. R.
"THE MIDDLE AGES HAD THEIR WARS AND AGONIES, BUT ALSO INTENSE
DELIGHTS. THEIR GOLD WAS DASHED WITH BLOOD; BUT OURS IS SPRINKLED WITH
DUST. THEIR LIFE WAS INWOVE WITH WHITE AND PURPLE, OURS IS ONE
SEAMLESS STUFF OF BROWN."
_John Ruskin._
CONTENTS.
PAGE
1. "OUR STEWARD OF HOUSEHOLD."
ROBERT, LORD WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE, K.G. 1
2. EXTINCT FOR THE WHITE ROSE.
WILLIAM, LORD BONVILLE, K.G. 37
3. UNDER THE HOOF OF THE WHITE BOAR.
HENRY STAFFORD, 2ND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, K.G. 87
4. UNHORSED AT BOSWORTH.
JOHN, LORD CHENEY, K.G. 118
5. "WITH THE SILVER HAND."
STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE, ARCHBISHOP, AND EARL 137
6. "THEY DID CAST HIM."
SIR THOMAS ARUNDELL, K.B. 155
7. OF THE IMPERIAL LINE.
THEODORO PALEOLOGUS 183
POEMS.
PAGE
THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS 24
TAMAR'S FLOW 36
THE MEADOW RANUNCULUS 38
AUTUMNAL HOURS 84
A MOTHER'S SONG 86
SALISBURY SPIRE 117
DISTANT CHIMES 135
BOSWORTH FIELD 136
"THE TRANSEPT OF THE MARTYRDOM" 154
THE FIVE WOUNDS 167
"SICUT PULLUS HIRUNDINIS SIC CLAMABO" 182
THE WELTERING SHORE 189
PALEOLOGUS 196
"EX HOC MOMENTO PENDET ÆTERNITAS" 206
ILLUSTRATIONS.
A GLADE IN OLD SHUTE PARK _William Newbery_ Frontispiece
EFFIGY OF LORD WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE,
CALLINGTON _Roscoe Gibbs_ To face p. 1
THE CHENEY MONUMENT, EDINGTON -- -- 8
EFFIGIES OF SIR FULKE AND LADY GREVILLE,
ALCESTER -- -- 29
TOMB OF THE SECOND LORD WILLOUGHBY
DE BROKE, BEER-FERRERS -- -- 32
BENCH-ENDS, BEER-FERRERS -- -- 33
PRESUMED EFFIGY OF CICELY BONVILLE,
Astley -- -- 37
EFFIGY OF THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY,
WHITCHURCH -- -- 47
EFFIGIES OF LORD AND LADY HARINGTON,
PORLOCK -- -- 48
OLD SHUTE GATEWAY _Photograph_ -- 66
EFFIGY OF THE DUCHESS OF SUFFOLK,
WESTMINSTER ABBEY _Roscoe Gibbs_ -- 77
BENCH-END, LIMINGTON -- -- 80
BENCH-ENDS, BARWICK -- -- 81
DORSET CHAPEL, OTTERY ST. MARY _Photograph_ -- 84
MONUMENT TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM,
BRITFORD _Roscoe Gibbs_ -- 87
DISCOVERY AT THE SARACEN'S HEAD INN,
SALISBURY _Saturday Magazine_ -- 109
EFFIGY OF CARDINAL MORTON, CANTERBURY
CATHEDRAL _Roscoe Gibbs_ -- 116
EFFIGY OF LORD CHENEY, SALISBURY
CATHEDRAL -- -- 118
INDENT OF BRASS OF ARCHBISHOP STAFFORD,
CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL -- -- 137
EFFIGY OF SIR JOHN DINHAM, KINGS-CARSWELL -- -- 140
GRAVESTONE OF EMMA, MOTHER OF ARCHBISHOP
STAFFORD, NORTH-BRADLEY -- -- 143
EFFIGIES OF LORD AND LADY BOTTREAUX,
NORTH CADBURY -- -- 147
BRASS OF SIR JOHN ARUNDELL,
ST. COLUMB-MAJOR -- -- 155
REGAL HERALDRY, TEMP. HENRY VIII.,
COWIC, EXETER -- -- 168
BENCH-ENDS, LANDULPH -- -- 183
PART OF THE LOWER SEATS, LANDULPH -- -- 199
PANEL FROM THE GORGES MONUMENT,
ST. BUDEAUX -- -- 204
IMPERIAL ARMS OF GREECE
(PALEOLOGUS MONUMENT) 206
PORTRAIT 206
[Illustration: EFFIGY OF ROBERT, LORD WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE, K.G.
CALLINGTON CHURCH, CORNWALL--A.D. 1502.]
"OUR STEWARD OF HOUSEHOLD."
At somewhat more than halfway distance between Weymouth on the skirt
of the Atlantic, and the good old city of Bristow by the Severn sea,
on the thin iron line that crosses the wide end of the western
peninsula between those places,--and which in the early days of
railway enterprise was cleverly, but of course futilely, stretched as
a boom, designed to 'block' all further extension westward,--and just
inside the county of Wilts, lies the quiet little town of Westbury.
The station itself is somewhat "larger and more commodious" than
common. A two-fold reason accounts for this, one, that of its being
the junction of another line that departs hence for Salisbury, and
secondly the nature of the industry that meets the eye from the
platform, and is in its way unique in these parts. This is the
appearance of three towering iron furnaces, with attendant rows of
coke ovens, placed on an eminence just outside the station yard;
busily smelting the iron-stone that is quarried from a large
excavation on the opposite side of the line, and which passes under
the railway proper in mimic trains, pulled by a tiny locomotive up to
the great glowing bastions, there to be speedily devoured and purified
into 'pigs' of the best quality.
A very English sight indeed you will say. Yes, certainly if we were in
some of the northern localities of this mineral-saturated island of
ours, but strange in its isolated appearance among the bucolic
characteristics of the southern portion of it, and moreover here, at
least, a development in its way peculiarly modern. The antient
'staple' of the district is the very primeval one of the manufacture
of woolen cloth, which has existed for centuries, is still
considerably followed, and enjoys all its olden reputation as being
'West of England,' a pass-word for excellence and purity of fabric,
untainted by the admixture of 'shoddy,' characteristic of
north-country production. Westbury in company with her sister towns is
largely interested in the industry.
Our wandering to-day is not in quest of manufactured products iron or
woolen, but of a nature that lends a clue to our thoughts which takes
us back to the far past strife of the Red and White Roses, and era of
Bosworth, and of the heart-burning that inspired the distich,
"The Rat, the Cat, and Lovell our Dog,
Rule all England under the Hog,"
for the writing of which and presumed sympathy with the Red Rose, be
it remembered, a Wiltshire knight, Sir William Collingbourn of Lydiard
by name, was by the vindictive Richard "caused to be abbreviated
shorter by the head, and to be divided into four quarters,"--and to
search for traces of one of the principal actors, who played a
conspicuous part in the turmoil, for he was probably born, or had his
original habitation close by. Yonder is the town of Westbury with its
factory chimneys and massive church tower in their midst,--below us
the busy railway-station, and immense iron-stone quarry,--in front the
great furnaces. Nothing very suggestive in all this as to our
expedition to find the old home of Willoughby in these parts; he of
the famed circle of the Garter, and first Baron by a name taken from
the little rill of Brooke or Broke, that, outlasting his name and
fame, still flows past the house that he occupied while in the flesh.
Yet it cannot be very far off.
These are our thoughts as we look from the parapet of the bridge that
carries the highway over the railroad below, our steps lead us
northward, and although our local geography ends here, our usual luck
for further guidance is at hand. An old stone-breaker by the wayside
stays his hammer as we pass, to give us the morning's salutation, and
to our respond we add the interrogatory as to our path to an old house
or place called Brooke or Broke, somewhere near. "Brooke-_Hall_ you
mean" said he, with special emphasis on the affix, "I know it well,
follow on for nearly a mile until the road leads into the brook; then
turn into the gate on your right, go through two meadows and you will
see Brooke Hall before you. It is an old antient place, and I have
heard was a grand one once, but it is only a farm-house now."
With due thanks to, and musing on the inextinguishable influence of
tradition, thus continued and wove into the life of our humble but
intelligent informant, we saunter along, until the rippling sound of
water attracts us on our left. Mounting the low ledge that bounds our
path on its other side, at our feet in the enclosure below (locally
termed the Bisse) the Brooke or Broke sparkles along gaily as ever,
and apparently as undiminished as when four centuries a-past, the
knight, whose memories we are in search of, forded its flow. A little
farther beyond, and the lane we have been traversing descends abruptly
into its bed, which forms a continuance of the thoroughfare for a
short distance. Our path diverges through the gate on the right, and
into the green fields.
Here, at once, although much ameliorated to the wants of the modern
farmer, the undulating nature of the ground, the richness of the turf,
and scattered stately trees still lingering about to attest its olden
beauty and importance, we recognize unerringly the well known
characteristics of an antient park, but apparently not of large size.
Traces of a winding road lead on from the lane gate, and stretch
away over a swarded knoll, on the right; with pleasurable steps we
reach the summit of the acclivity, and descry at about another field's
space ahead, the still existing remains of the Brooke Hall of our
trusty informant.
"A grand place once"--we ruminate, recalling the words of the old
stone-breaker, as we halt under the shadow of a tall, massive gable,
buttressed at the angles like a church, and with the original hip-knop
a trefoil on a stalk, still very perfect, and bravely weathering the
sunshine and breeze at its apex. From this gable stretches back a
building ninety feet long with high-pitched roof, and forms one side
of the farm-court. Its further end is joined to a cross-structure of
smaller size, now used as the farm dwelling-house.
Cautiously we push open the large doors of the cow-court and look
inside. This, from no dread of meeting, and having our intruding
footsteps ordered off by the antient knight who once possessed it, but
rather from the undesirableness of making too sudden acquaintanceship
with the vigilant curly-tailed custodian of its precincts eyeing us
from within, and who may not, until properly assured to the contrary,
be quite satisfied with the object of our investigation; but a kindly
word of advice to him, and of welcome to us, from his master close by,
speedily puts everything at ease, and with full permission for
inspection.
Before however we proceed to investigate the old place, we mentally
join company with the famous old itinerant Leland, who came here on a
similar errand, and recall the burthen of his description, when it was
in pristine condition, and still in possession of the Willoughbys.
"There was of very aunciente tyme an olde maner place wher
_Brooke Hall_ is now, and parte of it yet appearithe, but the
buyldynge that is there is of the erectynge of the Lorde Stewarde
unto Kynge Henry the vii. The wyndowes be full of rudders.
Peradventure it was his badge or token of the Amiraltye. There is
a fayre Parke, but no great large thynge. In it be a great nombar
of very fair and fyne greyned okes apt to sele howses.
"The broke that renithe by _Brooke_ is properly caulyd _Bisse_,
and risethe at a place namyd _Bismouth_, a two myles above
_Brooke_ village, an hamlet longynge to _Westbyry_ paroche. Thens
it cummithe onto _Brooke_ village, and so a myle lower onto
_Brooke Haule_, levinge it hard on the right ripe, and about a
two miles lower it goith to _Trougbridge_, and then into _Avon_."
We enter the court yard, and the main portion remaining, which was
probably erected by the Lord Steward, occupies the whole of the left
side. It is a strong substantial building. The front toward the yard
has three doorways having good late-pointed arches, and five two-light
windows of small dimensions. Between the doorways are buttresses. At
first sight, the building seems as if intended for a large hall,
especially from the fine high-pitched roof, and its completeness
inside, having all the old timbers remaining. But it appears to have
been divided off, and formed into apartments, a considerable portion
of the old wood partition-work still remains. It is now used as a
stable, barn, and for other farm purposes. The upper end of this long
building is joined to a cross portion, apparently the better part of
the fabric, but not of large dimensions. This has been modernized to
the requirements of a farm-house, and almost all its antient features
obliterated. The walls are of great thickness, nearly six feet, and at
the end are some later transomed Elizabethan windows, bricked up, and
in a small outhouse below is "T.--1684;" a still later time-mark.
As far as could be observed, what at present remains, appears to be
only a small portion of the original structure, but in which direction
it extended is not certain. Aubrey, the Wiltshire antiquary, writing
in 1650, and who visited Broke about that time, describes it as "a
very great and stately old howse" with "a Hall which is great and
open, with very olde windowes." There was a "canopie chamber," a
dining room, parlour and chapel, and the windows were filled with
coats shewing the armorial descent of Willoughby, which he minutely
describes; and further, the windows "are most of them _semée_ with
_Rudder of a Ship, or_;"--and again he observes "the _Rudder_
everywhere." We had greatly hoped to have enriched our sketch book
with a similitude of one of those rudders, but alas, the most diligent
search and enquiry was vain. Not a fragment of the old glazing
remained, and neither arms, badge, nor device, was to be found
anywhere on the building, sculptured or limned. A small enclosed
garden (now used as a rick-plot), skirted with poplars, on the
opposite side of the court, was the only other noticeable feature
connected with the old place.
Thus much for Broke Hall, said we--retracing our steps over the grassy
undulations--the antient residence successively of Paveley, Cheney,
and Willoughby, all names of knightly renown; aforetime, as well as
now, probably no more apt description could be given of the still
sturdy old fabric, than the itinerant's terse note on this little park
that surrounds it, it was and is "no great large thing," albeit the
"grand one once" of the tradition-burthened mind of our friend the
stone-breaker, and this true enough in its way perhaps also, when
compared with the hovels of the peasantry that then had their stations
near it.
The family of Paveley, the antient owners of Broke, held it as early
as the reign of Henry I. Reginald de Paveley was Lord of Westbury,
succeeded by Walter, and again by Walter Lord of Westbury, in 1255. To
him Reginald, who deceased 1279, and Walter, Sheriff of Wilts 1297,
died 1323, and succeeding him Reginald de Paveley, who died 1347; he
married Alice, widow of John, the second Lord St. John of Lageham,
died 1322. To him John de Paveley, who married Agnes, with issue two
daughters, Joan married to Sir Ralph Cheney, and Alice wedded to Sir
John St. Loe, died 1366. The Paveleys also held considerable
possessions in Dorsetshire, and bore for their arms, _Azure, a cross
fleurie or_.
Cheney, Cheyney, or Cheyne,--originally _De Caineto_--(or query, from
the French _du chêne_, 'of the oak') was also an old and largely
ramifying family, that first came over with the Conqueror, and were
subsequently scattered throughout midland and southern England, from
Kent to Cornwall, their name still surviving as an affix to their
olden possessions in several localities.
A branch appears to have been early settled, and afterward held
considerable station in Devon. "In king Henry III. tyme" says Pole,
"Sir Nicholas Cheyney was lord of Upotery," where he was succeeded by
his son Sir William, of whom the Antiquary continues "at what tyme the
Dean and Chapter of Roane, with consent of the Kinge, and Archbishop
of Roane, granted the same unto ye said Sir William Cheyney, which
they had formerly held of the grant of William the Conqueror."
Sir William Cheney married Felicia, and had issue Sir Nicholas, who
married Elinor, was Sheriff of Devon, 15 Edward II., 1322, and died 3
Edward III., 1330.
To Sir Nicholas succeeded William his son, who married Joan daughter
of William Lamborn. He had two sons, Edmond, who died without issue,
and Ralph.
Sir Ralph Cheney married Joan, daughter and coheiress of Sir John
Paveley of Broke, and died 2 Henry IV., 1401.
Sir William Cheney, his son and successor, married Cicely, daughter of
Sir John Stretch of Pinhoe, Devon, and widow of Thomas Bonville. She
died 14 October, 1430. To him and his lady, Bishop Stafford of Exeter
on 27 Jan., 1400-1, granted license for them to have divine service
performed in their Chapel, "_infra manerium suum de Pinho_." He was
Sheriff of Devon 1408. Secondly he married Joan daughter of John Frome
of Woodlands, Dorset, and widow of Sir William Filliol who died 3
Henry V., 1418. Sir William Cheney died 12 Henry VI., 1434, leaving
two sons Edmond and John.
Sir John Cheney was of Pinhoe. He married Elizabeth daughter of John
Hill of Spaxton, was Sheriff of Devon 12 and 22 Henry VI., 1434-44,
and was succeeded by his son John, four times Sheriff, who married
Margaret daughter of Nicholas Kirkham of Blagdon, and died leaving
four daughters his coheiresses.
Sir Edmond Cheney, of Broke, knt., born 4 Dec., 1401, married Alice
daughter of Sir Humphrey Stafford, knt. "_with the Silver Hand_," of
Suthwyke, Wilts, and Hooke, Dorset, who died 27 May, 1442, and was
buried in the Chapel of St. Anne in the Abbey Church of Abbotsbury,
which he founded;--by his wife Elizabeth who died in 1420, daughter of
Sir John Mautravers of Hooke, knt. Sir Edmond, who died 30 May, 1430,
left two daughters,--Elizabeth, born Nov., 1424, married Sir John
Coleshill, knt., of Duloe, Cornwall, and died about 1492,[1]--and
Anne, born, 26 July, 1428, who married Sir John Willoughby, knt.,
who was killed at Tewkesbury 3 May, 1471. Secondly his wife Alice
married Walter Tailboys, of Newton-Kyme, Yorkshire, by whom she had a
daughter Alianore married to Thomas Strangeways of Melbury, Dorset,
ancestor to the Earls of Ilchester. She died in 1469.
[1] The manor of Tremoderet or Tremedart in Duloe, Cornwall, by
Emmeline or Emma, daughter and heiress of Hiwis, brought it to
her first husband Sir Robert Tresillian, Chief Justice of the
King's Bench, who was executed at Tyburn in 1388. In 1391 she
married as her second husband Sir John Coleshill, who procured a
grant of this and other manors forfeited by the Chief Justice's
attainder. Sir John Coleshill, their son, then about twenty-three
years of age, was slain at the battle of Agincourt, leaving an
infant son who died without issue in 1483, being then Sir John
Coleshill, Knt. His only sister Joanna, was thrice married, first
to Sir Renfrey Arundell, a younger son of the Lanberne family,
secondly to Sir John Nanfan, thirdly to Sir William Haughton. The
manor passed from Arundell to St. Aubin, and thence to Sir John
Anstis, Garter King at Arms, who died in 1743 and is buried in
the church, after him to his son who held it, and was also buried
there 1754. "Under an arch in Duloe Church," says Lysons, "richly
ornamented with vine tracery, is an altar tomb, enriched with
shields in quatrefoils, having at the west a bas-relief of the
Crucifixion; on this tomb lies the effigies of a knight, carved
in stone, in plate armour with collar of S.S. Round the verge of
a large slab of Purbeck marble, on which it rests is the
following inscription,
=Hic jacet Joh'es Colshull miles
quo'd'm d'n's de Tremethert et patron' huj's eccl'e
qui obiit xviii die m'es m'cii an'o D'ni Mill' cccclxxxiii
cuj' a'ie prop'ciet' Deu' a'="
Thus at the death of these brothers, the name of Cheney in the
Devonshire branch became extinct.
A long genealogical digression this, but only the necessary putting
together a portion of the skeleton of our little history, which we
hope to clothe eventually with something of living interest. Our path
has led us back again to the elevated platform of the railway bridge,
and also at a mile's distance before us, the old town of Westbury, in
which, says Leland, "there is a large churche, and the towne stondith
moste by clothiers" appears dimly among the trees,--and its
characteristics of to-day still accurately confirm the itinerant's
description of three centuries ago. There, rises the lofty church
tower much as he witnessed it, but the tall chimney shafts that bear
it company have absorbed all the hand-looms that then made busy, by
the weaving of kersey and serge, the cottage precincts when he paced
its streets.
Through the long, and comparatively quiet main thoroughfare of the
little borough, and our thoughts are busy, though our steps are
stayed, as we halt to admire the large and handsome west window of the
church, perpendicular in style, but with considerable originality of
treatment in design; and rising behind it, the massive proportions of
the tower.
Here we hope to find some memorials of Paveley, Cheney or Willoughby,
for our historic memory recalls to us, that within the fabric there is
a Chantry which was formerly attached to Broke Hall, and that its
windows were said to be filled with _rudders_ as at their old seat.
Our foot crosses the porch threshold, and with intuitive direction
leads us at once to the east end of the south aisle, where some
apparently well-preserved old oak screen-work, partition off what we
rightly divine was the Broke Chantry. But as we draw near a vision of
ominous newness, windows flaming with colour, and garish decoration of
costly kind spread over every part, puts to the rout at once all hope
of anything antient being found within it; and we learn that the
Chantry has been recently elaborately 'restored' as a memorial chapel
to the present owners of Broke, whose family have held its possession
for about a century.
We scan the enclosure minutely, but not a vestige of sculpture or
inscription, nor stray _rudder_ in the windows, was visible to
identify its olden founders, and whether any such had ever existed
within it, could not be ascertained. Foiled in our examination of the
Chantry, we proceed to look carefully over the whole of the spacious
interior of the edifice, but the search is vain.
There is yet one chance left, friend of mine, peradventure some stray
shield or badge memorizing these antient families may be found
outside. Slowly we perambulate the exterior of the structure, and were
just preparing to leave the churchyard precincts altogether
vanquished, when on the right dripstone termination of the label of
the doorway-arch of the little porch at the base of the west window,
there on a small shield very much denuded and weather-worn, we trace
the _four fusils in fess_ of Cheney, with the ghosts of _the
escallops_ faintly visible in their centres. On the shield to the left
is the indistinct outline of _a bird_ of some kind.
In his notice of Westbury church, Aubrey remarks:--
"In an aisle, north of the chancel where nothing remains of the
old glass, tradition is that two maydes of Brook built it
(probably Alice and Joan coheiresses of Sir John Paveley (1361)
of Brook,--the one married Sir John St. Loe, the other Sir John
Cheney). In a chappelle south of the chancell, are left in one
windowe some _Rudders of Ships_ or the cognizance of the Lord
Willoughby of Brook. In an aisle north of the tower, called
Leversidge aisle, were these two escutcheons now gone,
viz.--Cheney impaling Paveley, Cheney as before impaling _a lion
ramp_: quartering _a cross flory_, not coloured."
How surely and regularly history, at least the history of human nature
repeats itself. Our forefathers, as it is often discovered in the
repair or rebuilding old churches, did not scruple when alteration or
enlargement of the fabric was needed, to break up the gravestones, or
coffin-lids, of their predecessors, this also at the period when a
religious thrall exercised its full power over them, while at the same
time it encouraged the laying down similar memorials to those they
were destroying. In a succeeding age when this influence had lost its
spell, and greedy, selfish ends, had absorbed, or stifled completely
such traces as remained, a remorseless and almost revengeful
desecration followed, buildings were razed, monuments ruthlessly
defaced or destroyed, and sepulchres violated, as if those who had
left them such interesting and sacred heritage, had been a succession
of malefactors deserving the utmost reprobation and contempt. The
great despoliation over, the same spirit of heedless, callous
unconcern, although in lesser degree, has shewn itself as largely
existent through the succeeding centuries, down to these later times
of pseudo-ecclesiastical revival, which in too many instances
continues to exhibit in a still more exaggerated form, all the latent
traits of thoughtless destruction, that had its place in days of old.
Thus much for our investigation of Westbury church and its garishly
garnished Chantry, but before we leave this part of the world, we have
another interesting structure to visit, where, if we mistake not, a
most important memorial concerning the antient lords of Broke Hall is
to be found.
Our steps lead us out of Westbury by the north west, and passing along
under the great White Horse, boldly figured on the high hill by our
right, and through the village of Bratton, a turn in the road a short
distance beyond, brings us at once in full view of the large and
antient Conventual Church of Edington. It is no province of ours here,
to describe the great architectural attractions of this fine and still
well-preserved fabric, but a glance at the uniquely-shaped tower
windows, gives us a clue to what we may expect to find within, for the
tracery in their heads, have an unmistakable resemblance to a _cross
fleurie_, or rather _recercelée_ would best describe its shape, the
coat-armour of the family of Paveley.
Entering the church by the south porch, a survey of the south aisle
arcade, brings the eye at once to the memorial we are in search of.
The monument is under the second arch of the nave, west of the
transept, in the south aisle. It consists of a high tomb with canopy,
flanked by an entrance-doorway forming part of one composition,
extending the whole breadth of the arch. This was originally one of
the enclosing screens of a Chantry, the other two, east and west,
dividing it from the aisle having been removed. In the wall of the
aisle opposite the tomb, is a two-storied piscina, which was formerly
within the area of the Chantry, and against the east division
doubtless stood the antient altar.
The cover-stone of the tomb is Purbeck marble, and on it are the
indents of a knight and lady, but not of large size. The knight's head
appears to have rested on a helmet with lambrequin, and an animal was
at his feet. The lady in long robe and head on a cushion. Two shields
were above their heads, and two more below their feet. There was no
ledger-line.
Below the tomb are traceried panels with shields in their centres, on
them is carved these arms:--1. _A rudder._--2. _Four fusils in fess,
each charged with an escallop_ (CHENEY).--3. _Four escallops, two and
two_ (ERLEIGH?). These charges are exactly repeated on both sides.
The canopy is of square form, flanked by buttresses pinnacled on their
faces, and the groining within shews five fan-traceried pendants. At
the east end is a large niche, the west is open. The doorway is
surmounted by a rich ogee crocketted canopy with finial, and is
panelled above.
A continuous cornice surmounts both tomb and doorway, of vine foliage
and mouldings, crested originally by the Tudor flower, only a part of
which now remains. It is broken on each side by four angels holding
shields. On the north side are two single angels supporting the arms
of Cheney, at the west corner are two angels holding a larger shield
quarterly of four:--1 and 4 (CHENEY); 2 and 3, _a cross fleurie_
(PAVELEY). On the south side the single angels display the arms of
Paveley, and the pair at the end Cheney impaling Paveley. Over the
inner doorway _the rudder_ is again carved--here at Edington its
earliest appearance.
In the churchyard, near the porch, is a large broken Purbeck marble
stone, probably removed from the pavement of the Chantry within.
On it are the indents of a knight, and lady in horned head-dress,
under an ogee crocketted canopy, flanked by pinnacles, evidently of
contemporary date with the tomb. Above the figures are two shields,
below their feet the space is powdered with scrolls, and a ledger-line
enclosed the whole.
[Illustration: CHENEY MONUMENT, EDINGTON CHURCH, WILTSHIRE.]
As usual with influential families resident near large ecclesiastical
foundations, and having considerable landed property in the district,
the Paveleys, who were the Lords of Westbury Hundred, were doubtless
largely connected with the welfare of the Monastery, and as liberal
donors toward the building of the Abbey Church. The armorial story
told on the tomb, points to its being the memorial of Sir Ralph
Cheney, who married Joan, one of the daughters and coheiresses of Sir
John Paveley, and succeeded in her right to Broke. He died 2 Henry
IV., 1401. The great William of Edington, consecrated Bishop of
Winchester, 1345, and afterward Chancellor and Treasurer to King
Edward III., was born here, and became a considerable benefactor to
the village and Monastery. His surname has not been recovered, but
surmised to have been Cheney,--at any rate in a deed dated 1361, the
Bishop is described as "guardian of the heiresses of Sir John
Paveley,"--and one of these, Joan, as we have observed, married Sir
Ralph Cheney, and as a consequence with great probability she found
sepulchre here with her husband, in their Chantry in the Abbey Church.
Back to the railway station again, and a place among the cohort of the
iron horse, for a long journey is before us, even from the open,
breezy chalk-plains of Wiltshire, to the marge of the majestic Tamar
in westernmost Devon, and the granite-bouldered precincts of east
Cornwall, where we hope to get further clue to the haunts of
Willoughby when in the flesh. Here, we are leaving what was probably
his first home and earliest associations before ambition dawned on his
future path; there, we shall visit his later possessions when the sun
of fortune had shone on him, and he basked in its rays of honours and
wealth. There also our pilgrimage will eventually lead us to that last
house, the which he in common with earth's humblest denizen must
share.
Before, however, we proceed further on our way to what we may term his
second home, it behoves us to say something anent the antecedents and
coming of the knight himself, and how the name of Willoughby
originally became located in the west country. Like many a younger son
rejoicing in a titled extraction, coupled with probably only a slender
portion of the family patrimony, the wooing of a distaff--who, beside
let us hope, being endowed with her full share of love's talisman,
personal attractions, enjoyed also the further potent charm of being
an heiress to boot--brought the father of our knight from the fens of
Lincolnshire to the distant altitudes of Wilts, and in winning the
hand of Anne Cheney for a wife, subsequently became in her right the
Lord of Broke. A similar errand sent his son away to the boundary line
that divides Devon from Cornwall, and with the well-dowered Blanche
Champernowne of Beer-Ferrers for his helpmate, there to find his
future home, and where we propose to look for him again, after we have
gossiped over his lineage awhile.
In common with many of our old titled names, Sir John de Willoughby
its first possessor in this country was a Norman knight to whom the
Conqueror gave the manor of Willoughby in Lincolnshire.[2] His
descendant Sir William in the reign of Henry III. married Alice
daughter and coheiress of John Bec or Beke of Eresby, summoned to
Parliament as Baron Beke of Eresby 1295-6. He was succeeded by his son
Robert, who inherited at the decease of his grand-uncle Anthony Beke,
Bishop of Durham, the great possessions of that prelate, and 7 Edward
II., was summoned to Parliament as Baron Willoughby de Eresby.
[2] Burke.
His great-grandson was Robert, fourth Lord Willoughby; he married
first Alice daughter of Sir William Skipwith, and secondly Margaret
daughter of William, Lord Zouch, who died in 1391.[3] His third son
Sir Thomas by Alice Skipwith, married Elizabeth daughter of John de
Nevill, Lord Nevill of Raby, and Elizabeth Latimer his second wife,
only daughter of William, fourth Lord Latimer of the first creation,
who died in 1388. Sir Thomas was succeeded by his son Sir John
Willoughby, who married Joan Welby, described as an heiress, and their
son was the Sir John Willoughby, who married Anne daughter of Sir
Edmond Cheney, of Broke, Wilts; whose son was Sir Robert Willoughby,
the first Lord Willoughby de Broke, and subject of our little memoir.
There were three other sons, William of Turners-Piddle, Dorset, who
died in 1512, and was buried at Bere-Regis; Thomas, who married Isabel
Bedyke of Silton, Dorset, died 1523, and ordered his body to be buried
in the church there; and Edward, Dean of Exeter Cathedral, and Canon
of St. George's, Windsor, who died in 1508. Also two daughters,
Cicely, Abbess of Wilton, who died in 1528, and Elizabeth, married to
William Carrant, of Toomer in Henstridge, Somerset.
[3] The fine and almost perfect memorial brass of this lady is in
the chancel of Spilsby church, Lincolnshire. She is habited in
cote-hardie with mantle over, crenulated head-dress with
coverchief, two dogs with collars and bells at her feet, her head
rests on richly embroidered cushions. On the ledger-line is this
inscription,
=Hic jacet Margeria que fuit uxor Roberti de Wylughby de Eresby
que obiit xviij die mensis Octobris an'o d'ni mill'imo ccc
nonagesimo p'mo cui' a'ie p'p'ciet' deus=
and these arms: 1. MORTIMER.--2. UFFORD and BEC quarterly, as
borne by Lord Willoughby de Eresby.--3. Ros.--4. Wells.--5.
Bohun.--6. Zouch.--7. Beaumont.--8. Willoughby impaling Zouch. At
the angles are the emblems of the four Evangelists. There are also
two other splendid figures, probably the succeeding baron and his
lady, in the same chancel.
Thus far for the coming of the knight; our next care will be to trace,
as far as means available enable us, his progress and actions during
the eventful days in which he lived. The strife between the contending
factions of the Red and White Roses, in his younger years was strongly
predominant, and so thoroughly had the fierce rivalry for supreme
power permeated society, that probably it was almost impossible to
remain neutral, while men so blindly, yet withal so devotedly, risked
their lives and fortunes in partizanship with the contending claimants
of the divine right. To choose a side was an absolute necessity,--
"Under which king, Bezonian? speak or die!"
was the question of the hour, and had to be answered with all its
contingent risk. In the west country the adherents of the Red Rose
seemed to have the preponderance, the detestable craft and cruelty of
Richard III. doubtless had its effect of estranging from sympathy with
him, all except just those who were allied to his rule by the hollow
tie of self-interest, and the usual glamour of adhering to the powers
that be, no matter how arrived at or constituted, or what its actions
were.
The first important social function we find Sir Robert Willoughby
discharging, is that of Sheriff of Devon, 21 Edward IV., 1481, being
the year preceding the one in which his friend Sir Giles Daubeney held
the same office. And then, in harmony with the prevailing distracted
state of public affairs we have described, we next observe him in
active sympathy with the claims of the Red Rose, and consequent
enlistment in the cause of Richmond of York, in the company of
a large number of west country gentlemen, the Marquis of Dorset
(representative of Bonville), Giles Daubeney, the Courtenays, John
Cheney, Walter Hungerford, and others, in their rising and march to
Salisbury, in order to effect a junction with, and aid the movement in
Wales of the ill-fated Duke of Buckingham, in 1483. But the
extraordinary swollen state of the Severn--"an inundation so
remarkable that for a hundred years afterward it was called the _Great
Water_, or _Buckingham's Water_, said to have lasted ten days, and
that men, women, and children were carried away in their beds by the
violence of it"--placed a barrier between their forces from effecting
a junction, leaving the unfortunate Stafford in Richard's power, who
forthwith consigned him to the scaffold at Salisbury, and sent Sir
Robert and his companions in speedy flight to the south coast, and
thence 'beyond seas' over to Richmond in Brittany, thereby escaping a
similar sanguinary fate, which would have been remorselessly meted out
to them. For this defection his lands were seized, and Broke and
Suthwyke were bestowed by Richard on his favourite Sir Richard
Radcliffe.
Our clue as to his movements, for a short time, becomes one of surmise
rather than of actual proof. At the dispersal of Buckingham's
followers, Sir Robert and his attainted companions fled to Brittany,
and he remained probably with them at Vannes or the neighbourhood,
until the Earl of Richmond set out on his final expedition from
Harfleur to Milford-Haven. This he doubtless accompanied, although no
special mention is made of his name, nor as to his taking part in the
engagement at Bosworth, where however he must have been present from
circumstances that followed. Dugdale says "he was a successful sharer
in the benefit of that great victory," another thing to that of
sharing its danger.
A much more important event however, identifying the presence of Sir
Robert at Bosworth, or immediately near, and shewing the confidence
the victor placed in him, was Richmond despatching the knight, the day
after the battle, and before Henry left Leicester, with a detachment
of horse to the castle of Sheriff-Hutton in Yorkshire, to convoy the
unfortunate Earl of Warwick (son of the Duke of Clarence and nephew of
Edward IV.), then a prisoner there, to the still safer and more
dangerous custody of the Tower of London, only to emerge eventually
from thence to his death on the scaffold.
This mission is thus described by the old chronicler Hall. Henry in
order
"to obsist the first likely mischiefe, sent before his departure
from Leycestre Sir Robert Willoghby knight to the maner of
Sheryhutton in the County of Yorke for Edward Plantagenet Erle of
Warwike sonne and heire to George Duke of Clarence then beyng of
the age of xv yeres, whom Kyng Richard had kept there as a
prisoner durynge the tyme of his vsurped reigne. Sir Robert
Willoghby accordynge to hys commission receaved of the conestable
of the castle the Erle Edward, and him conueighed to London,
where the youngelynge borne to perpetual calamitie was
incontynent in the towre of London putt under safe and sure
custody."
The circumstances connected with the inveiglement of this poor
boy,--who for fifteen out of the twenty-four years he had lived, had
been a close prisoner, and so shut out from all knowledge of the outer
world, that he was said "not to know a goose from a capon,"--into a
confession of complicity with Perkin Warbeck's attempt, and then his
barbarous murder,--for it was nothing less,--on Tower Hill, is one of
the darkest of the many selfishly revengeful crimes that stain with
indelible cruelty the reign of the first Tudor king, as the equally
detestable slaying of the lad's aged sister the Countess of Salisbury,
in 1541, appals by the horror of its incidents, the second. "The truth
was," says Rapin, "the real crime that cost him his life, was his
being the last male heir of the house of York." He was beheaded 14
Nov., 1499, and Sir Robert lived to witness the wretched fate of the
noble youth he had four years previously brought a captive to London,
and in his death the extinction of the hope of the White Rose.
At the conclusion of Henry's first Parliament in 1485, in company with
his friend Sir Giles Daubeney, Sir Robert had the honour of the
peerage conferred on him, by the title of BARON WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE,
but the writ of summons does not appear to have been issued until 12
August, 1492. About the same time he was constituted one of the king's
Privy Council. In 1489, he was created a Knight of the Garter, being
the two hundred and forty-fourth on the roll of that noble order.
Lord Willoughby de Broke's first important public function appears to
have been his despatch from Portsmouth by Henry, with an army "to the
number of eight thousand choice men and well armed, who, having a fair
wind, in a few hours landed in Brittany" in March, 1489, professedly
to protect at her own proper costs and charges the girl-duchess Ann,
then about twelve years old, from the aggression of the French king,
Charles VIII., who was encamped with a hostile force within her
territory, but which province he eventually added to his kingdom,
together with the hand of its young mistress.
Here he remained in inglorious ease until November, when the little
army, with the exception of the five hundred left to occupy the
"cautionary towns" until payment for the expedition was made,
returned; during which time, and for a considerable portion of the
year ensuing, a game of dissimulation and feints at fighting was
carried on between the three monarchs, Henry, Charles, and Maximilian,
practically over the destiny of the young Duchess.
Then the scene of this playing at war shifts suddenly from Brittany to
Flanders, where the subjects of Maximilian--the proxy husband of
Ann--at Ypres and Sluys were in open revolt, respecting "an
unpalatable edict concerning coin," and to aid whom Charles VIII. had
sent Marshal d'Esquerdes with large succours of help, thus attacking
the would-be bridegroom and his child _fiancée_, on each side, and at
once; a game that proved successful in the end.
Maximilian in his turn sent ambassadors over to the wary calculating
Henry, then holding the scales between the monarchs, as he was at the
same time also engaged in negociations with Charles, who was
procrastinating and not intending to give any definite answer, nor but
little frightened at Henry's preparations, as he was well assured
within himself how matters would eventually terminate.
Henry was however seriously annoyed at the French king's
dissimulation, and despatched with all speed a little expedition of a
thousand men over to Calais, the command being entrusted to the Lords
Morley and Willoughby de Broke. Lord Daubeney was at that period
Governor of Calais, and to this force he added another thousand men,
drawn from the garrisons of Calais, Hammes, and Guisnes; and they had
"secret instructions to aid Maximilian and raise the siege of Dixmude"
where the citizens, soldiers, and their allies were encamped. The
English soldiers appear to have stolen an effective surprise upon the
Flemings and their French allies in the night, for they had apparently
no idea of the attack, and routed them with great slaughter, said to
have been eight thousand in number, while only a hundred or thereabout
of the English were killed, a statement to be received with caution,
as Lord Morley, Sir James Tyrrell, Captain of Guisnes, Sir Humphrey
Talbot, Marshal of Calais, Sir Gilbert Talbot, and others, were among
the slain. The pursuit over, the English army retired to Newport,
where Marshal d'Esquerdes appears to have followed and attacked them
without result. As this was the first touch of real hostilities, such
as they were, between Henry and Charles, for the time it "bred a great
coldness" between the belligerent monarchs.
But the coldness did not last long, and meanwhile a complete tangle of
matters enveloped these three royal players, over the destiny of their
hostage the girl-princess of Brittany, secretly wedded by proxy to
Maximilian, practically a prisoner in her little kingdom, unprotected,
and in the eyes of the French king a very desirable alliance for him,
and so incorporate that province under the crown of France, of which
nation it formed an integral portion. Ambassadors came over from the
Duchess to sound Henry's intentions of protection toward her, others
were despatched across in February, 1491, to the French king by
Henry, and these were followed again by further ambassadors from Ann,
vainly waiting in London for an answer. So things progressed, and
Charles who by his agents was busily plying the young Duchess with his
suit, in his turn amused the English envoys, until he found he had won
her and had the game in hand; then he cut the knot of the difficulty
by marrying her 16 Dec., 1491, and Henry's ambassadors returned
discomfited.
This climax came as a bomb-shell among the great personages.
Maximilian was furious at the loss of his bride, and threatened
immediate invasion of France for so deadly an affront; this however
did not much trouble Charles. What he was most concerned with was the
attitude of Henry who was also greatly enraged, and who, beside openly
boasting he should at once prepare for war against him, was also
influencing Ferdinand of Spain--whose daughter Katharine was espoused
to his son Arthur--to join him in the conflict. Thus France was
threatened on three sides at once, Charles however had little fear of
Maximilian or Ferdinand.
In the meantime Henry had another trouble nearer his door, with the
Scotch, and no settlement appeared to be in view, while the
complication in France continued, the French king being probably
moving behind to prevent. Ambassadors again came over from Charles to
negociate, but Henry who had the ulterior object of getting well paid
for what he was about to do, and the old debt due by Ann of Brittany
discharged, aided by liberal subsidies from Parliament, assembled an
army of twenty-five thousand foot, and sixteen hundred horse, and on
the second of October crossed over to Calais, to make conditions on
his adversary's soil, never meaning to fight, but by show and menaces,
see what he could get.
The conduct of this large flotilla, which arrived at Calais the same
day, was under the command of Lord Willoughby de Broke, as Lord High
Admiral; a notable piece of seamanship for the age, and shewing that
at the time England had a considerable reserve of shipping.
Henry with all the 'pomp and circumstance' of war marched out to
Boulogne, then, instead of fighting, the inevitable ambassadors on
both sides duly met, and a treaty of peace was signed at Etaples on
the third of November. The French king perfectly well knew his
antagonist's mercenary longings, and that himself and his army were
only there to exact the last golden crown possible, for the conclusion
of the matter by monetary consideration was an understanding between
them before Henry left England. So Charles agreed to pay Henry an
immense sum in discharge of his wife's debt, and also another large
amount, arrears of the yearly pension agreed to be paid by Lewis XI.
to Edward IV., his wife's father. Thereon the English king retired
with his army and treasure, or the promise of it, back to London, the
French monarch returned to his young bride at Paris, and the
undisputed possession of her dowry the Duchy of Brittany, and
Maximilian was left to shift for himself. After this manner therefore
ended the war concerning Brittany which began five years before in
1487.
This appears to have been the last foreign service in which Lord
Willoughby de Broke was engaged. We do not find his name among the
generals[4] of the king's army employed in the suppression of the
Cornish revolt at Black-Heath, nor otherwise engaged at home, until
the landing of Perkin Warbeck at Whitsand Bay in September, 1498, when
he held a command in the royal forces under Henry in his march to the
west to meet the plebeian pretender to his crown. Lord Willoughby de
Broke came to Taunton with Lord Daubeney and others commanding the
troops, and after Perkin's return as a captive from Beaulieu, went on
with Henry to Exeter. There the king dealt with the insurgents
personally, many of whom came with halters round their necks sueing
for pardon, and having punished some, to use his own words, "grant
unto the residue generally our grace and pardon, and our
Commissioners, the Earl of Devon, our Chamberlain, and our Steward of
Household, have done, and do daily, in our County of Cornwall."
[4] Lysons says he _was_ one of the Commanders against them.
The 'Steward of Household' was Lord Willoughby de Broke, and he was
peculiarly fitted for the duty, not only on account of his
relationship by property with the County, but also by virtue of his
position as Steward of the Duchy of Cornwall. This was apparently his
last public employment of any note, and probably age was stealing on
him, as he died four years afterward.
Of the offices and honours conferred on him by Henry, we find those of
Lord Steward of the Household, Steward of the Duchy of Cornwall, and
alternately that of Captain-General or Marshal of the land forces, and
as an Admiral of the fleet, in the king's expeditions to France, also
a chief Commander of the forces when engaged at home. He was called to
the Privy Council, created a Baron by writ of summons, and
subsequently elected a Knight of the Garter.
He twice served the office of Sheriff of Devon, in 1481, and again in
1488. Lysons says "in the reign of Henry VII. the mines of silver and
gold (in Cornwall) were leased to Sir Robert Willoughby."
Thus far have we proceeded with Lord Willoughby de Broke's public
services abroad and at home; our next care must be to glance at his
domestic surroundings, and what constrained him to leave his old
ancestral place of Broke Hall amid the breezy altitudes of north
Wilts, and find his way to the sheltered banks by Tamar's marge, in
south Devon. Nothing in any way singular or unusual, simply that
potent cause which has tempted many a young man to stray far away from
his father's roof-tree, brought Robert Willoughby down to
Beer-Ferrers,--the search for a wife,--and the lady he selected was
endowed with one, at least, most attractive charm, eagerly sought
after by mediæval knight--and not altogether lost sight of, by suitors
in these, in some respects not much-improved mercenary, unchivalric
modern days of ours,--she was an heiress, largely dowered with the
home possessions of an antient race, of whom she was there the sole
representative in right of her grandmother, one of three sisters,
coheiresses, its last descendants; while on her father's side she was
also the only survivor of a branch of another of the most
time-honoured names in the county.
Blanche Champernowne was the pleasant name of the distaff that Robert
Willoughby won for his bride. She was the only daughter of John
Champernowne of Beer-Ferrers by Elizabeth Bigbury his wife, which John
succeeded his elder brother Roger who died without issue. He was the
second son of Alexander Champernowne (who died 30 June, 1441), by his
wife Joan, daughter and coheiress of Martyn Ferrers, who, says Pole
"was the last of y^t name of Ferrers, Lord of Beere-Ferrers."
Alexander was son of Sir Richard Champernowne of Modbury, by his first
wife Alice daughter of Thomas Lord Astley, and whose second wife was
Katharine daughter of Sir Giles Daubeney.
The family of De Ferraris or Ferrers, whose 'name and blood' Blanche
Champernowne represented, deserves a short genealogical notice here.
They had from very early date been settled in the parish of Beer, one
part of which, says Pole, "takes his name of ye family of Ferrers, th'
ancient inhabitants, from whence all the Ferrers in Devon and Cornwall
issued." Ralph de Ferrers was its lord in the reign of King Henry II.,
to him succeeded Henry, Reginald, and Sir William who married Isolda
daughter of Andrew Cardinham, leaving issue Sir Roger, Sir Reginald,
and Sir Hugh the ancestor of the Churston descent. Sir Reginald, of
Beer, married Margaret sister and coheiress of Sir Robert le Dennis of
Pancrasweek, and had issue Sir William who married Matilda daughter of
Roger Carminow. They were followed by their son Sir John, who was
succeeded by his son Sir Martyn, who, says Pole, was "the last of that
name of Ferrers, Lord of Beere-Ferrers; a person of great honour and
integrity, one of the principal persons entrusted with the guard of
this shire," corroborated by Risdon, who adds, "he was put in special
trust, with others, for the defence of the sea-coast against the
invasion of the French in King Edward the third's time."
Sir Martyn left three daughters, Elizabeth married to Hugh Poynings,
Lord St. John of Basing, Leva to Christopher Fleming, Baron of Slane
in Ireland, and Jone "to whom the mannor of Beer-Ferrers fell in
porcion" to Alexander Champernowne. Further notices of this family
will occur on our visit to the little sanctuary in the village, which
they appear to have originally built, and wherein several interesting
memorials to them remain. Their allusive arms were, _Or, on a bend
sable, three horse-shoes argent._
Concerning this prettily named heiress Blanche Champernowne and her
family, the prosaic and literal old itinerant Leland, gives us further
notice, and, if his description of her be correct, takes much of the
romance out of it,--
"There was another house of the Campernulphes more auncient,
caullid Campernulphe of Bere. The last of this house left a
doughter and heire caullid Blanche, maried first onto Copestan of
Devonshire, and after devorcid and maried onto the Lord Brooke,
Steward onto Henry the VII, and he had by her a 700 markes of
lande by yere.
"John Willoughby that cam out of Lincolnshire and maried the an
heire general of the Lord (of) Broke, and after was Lord Brooke
hymself, lyeth buried at Hedington, and was a benefactor to that
house. As I remembre, the sunne of this Lord Broke was Steward
of king Henry the VII House, and his son was the third Lord
Brooke of that--. N.B.--and he had a sunne by his firste wife,
and that sunne had ij doughters maried to Daltery and Graville.
He had by another wife sunnes and doughters. The sunnes toward
yong men died of the sweting syknes."
The genealogy is here somewhat confused, but Leland appears to have
been trusting to memory only.
We have made pilgrimage to, and described what remains of the old
ancestral home of the knight in Wiltshire, and our steps next lead us
to the locality of the new one he possessed by right of his wife at
Beer-Ferrers in Devon. Like all places situate on the estuaries of
large rivers such as the Tamar, that are tidal, and fringed by creeks
that run considerable distances inland, Beer-Ferrers on the land side
is only to be reached by a circuitous route from Plymouth, and
therefore we elect the easier and more direct approach to it, by aid
of the iron horse to Saltash, and thence by boat.
The tide is well up, and a pleasant breeze soon speeds us on our way.
We pass the Budshead creek, that extends inland to Tamerton-Foliot,
and are soon opposite a second and somewhat larger opening that runs
up to Maristow, where, at its far end, the sparkling Tavy, fresh from
the granite boulders of Dartmoor, delivereth her waters into the salt
bosom of the lower Tamar. At about mid-distance up the creek on its
northern shore, a small compact village, with a square battlemented
church tower rising in the midst, has its place on the bank that
slopes gently down to the water's edge. Thither we steer our way, and
making fast our little craft to the pier, or 'quay' as these landing
places are locally termed, find ourselves at Beer-Ferrers.
And where shall we discover this new home, you say, that Lord
Willoughby de Broke acquired by right of Blanche Champernowne, and
when in the flesh possessed and resided in, with surrounding park, and
for which mansion or manor-house, his wife's ancestor Sir William de
Ferrers had a license to castellate from king Edward III. in 1337, a
concession subsequently renewed to his widow the Lady Matilda, and
continued to his son Sir John?
Even in Leland's time, immediately after the decease of the last Lord
Willoughby de Broke, it seems to have disappeared, for he notes:--"on
the east side of this creek is Buckland. And on the west side is Bere,
_where the Lord Broke's house and park was_." We believe nothing now
remains to mark its former site but a few undulations in the turf. A
graphic picture of the lawlessness of the era of Lord Willoughby de
Broke's earlier residence at Beer-Ferrers, and the amenities of social
life exhibited between the "bettermost folk" of that district, and
comparatively neighbours also, is shewn in an account preserved among
the muniments of the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, describing attacks made
on the person, servants and residence of his ancestor Richard Edgcumbe
of Cotehele (M.P. for Tavistock in 1468) by Robert Willoughby of
Beer-Ferrers, and thus described by the Earl to the members of the
Royal Archæological Society in 1876:--
"The document is rather amusing, dated 1470, and is apparently
the rough copy of a complaint or information by this Richard
against Robert Willoughby, who lived across the water at Beer
Ferrers, of injuries done to him at sundry times. This paper
which is remarkable for its wonderful spelling and for the
careful way in which every hostile act is estimated at its money
value, contains no less than thirteen items or charges, each
specifying some distinct outrage on the part of the said
Willoughby and his followers, numbering on one occasion '_three
score persons, in form of war arraied, with jackes, salettes,
bowys, ar'ws, and byelys, who at various times and places
contrewayted the said Richard to have mordered him and with force
of armes made a great affray and assawte upon him and his
servants sometimes to the gret jeperdy and dispayre of his
liff_,' always to his hurt and damage of so many pounds. And on
another occasion attacked Cotehele House itself and carried off a
very miscellaneous collection of articles to the hurt and damage
of the said Richard of a great many pounds; and at other times
took divers of his servants and kept them for a week at a time in
prison at '_Bere Ferrers_,' and '_bete_' and grievously wounded
others, especially one William Frost, to the hurt and damage to
the said Richard of £20 and more. It is a curious fact that
fifteen years later this Willoughby (as Lord de Broke) and
Richard Edgcumbe held high places together in the court of Henry
VII."
Richard Edgcumbe had a narrower escape however from the vengeance of
Richard III., after the suppression of Buckingham's revolt, in which
he was a partizan, being strongly attached to the fortunes of the Red
Rose. A party of armed men in Richard's interest, headed according to
tradition by Sir Henry Bodrugan, otherwise Trenoweth, of St. Gorran in
Cornwall, an adherent of the White Rose, made search for him in his
own beautiful home of Cotehele. Carew describing the event says,
"he was driven to hide himself in those his thick woods, which
overlook the river, what time being suspected of favouring the
Earle of Richmond's party, against King Richard the III., he was
hotely pursued, and narrowly searched for. Which extremity taught
him a sudden policy, to put a stone in his cap, and tumble the
same into the water, while these rangers were fast at his heeles,
who looking downe after the noyse, and seeing his cap swimming
thereon supposed that he had desperately drowned himselfe, gave
over their farther hunting and left him at liberty to shift away,
and ship over into Brittaine: for a grateful remembrance of which
delivery, hee afterwards builded in the place of his lurking, a
Chapell."
After the victory of Bosworth, and Henry was seated on the throne, it
came to Edgcumbe's chance to turn the tables on his adversary, and
this he did most effectually. Tradition further relates, according to
Lysons quoting from Tonkin, that,
"Sir Henry Bodrugan was in arms in Cornwall against the Earl of
Richmond, (Henry VII.) that he was defeated on a moor, not far
from his own castle by Sir Richard Edgcumbe and Trevanion, and
that he made his escape by a desperate leap from the cliff into
the sea, where a boat was ready to receive him, and fled to
Ireland, when all his large estates, including Bodrugan Castle,
described by Borlase "that there was nothing in Cornwall equal to
it for magnificence" were forfeited to the Crown. Most of
Bodrugan's estates, including the manor of St. Gorran (whereon
was the castle) were granted to Sir Richard Edgcumbe, and now
belong to his descendants."
Two very remarkable and almost identically coincident escapes. The
place where he jumped over the cliff at Dodman's Head, is still known
as "Bodrugan's Leap."
Edgcumbe was Comptroller of the Household, and of the Privy Council to
Henry VII., and died returning from an embassy to France, at Morlaix
on his way home, in 1489. Willoughby, Lord de Broke was his superior
officer as Lord Steward of the Household to the same monarch; thus at
Court they were closely associated with each other. Subsequently 22
Henry VII. (1497), Lord de Broke obtained of the king a grant in fee
of the manor of Trethewye in St. Cleer, and all the lands there, part
of the forfeited possessions of Sir Henry Bodrugan, and which were
situate near his other property at Callington. So these worthies
divided the spoil of their unfortunate neighbour.
As it hath happened to us aforetime, in many of our wanderings, in
search of the former earthly habitations of those we were essaying to
bring back to the stage of our thoughts, so also here,--successively
of Ferrers, Champernowne and Willoughby,--all traces of their olden
home have disappeared, and only a site with a name and a tradition
remains to identify where stood their antient dwelling-place.
Therefore our steps lead us back to that hallowed spot, where they, in
common with us all, found their last and final home of eternal rest,
there to seek for such memorials of them as may yet remain.
The church of Beer-Ferrers is an antient structure, the chancel and
transepts of interesting early-decorated character, and but little
disturbed from their original condition. But although used for
parochial worship in the ordinary sense of the word, the little
sanctuary was of old something more than that, being dignified
ecclesiastically as a foundation of collegiate character, and termed
an Arch-Presbytery. Of these somewhat uncommon religious
establishments there were two in Devon, the other being at Haccombe,
founded (about the same time) 1341, by Sir Stephen de Haccombe. This,
at Beer-Ferrers, was founded by Sir William de Ferrers, who having
rebuilt the church was desirous of making it Collegiate. For this
purpose he assigned a sufficient endowment for an arch-priest and four
other priests, who were to live in common under the same roof; and
provision was also made for an assistant deacon, or sub-deacon, or at
least a clerk. The Community were to perform the daily and nightly
office in the church, and to offer up perpetual prayers for the
prosperity of the Founder and his Lady Matilda during their lives, and
for their souls after death. Also for the souls of Reginald de Ferrers
and his wife Margery (parents of the Founder) and the souls of Sir
Roger and Lady Joan de Carminow (parents of his wife) and the bishops
of Exeter living or dead. Bishop Grandison confirmed this foundation
17 June, 1333. The Founder did not long survive his charitable work,
for it is found in that prelate's register (vol. ii., fol. 219) that
his relict and executrix Matilda obtained from the bishop 15 Dec.,
1338, an acknowledgment of having well and faithfully administered to
her husband's property, and that only the sum of twenty pounds
remained in arrear, "_ad completionem cantarie de Biry_." (Oliver.)
A glance into the chancel, although five centuries have flown, brings
us face to face with the Founder and his wife. There--marvellously
preserved--humbly postured on one knee, his glowing tinted
proportions, amid the crimson interlacery, and quarrels of
pale-pencilled leaflets, that fill the east window, arrayed in gilded
chain-mail, silver genouillères and sword-hilt, with the armories of
his race, the dark bend and gleaming horse-shoes traversing both
ailette and surcoat. In his raised hands he bears the offering of a
grand church, having three spires, and over his head runs a legend
that apparently reads "(SYR) E WILL'S FERREYS ME FECIT." Fronting him
in the adjoining light, with hands uplifted in prayer, kneels his wife
Matilda Carminow, in snowy wimple and cover-chief, pink boddice and
sleeves, with the broad bend of her husband's arms embroidered on her
golden robe. The inscription above her head, seems to be confused and
undecipherable. Studding the borders of the lights, interspersed among
other ornaments, are the arms of Ferrers and Carminow, and a grand
escutcheon similarly charged, and encircled with beautiful
green-foliaged ornament occurs below.
Thus much for the history of the foundation of the arch-presbytery as
depicted in the window; immediately beneath on the north side of the
altar, upon a raised tomb of plain character, rest the recumbent
effigies of the Founder and his wife, carved in stone, and habited
almost exactly in duplicate of the figures limned on the glass above.
Over them rises a beautiful pyramidal canopy, cusped below, flanked by
pinnacles rising from the ground, the whole richly foliaged and
finialed. In the upper spandrels are angels swinging censers.[5] But
the peculiarity of this memorial consists in the lower portion of the
canopy being cut through the wall, and opening to the side-chapel or
chamber that adjoins the chancel on that side, where its elevation is
repeated, as in the church, but with much less ornament.
[5] There appears to be only two examples of this fine style of
monument found in the county, the other occurring in the Chapel
of St. James, in Exeter Cathedral.
In the transept, which appears to be coeval with the chancel, in the
east wall is a piscina, and the moulding immediately adjoining, marks
the position of an altar that once had its position there. In a recess
beneath a finely moulded arch at the north end under the window, is
the effigy of a knight in chain-mail and surcoat, with shield, and
hands grasping his sword, cross-legged,--the head raised and supported
on a large bascinet-shaped helmet. The legs are destroyed to the
knees, and of the lion on which his feet rested, only the paws remain.
This figure is of contemporary date with the Founder in the chancel,
with great probability is a Ferrers, and may represent his father, who
was on the bede-roll of the foundation.
Here concludes our notices of the memorials of Ferrers, the first of
the influential families Blanche Willoughby represented. Our next
care, will, if it may be, to note any traces of the equally antient
race that succeeded them at Beer, and gave to her, her maiden name of
Champernowne.
One only, humble but characteristic, remains, now ousted from its
original position in the pavement of the church, to the yard outside,
where it must speedily pass to decay. It is a flat stone, on which is
incised a Calvary cross on degrees, having at the intersection the
Sacred Heart _rayonné_, inscribed with the Sacred Monogram. Below is
this inscription,--
=Hic iacet Roger Champnow'e Armiger
cui' a'i'e p'p'cietur de' ame'=
This was the eldest brother of John Champernowne, to whom he succeeded
at Beer, and uncle to Blanche Willoughby. Roger died 14 November,
1422.
Following these, our investigations naturally carry us on to note such
remembrances of Willoughby as occur in the sacred edifice. There are
several, actual and inferred, but our jottings must be stayed for the
present, as the first memorial to that noble race is found
elsewhere,--and our steps will return here after a while to conclude
them.
Again we have recourse to our little craft, and crossing the bright
Tamar, land on the Cornish side, and thence by a circuitous and
winding lane of considerable length, find ourselves on the high road
about halfway between the old half-maritime, half-inland borough of
Saltash, and the equally antient half-mining, half-agricultural
borough of Callington. As we steadily climb the gentle but continual
ascent that leads to the old tinners' town, a grand and varied
prospect surrounds us. Immediately in front looms the immense
pyramidal mass of Hingston Down and Kit Hill rising over it, in all
near eleven hundred feet above the tidal marge of the blue sea that
gleams behind us, its crest garnished with many a tall chimney stack,
the out-growth of that glamour of wealth so invincibly dear to the
Cornishman's heart, that is always coming, but so seldom arrives, and
whose witchery has been handed down from countless generations even
long before old Leland's foot passed over it, and he made note of it
as "being a hy hylle, and nere Tamar yn the easte part, baryn of his
self, yt it is fertile by yielding of tynne both by water and dry
warkes." Hence the distich,
"Hengston Down well yrought,
Is worth London Town dear ybought,"
but whose smokeless chimneys now stand as the witness-ghosts of the
hundreds of thousands of buried treasure sunk aforetime within its
vast bosom, yet nevertheless rich to a degree in mineral wealth, and
boundless resource of granite and clay of the finest quality, from
which considerable returns have been made. To the right in the far
distance rise the shadowy tors of Dartmoor in successive range,
melting back and merging into the grey realms of cloud-land. On the
left, clear cut into the bright evening sky, appears the magnificent
boldly outlined mass of the Caradons, behind which the sun has just
dipped, and a blue ærial haze of singular beauty and varying density,
stretches down their side and unites them to the broad valley beneath.
We pass the skirt of Viverdon Down, an immense common, susceptible of
better cultivation, but now a fastness for game only, and rough food
for young animals; albeit gay in its appointed season with wealth of
heather and gorse, and, if neglected by man, glorified by the unseen
touch of the Infinite,--
"How full of love must He
In all things be,
Who strews with beauty e'en the waste and wold,
Who gives the moorland lark
His purple heath-bower dark;
The mountain bee, his wilderness of gold."
Quietly continuing our way, a short distance further brings us to the
apex of the ascent, and as we begin to descend, before us is the
'tynner's towne' of Callington, with its granite-built,
expressively-pinnacled church tower rising well above the clustering
houses that surround it.
Here, at Callington, Lord Willoughby de Broke held another large
property by right of his wife as a descendant of Ferrers, and also at
South-Hill, as being himself the representative of the family of
Stafford. Lysons says,--
"The manor of Callington was in the Ferrers family when the
market was granted in 1267 by Henry III.; Joan daughter of Martyn
Ferrers, brought it into the Champernowne family, Lord Willoughby
de Broke became possessed of it by marrying their heiress. It
appears that he occasionally resided, and that he died, at the
Manor-house of Callington, for he directed in his will he should
be buried in the church of that parish in which he should die.
From Willoughby it passed by successive marriages to Paulet,
Marquis of Winchester (who married his grand-daughter Elizabeth),
Dennis, Rolle, Walpole, and Trefusis. At Southill, two-thirds of
the great manor or franchise of Callilond or Kalliland, to which
the church of Southill is appendant, which belonged formerly to
the baronial family of Stafford, and passed by a coheiress to
Willoughby Lord Broke, and now vested in Trefusis."
Where the Manor-house mentioned by Lysons was situate cannot now be
determined, but it is surmised to have been a building, which has long
wholly disappeared, and was called Chickett-Hall, that formed Lord
Willoughby de Broke's residence at Callington, and where he presumably
departed this life. He was patron of the important benefice of
South-Hill, and in its daughter church of Callington he was buried.
But according to Sir R. C. Hoare he died at Wardour Castle, Wilts,
which he had purchased.
Lord Broke made his will 19 August, 1502, and "_ordered his body to be
buried in that parish wherein he should happen to die appointing that
part of the issues and profits of Mitton and Kelmesham, &c., Co.
Worcester, and the Manors of Helmingham, Thorpe-Latimer, Skredyngton,
Heckington, Ledynghall and Swynehead in Com: Lincoln (then lately
belonging to Lord Latimer) should be employed, by the space of twenty
years next after his decease, to the finding of a priest to sing in
the parish church of Hoke in Com: Dorset, for that term, taking for
his salary every year ten marks, and to the relief of fourteen poor
men and women, by the space of the said twenty years, to pray for his
soul, as also for the soul of Blanche his wife, and the souls of his
father and mother_." Probate, 25 December next ensuing. (Dugdale.)
Lord Willoughby de Broke is buried on the north side of the chancel of
Callington church, and his monument--perhaps the finest of its kind in
Cornwall--consists of his effigy recumbent on a high-tomb, both
composed of alabaster. He is habited in complete plate armour, collar
and apron of mail, and broad-toed sollerets, and is armed with sword
and miséricorde. The hands are in gauntlets, the head--which rests on
a helmet--is uncovered, the hair cut short across the forehead, but
flowing by the sides of the face, to the shoulders. The helmet is
mantled, and surmounted by the crest _a Saracen's head affronté,
couped at the shoulders, ducally crowned, and with ear-rings_. The
feet are on a lion, and behind the soles, are two monks, or weepers,
their heads bowed and inclining toward each other, resting on one
hand, with the other they hold a rosary. The Garter appears below the
left knee, and over the armour he wears the Robe and Collar of the
Order, on the left shoulder is embroidered the Shield encircled by the
Riband, the Collar is composed of roses within a garter, and
garter-knots alternate, and from it is suspended the George.
The tomb below is formed of panels filled with rich tracery, having in
their centres shields with carved armorial bearings, and twisted
pillars were at the corners; of these two remain. No inscription is
visible, it was probably only painted on the verge of the
ledger-moulding, but traces of colour and gilding are faintly
discernible on the figure. The effigy is in a fair state of
preservation, but wretchedly disfigured on the surface, by legions of
names and initials, barbarously cut into, and scratched on it.
The shields,--two of which are encircled by the Garter,--are charged
with the arms borne by Lord Willoughby de Broke, as derived from
Willoughby de Eresby with due difference. Quarterly: first grand
quarter 1 and 4, _Sable, a cross engrailed or_ (UFFORD); 2 and 3,
_Gules, a cross moline argent_ (BEC or BEKE), at the intersection _a
crescent for difference_; second, _Gules, a cross patonce or_
(LATIMER); third, _Gules, four fusils argent, on each an escallop
sable_ (CHENEY); fourth, _Or, a chevron gules, within a bordure
engrailed sable_ (STAFFORD). On the styles between the panels appears
the _rudder_, surmounted by the _rose_ of his patron Henry VII.
It is singular that no armorial alliance allusive to his wife appears
on the tomb, but only his own family achievement with its proud
distinguishment conspicuously displayed, finds place thereon. Yet
Blanche Champernowne was an heiress of no mean descent, and richly
dowered also, being the representative of the two very antient races
of Ferrers and Champernowne, west country names of remote descent, and
wide-spread renown, whose property she inherited. The more to be noted
also, as he was presumably buried and his monument occurs in the
church at Callington, whose manor formed a portion of her possessions.
Where Lady Willoughby de Broke was buried does not appear. At
Beer-Ferrers the _horse-shoes_ of Ferrers do find position of equal
consequence with her husband's, but largely super-imposed with the
_rudders_ of Willoughby. Champernowne does not appear in either
church, but on her descendant's tomb at Alcester, both Ferrers and
Champernowne are carefully marshalled among the elaborate heraldic
display.
Stay thy foot, friend of mine, a short while, ere thou passest out of
the sacred enclosure, and scan yon venerable churchyard cross--how
rich is Cornwall in these reminders--slightly leaning, yet hale in the
strength of the almost imperishable granite, and with the age-worn
imagery of the Great Sacrifice, still plainly discernible, insculped
on one of the faces of its pediment. There it was before the
honour-bedizened noble--whose tomb we have been just surveying--found
his way to Callington to enjoy the portion of his great possessions,
situate near it; and who shall say he may not many a time have bowed
his head in silent prayer, and crossed himself reverently at the sight
of its solemn appeal, when in life he passed in front of it, as he
entered the adjoining sanctuary for worship, ere he finally found
therein his grave. And here also it is to-day, speaking the same
eternal lesson to us, who are seeking to gather back from the woof of
the Past, ravelled threads of his memory; and there it will doubtless
be found, when we also are merged into the things that were. Such is
THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS.
Hoary and worn and frayed,--
Old cross,--
By ruin's hand arrayed,
Time's dross:--
What message never stayed,
Speaks from thy lips decayed?
"Strife of the years is gone,
Not me,--
Drooping, bereft, and lone,
Here see
Pilgrim, by days undone,
Heaven's pleading-still, milestone.
"Ah! many eyes as thine
Have come,
Met this old gaze of mine,
Then home,
Would their glad steps incline,
Bearing my tale divine.
"Where are they now? O say--
No sound,--
Ask the memorials gray,
Around,--
They came again this way,
And down beside me lay."
Lord Willoughby de Broke by his wife Blanche Champernowne, left one
son Robert, his heir, and a daughter Elizabeth, married (as his second
wife) to William Fitz-Alan, seventeenth Earl of Arundel, K.G. who died
in 1543, and was buried at Arundel.
Robert Willoughby, the second Lord Willoughby de Broke, married first
Elizabeth, eldest of the three daughters and coheiresses of Sir
Richard Beauchamp, second Lord Beauchamp of Powyke, who died 1503, by
his wife Elizabeth daughter of Sir Humphrey Stafford, knt.
This marriage of Lord Beauchamp and Elizabeth Stafford, took place in
the private chapel of his manor-house of Beauchamp's-Court near
Alcester, by special license of the Bishop of Worcester.
The manor of Alcester belonged to the Beauchamps. Walter de Beauchamp,
brother to William de Beauchamp, the first Earl of Warwick of that
line, purchased a moiety of the manor, and had one of his seats at
Beauchamp's-Court near that town, the other being at Powyke, in
Worcestershire. His descendant Sir John de Beauchamp, K.G., who was
created Baron Beauchamp of Powyke, 2 May, 1447, by Henry VI. and who
was also Lord Treasurer of England, purchased the other portion of the
manor of Thomas Bottreaux, a representative of the antient Cornish
family of that name, who had held it for several descents. He died in
1478, and at his death left the whole manor to his son and heir,
Richard, the second baron; and he at the marriage of his daughter
Elizabeth with Robert Willoughby, settled its reversion, subject to
his own life, upon her.
By this his first marriage, Robert, the second Lord Willoughby de
Broke had one son Edward. More concerning him presently.
Secondly he married Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Grey, Marquis of
Dorset, K.G.--by his wife Cicely, the heiress of the Lords Bonville
and Harington. By her he had two sons Henry and William (who died
young of the sweating sickness)[6] and two daughters, Elizabeth
married to John Paulet, second Marquis of Winchester who died in 1576,
and Anne wedded to Charles Blount, fifth Lord Montjoy, who died in
1545, son and heir of William, fourth Lord Montjoy, whom her mother
Dorothy Grey subsequently married as her second husband. Of the public
services of this nobleman we hear little beyond his being attached to
the expedition under the command of his father-in-law the Marquis of
Dorset, sent to Spain early in 1512 by Henry VIII. on behalf of
Ferdinand of Arragon, and which returned to England somewhat
ingloriously in the November of the same year. He survived his son
Edward, and gave a considerable portion of his large property to the
daughters of his second wife. He made his will 1 Oct., 1521, and
"_bequeathed his body to be buried in the Hospital called the Savoy,
in the suburbs of London, before the image of St. John the Baptist,
appointing a priest of honest conversation should be provided to sing
and pray for his soul, as also for his wife's soul, and all his
ancestors souls for ever, in the place where he should be buried
taking for his yearly salary seven pounds_." After making bequests to
his illegitimate children, he gives "_to his son Henry, all his
harness, bows, arrows, and all other his weapons defensive, to the
intent he should be therewith ready to serve his prince, in time of
need_." "And departing this life shortly after by a pestilential air
10 Nov. 13 Henry VIII.--1521,--was buried in the church of
Beer-Ferrers." (Dugdale.)
[6] Bacon thus describes the pestilence:--"This disease (Sweating
Sickness) had a swift course both in the sick body, and in the
time and period of the lasting thereof, for they that were taken
with it, upon four and twenty hours escaping were thought almost
assured. It was a pestilent fever but as it seemed not seated in
the veins or humours, for that there followed no carbuncle, no
purple nor livid spots, or the like, the mass of the body being
not tainted, only a malign vapour flew to the heart and seized
the vital spirits, which stirred Nature to strive to send it
forth in an extreme sweat. And it appeared by experience that
this disease was rather a surprise of Nature, than obstinate to
remedies, if it were in time looked unto; for if the patient were
kept in an equal temper, both for clothes, fire, and drink
moderately warm, with temperate cordials, whereby Nature's work
were neither irritated by heat, nor turned back by cold, he
commonly recovered. But infinite persons died suddenly of it,
before the manner of the cure and the attendance were known."
Edward Willoughby, son of the foregoing, married Margaret daughter of
Richard Nevill, second Lord Latimer[7] of the second creation (by Anne
Stafford his wife), who died in 1530. By her he had three daughters,
Elizabeth, Anne, and Blanche. Anne died unmarried, Blanche married Sir
Francis Dautry, knt., and dying leaving no issue, Elizabeth the eldest
was left at length, says Collins,--
"sole heir to the last Lord Broke, her grandfather; also to her
grandmother Elizabeth, eldest of the daughters and coheirs of the
last Lord Beauchamp of Powyke; and thus in her own person, united
the illustrious successions of those two noble families. As the
sole heir to her grandmother, she came to be seized in fee of the
whole manor of Alcester, in consequence of which, letters-patent
of exemplification were granted 3 Elizabeth, to her then a widow,
confirming all the grants of fairs, markets, &c., made in the
time of her ancestors. And as the sole heir of her grandfather,
it appears by an inquisition taken after her death, that she died
seized in fee, not only of the manor of Alcester, but of sundry
other manors and lands, in the counties of Warwick, Worcester,
Lincoln, Leicester, Somerset, and divers others; the whole
amounting to so great a value, that she might well have been
esteemed one of the richest heiresses of her time, as well as one
of the best descended."
[7] Memorable also is this Richard, Lord Latimer, for the dispute
he had with Robert, Lord Broke, touching the Barony of Latimer;
to which as next heir in blood to John, Lord Latimer of Danby,
who died without issue 9 Henry VI., he claimed a right. But to
end the contention the Lord Broke was informed by an herald, that
Sir George Nevill, grandfather to Sir Richard, was created Lord
Latimer by a new title, which therefore lineally descended to
Richard, by Henry, son and heir of the said George; and that the
Lord Broke had made a wrong claim; who should have claimed his
style from William Latimer, first created Lord Latimer of Danby,
(the head manor of this Barony) temp. Edward II; on this, the
Lord Broke perceiving his error, and having a title of his own,
was contented to conclude a match between their children, and
Richard suffered a recovery on certain manors and lordships
demanded by the Lord Broke, with which adjustment both parties
were well satisfied.--BANKS.
Here was a lady rivalling in illustrious birth and immenseness of
possessions the famed west country heiress Cicely Bonville, one of
whose daughters her grandfather had married as his second wife. What
fortunate youth was destined to make prize of this high-born and
wealthy orphan,--with whom was to reside the influence of the bestowal
of her hand, fortune, and let us hope also, her heart?
There resided not far away from the home of this fatherless,
richly-dowered girl, an old and well descended race of gentlemen
called Greville. Leland, who wrote his itinerary contemporary with the
little lady's existence in the flesh, thus describes them,--
"Sum hold Opinion, that the gravilles cam originally in at the
conquest. The veri ancient house of the gravilles, is at draiton
by banburi, in oxfordshire. But ther is an nother manor place of
the chief stok of the Gravilles, caullid Milcot, yn Warwickshire,
where a late is a newer, fairer and more commodious house. And
court rolles remayne yet at Draiton, that the Gravilles had
landes ons by yere 3300 marks. And Gravilles had Knap Castel, and
Bewbush Parke, and other landes in Southfax, by descentes of
their name.
"Grevill an ancient Gent. dwelleth at Milcote, scant a mile lower
than Stratford towards _Avon ripa dextra_."
This "ancient gent" residing at Milcote, only a comparatively short
distance from Beauchamps-Court, Sir Edward Greville by name, although
of considerable social standing, did not rank in influence with the
Brokes and Beauchamps. He appears to have been an assiduous attendant
at the Court of Henry VIII.,
"was in the commission of the peace for Warwickshire, and in 1514
at the seiges of Terouen and Tournay, also at the battle that
ensued, called by our historians the Battle of Spurs, from the
swiftness of the French running away. He received the honour of
Knighthood 13 October for his valiant behaviour. In 1523, he was
appointed one of the Knights to attend the King (Henry VIII.) and
Queen to Canterbury, and from thence to Calais, and Guisnes, to
the meeting of the French king; every one of that degree having a
chaplain, eleven servants, and eight horses."
Sir Edward married Anne, daughter of John Denton of Amersden in the
county of Bucks, died in 1529, and was buried in the Chapel of St.
Anne in the church of Weston-upon-Avon. By his wife he had four sons,
John, Fulke, Thomas, and Edward, and like a prudent far-seeing father,
he naturally looked about for good matches for them, and one prize at
least was in view, and near at home, if he could obtain her reversion.
So making use of his Court influence, on his return from the Field of
the Cloth of Gold, he
"in 13 Henry VIII., 1522, obtained the wardship of Elizabeth, one
of the daughters and coheirs, and eventually the sole heir of
Edward Willoughby the only son of Robert, the second Lord Broke;
a grant which in its consequences, greatly contributed to
aggrandize his family as will appear from what followed."
Theoretically it would be presumed the "obtaining a wardship from the
Crown," was simply that of a philanthropic trusteeship, but
practically it meant something of a much more sordid nature, even the
disposal of the person and possessions of the ward, for its own
selfish uses and purposes, a monstrous privilege, or rather power,
which was the chief object of their acquisition, and as a rule duly
enforced. Therefore in accordance, we learn further that
"Sir Edward intended her for John his eldest son, but she
preferred in affection Fulke his younger son, and we get the
following account of this marriage from a manuscript entitled
'_The Genealogie, Life, and Death of Robert, Lord
Brooke_,'--wrote in 1644, and in possession of Francis Earl
Brooke,[8]--'In the days of king Henry the Eighth, I read of Sir
Edward Grevill of Milcote, who had the wardship of Elizabeth, one
of the daughters of the Lord Brook's son. This Knight made a
motion to his ward, to be married to John his eldest son; but she
refused, saying, that she did like better of Fulke his second
son. He told her, that he (Fulke) had no estate of land to
maintain her, and that he was in the King's service of warre,
beyond the seas, and therefore his returne was very doubtful. She
replyed and said, that shee had an estate sufficient for both,
for him, and for herselfe, and that shee would pray for his
safeties, and waite for his coming. Upon his returne home, for
the worthy service he had performed, he was by king Henry
honoured with knighthood; and then he married Elizabeth, the
daughter of the Lord Brooke's son.'"
[8] Collins, _Peerage_, edition 1756, and probably now among the
muniments of the Earl of Warwick.
After all, Sir Edward did not have it exactly his own way, some little
romance was mixed up with this "matter of mere attorneyship," and the
evidently high-spirited girl had a will of her own, and preferred the
sailor youth, to the more prosaic stay-at-home son. It is well perhaps
her inclinations did not lead her for choice outside Sir Edward's
family circle, and doubtless the knight was sufficiently reconciled to
find one of his boys in possession of the heiress.
By this marriage Sir Fulke settled himself at Beauchamp's-Court, and
with his wife's large property, and others acquired afterward by
purchase, became of high distinction and position in the county of
Warwick, and it further appears that
"he was an affectionate husband and tender parent; that he had
encountered great difficulties, in securing the inheritance of
his wife (the daughters of the late Lord Broke, claiming as
coheirs), and that he was remarkably accurate in his accounts,
and adhered strictly to justice in all his transactions, appears
by the whole tenor of his will, dated 12 Elizabeth, in which
towards the end he thus expresses himself, '_and my especial
requests to my executors (his wife and eldest son) for the love I
have borne them, and for the travel I have taken in establishing
the hole inheritance, with my great costs also to be considered,
I most earnestly require them, and on God's behalf charge them,
that my debts be paied, if I die before the accomplishments
thereof_.'"
So it fortunately turned out, that the Lady Elizabeth was happily
wedded to a kind, honourable, and just man. She bore him seven
children, three sons and four daughters,--Fulke, who succeeded his
father,--Robert, of Thorpe-Latimer, Lincolnshire, ancestor of the
Earls Brooke and of Warwick,--Edward, of Harrold Park, Waltham-Abbey,
Essex, whose line terminated in two daughters coheiresses,--Mary,
married to William Harris of Hayne, Devon,--Eleanor, to Sir John
Conway, of Arrow, and Ragley, in Warwick, who died in 1603, father of
Edward, first Baron Conway,--Catherine, to Charles Read, of the county
of Gloucester, and Blanche who died unmarried.
This evidently attached couple did not long survive each other, Sir
Fulke died 10 Nov., 1559, and his wife followed him to the tomb the
year following--1560.
They were buried under a magnificent monument that originally stood at
the end of the south aisle, near the chancel in Alcester church, but
which is now removed to a position near the tower at the west end.
Considering Alcester church was almost wholly rebuilt about a century
and a half since, at an era when memorials of the dead were not too
circumspectly cared for, this noble tomb with its recumbent figures,
and wealth of ornament has been wonderfully preserved from injury.
Except that the coloured decoration is somewhat softened by Time, it
is otherwise but little mutilated, and displays all its antient
splendour almost unimpaired.
[Illustration: EFFIGIES OF SIR FULKE AND LADY ELIZABETH GREVILLE]
On a black marble table are their effigies in alabaster, richly
painted and gilded. Sir Fulke, bare-headed, is in full armour, two
chains around the breast, from the lower depends a Maltese cross (or
star) of five arms, sword and miséricorde, feet in broad sabbatons
puffed at the toes, and resting on a lion,--rings on his fingers, head
reclining on a helmet, with crest _a greyhound's head couped at the
shoulders sable, collared or_. Lady Elizabeth wears a close fitting
cap, hair parted in the centre and brought across the brow, ruff,
three small chains around the neck, gown with collar, sleeves having
dependant lappets, and putted, knotted and slashed at the shoulders,
with robe over fastened across the breast with cordon and tassels. Her
head rests on double cushions, rings are on her fingers, and from her
girdle, suspended by a chain, a gold pomander or pix, with double rose
ornament on the lid. By her left foot is a little dog, sable and
collared. The effigies are in a fine state of preservation, and around
the edge of the table this inscription:--
=Here lyeth the bodyes of s ffoulke grevile knyght & lady
Elizabeth his wefe the doughter & heire of edward willoughbye
esquyre the sone & heyre of Robert willoughbye knyght lord of
broke & lady Elizabeth one of the doughters & coheyres of the
lord beauchamps of powycke whiche s ffoulke dyed the x day of
november a'no d'ni M^o d^o lix and the seid lady Elizabeth
hys wyff deperted the day of in the yere of o^r lord god M^o
d^o lx of whose soules god have mercy amen=
On the sides of the tomb below are a series of small figures, and an
elaborate heraldic display, which claims special notice. Under the
knight are seven figures: 1, a knight in full armour, bareheaded,
sword, and chain round neck; 2 and 3, two ladies, with black hair,
chains round their necks, their gowns red, lined with black. On the
other side of the large shield, four figures: 4 and 5, two ladies with
black hair, gold chains, and black gowns lined with red; 6, apparently
a chrism child, with hood and clothes wound round in red, laced across
the chest, knees, and ankles with a black band; 7, another lady
clothed as 1 and 2. Under the cornice eight small shields:--1. _Sable,
a cross engrailed or_ (UFFORD).--2. _Gules, a cross moline or_
(BEC).--3. _Gules, a cross fleurie or_ (LATIMER).--4. _Sable, a fess
between three fleurs-de-lys or._--5. _Gules, four fusils in fess
or,[9] each charged with an escallop sable_ (CHENEY).--6. _Gules,
three mullets pierced, or._--7. _Azure, a cross fleurettée or_
(Paveley?).--8. _Gules, a lion rampant or._ Below them inscribed in
the centre,
=Arma Edwardi grevile de milcote militis.=
under the inscription a large escutcheon quarterly of four,--1 and 4.
_Gules, a fess between six martlets or._--2 and 3. _Or, on a fess
azure, three fleurs-de-lys of the first._ Round the shield on a blue
riband,
DONA PACIENCIA DIEN ME
On the other side under the lady are eight figures: 1 and 2, are
ladies in gilded caps and cuffs, black gowns lined with red, and
sleeves similar to those worn by Lady Greville; 3, a chrism child
habited exactly as that on the opposite side; 4, a lady clad similar
to the first two. On the other side of the central shield, four ladies
apparelled as the other three, their gowns red lined with black. All
the figures stand on little pedestals and have their hands raised in
prayer. Under the cornice eight small shields: 1. _Sable, a fret or_
(MALTRAVERS).--2. _Azure, two bars gemells or_ (CIFREWAST).--3. _Per
fess gules and azure, three crescents or_ (D'AUMARLE).--4. _Gules, a
saltier vaire, between twelve billets or_ (CHAMPERNOWNE).--5. _Or, on
a bend sable, three horse-shoes of the first_ (FERRERS).--6. _Azure,
an eagle displayed or_ (BIGBURY).--7. _Gules, a fess between six
martlets or._--8. _Or, on a fess azure, three fleurs-de-lys of the
first._ Inscribed below them in the centre,
=Arma Robert Willoughbye domina de broke.=
Under the inscription a large escutcheon quarterly of eighteen:--1.
_Sable, a cross engrailed or_ (UFFORD).--2. _Gules, a cross moline or_
(BEC).--3. _Gules, a cross fleurie or_ (LATIMER).--4. _Sable, a fess
between three fleurs-de-lys or._--5. CHENEY.--6. _Gules, three mullets
pierced or._--7. _Azure, a cross fleurettée or_ (PAVELEY?)--8. _Gules,
a lion rampant or._-9. _Or, a cross fleurie gules._--10. _Or, three
bars gules._--11. _Or, a chevron gules, within a bordure engrailed
sable_ (STAFFORD).--12. _Or, six lioncels rampant gules, three and
three._--13. MALTRAVERS.--14. CIFREWAST.--15. D'AUMARLE.--16.
CHAMPERNOWNE.--17. FERRERS.--18. BIGBURY.--Around the shield the
riband of the Garter with motto,
HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE
At the head of the tomb, four small shields[10] on the cornice:--1.
_Sable, on a cross within a bordure both engrailed or, nine pellets of
the first_ (GREVILLE).--2. _Erminois, a fess checquy or and azure._ 3.
_Quarterly per fess dancetté, 1 and 4 or, 2 and 3 azure, in the dexter
chief a crescent gules._--4. GREVILLE. Below them inscribed in the
centre,
=Arma Fulconis grevile militis & domini Elizabeth uxoris eius.=
under, a large escutcheon supported by nude alabaster figures of
boys,--_baron_, quarterly of four charged as the shields on the
cornice above, impaling _femme_, quarterly of twenty, eighteen of the
charges as on the large shield below the lady, and 19. _Gules, a fess
between six martlets or._--20. _Or, on a fess azure, three
fleurs-de-lys of the first._ Around the shield on a blue riband the
motto as under the knight.
[9] Gold is used throughout the heraldry on the monument to
represent either metal. The shields are here blazoned as they
actually appear.
[10] Commencing with these, the series of small shields round the
tomb, numbering twenty-four in all, follow the same sequence as
the corresponding number of quarterings on the escutcheon below
them.
At the foot of the tomb, four shields on the cornice:--1. _Or, a cross
moline gules._--2. _Or, three bars gules._--3. STAFFORD.--4. _Or, six
lioncels rampant gules, three and three._ Inscribed below them,
=Arma Richardi d'ni de bello Campo baronis de powick et
d'ni de Alcester.=
Underneath are two shields and a lozenge,--one above two. On the
first, quarterly of four, as under the knight; on the second,
quarterly of four as _baron_ at the head of the tomb, _in the fess
point a mullet for difference_. On the lozenge twenty quarterings as
_femme_,--as at the head of the tomb.
Twisted pillars occur at the corners of the tomb, and on each side of
the large escutcheons, and the whole composition is in a remarkably
good state of preservation.
Fulke, the eldest son of Lady Elizabeth, was a most accomplished man,
and the great friend and biographer of that "mirror of knighthood,"
Sir Philip Sidney. He married Ann, daughter of Ralph Nevill, fourth
Earl of Westmoreland who died in 1549. By her he left one son Fulke,
and one daughter Margaret, married to Sir Richard Verney of
Compton-Mordak, Warwickshire. Sir Fulke died in 1606.
Sir Fulke, the grandson of Lady Elizabeth, was really the heir through
her to the barony of Broke, but at that time, it did not appear to be
a point clear in law, that after an honour had been for some time in
abeyance in the female line, it could be afterward claimed by the
heir. He was greatly in favour at the Court of Elizabeth, who rewarded
him liberally, and he obtained from king James I., in the second year
of his reign, a grant of Warwick Castle and its dependencies, then in
a ruinous state, which he gradually re-edified and restored at great
cost, and, January 29, in the eighteenth year of the same reign was
advanced to the title of Baron Brooke, of Beauchamp's-Court, a dignity
further enhanced to an Earldom of the same name 7 July, 1746, followed
by that of the Earldom of Warwick 13 Nov., 1759. Sir Fulke, the first
Lord Brooke, was unfortunately murdered at his house in London, by one
Haywood his servant, who hearing Lord Brooke had not included him for
a legacy in his will, as he had his other servants, Lord Brooke not
considering him entitled to it, resented the omission, and after angry
expostulations, stabbed him in the back, in his bedchamber. The
assassin then rushed into another chamber, locked the door, and
destroyed himself. Lord Brooke lingered a few days, and expired 30
Sep., 1638.
It was to the descendants of Margaret Greville, sister to Sir Fulke
the first Lord Brooke, and grand-daughter of the Lady Elizabeth, that
the title of Willoughby de Broke, was destined to be restored. She
married Sir Richard Verney, of Compton-Murdack in Warwickshire, the
then representative of that very antient and distinguished family. Sir
Richard died 7 Aug., 1630, and Lady Margaret 26 March, 1631. They had
issue four sons and four daughters. Sir Greville ob: 1642, the eldest
son of Sir Richard, had also four sons,--Greville, the eldest; John,
who died young; Richard, of Belton; and George. This descent of
Greville (the eldest son of Sir Greville) became extinct on the death
of his son William in 1683, leaving no issue.
The succession was now vested in Richard of Belton in the county of
Rutland, third son of Sir Greville. He was a person of considerable
culture and influence, and Sheriff and Knight of the shire for
Warwick. As descendant through the heiress of Greville, from Robert
Willoughby, Baron of Broke, he laid claim to that title, which was
allowed him in Parliament 13 February, 1695,--8 William III., and on
the twenty-fifth of that month, had summons by writ to the house of
peers, and on the twenty-seventh took his seat accordingly as the
third Baron Willoughby de Broke,--the original title being granted 12
August, 1492,--7 Henry VII. He married two wives, lived to the great
age of ninety, and was buried at Compton-Verney, Warwickshire. The
title is still held by his descendants.
Here ends our direct genealogical and biographical details, and we
retrace our steps to the church of Beer-Ferrers, where the second Lord
Willoughby de Broke was buried. We have described such remembrances as
remain there to the families of Ferrers and Champernowne, and it now
becomes our province to make note of the memorials that exist to their
successors the Willoughbys.
The first traces that meet the eye are on the bosses of the roof of
the south porch--whereon are shields charged with the arms of Ferrers,
Cheney, Latimer, &c.; and a glance within the church shews us a
pleasing array of bench-ends, of well designed tracery and uniform
design, except the two easternmost, which are ornamented with shields
of arms, referable to their presumed donor. On one is the achievement
of Willoughby de Broke, similar to the escutcheon on the tomb at
Callington, on the other the _bend and horse-shoes_ of Ferrers, here
made _four_ in number, and saltierwise across them, are _five
rudders_,--that descended to and was adopted by Willoughby. Both porch
and bench-ends are of late fifteenth century work. We pass into the
north transept, and there on the north side of the position of the
antient altar once therein, and standing at right angles from the
wall, is a large high-tomb of Purbeck marble. The massive cover stone
is plain, but around its edge is a deeply sunk indent in which was
originally the inscription either on brass or painted within it. Below
in panels are shields with classic wreaths around them, boldly
sculptured,--there are no charges on the escutcheons, and they appear
to have been originally covered with brasses, on which the charges
were emblazoned.
The era may be referred to the first half of the sixteenth century,
and with great probability it may be considered to be the tomb of
Robert, the second Lord Willoughby de Broke, who died in 1522.
[Illustration: TOMB OF THE SECOND LORD WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE,
BEER-FERRERS.]
Before we leave the sacred edifice, a chastened thought creeps over
us, as we take a last look at the fine old glass in the east
window. Just seventy years a-past, a gifted student in the
pursuit we also at humbler distance love, made pilgrimage here, and
was engaged in making a drawing of its interesting painted story, when
death suddenly stayed the work of the artist, snapping the very pencil
in his fingers, and instantly translated him, from picturing the
earthly image of the Founder of these courts below, into his immortal
presence in the great temple above, and the company of all those who
"have died in His faith and fear." Gratefully we note, appreciative
minds have placed a small brass in the pavement, where, on the 28 May,
1821, Charles Alfred Stothard met with his sad, and to mortal sight,
untimely end. His cunning fingers are mouldering in the dust below,
and moss and decay are stealthily obliterating his record outside, but
the fidelity and truth of his works remain bright and undimmed,
forming his best and most enduring monument,--for
"It is the gods that die, not God; It is the arts that perish, not
Art; And beauties may disappear, but Beauty herself Is immortal."
[Illustration: BENCH-ENDS, BEER-FERRERS CHURCH, DEVON.]
The arms proper of Willoughby appear to be _Or, fretty azure_, and
with regard to the badge of _the rudder_, although it has been
questioned, still the evidence of investigation goes far to prove it
to be by ancestral descent, the peculiarity of this family. Leland
makes special note of their appearance at Broke-Hall, and also in
Westbury church. It first occurs in connection with Cheney on the tomb
at Edington, also with Willoughby at Callington, is well marked on the
bench-end at Beer-Ferrers, and again--out of compliment--appears in
similar situation in Landulph church, on the opposite side of the
river. It is found in Lychet-Matraver's church in east Dorset, on the
font and over the windows, accompanied by the golden _fret_ of
Matravers; here it follows Elizabeth, sister of Lord Willoughby de
Broke, who married William Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, Baron Matravers
of Lychet, and lord of the place, who died in 1543. The church was
evidently rebuilt about that time, and displays the characteristics of
late, almost debased Perpendicular.
Another memory concerning Willoughby de Broke yet remains for us to
chronicle, and we must spirit you away, gentle reader, from Tamar's
oozy marge to the dry undulating chalk hills of central Dorset, and
invite you to enter the well-cared-for little church of Hooke.
Descending to him through his grandmother Anne Cheney, as
representative of the families of Stafford and Matravers of Hooke,
Lord Willoughby de Broke held large properties in this and the
adjoining parishes, eleven manors (as enumerated by Hutchins), and
where also he had a seat, of which, says Coker, "Humphrey Stafford who
married Matraver's heir, was the great builder of it," then the
residence of the Marquis of Winchester, descendant of the
Willoughbies; "but his successors have not thought so well of it,
wherefore it is like to run to decay." On its site now stands a modern
mansion, with a few antient vestiges interwoven, and around it is a
fair-sized park. It was in Hooke church that the first Lord
Willoughby de Broke by will endowed the priest for twenty years to
pray for his soul; and within the edifice, on the south side, is a
small chantry, which opens to the church by an arch of late character,
richly decorated with a course of quatrefoil panels having in their
centres shields, and edged on each side with a string-course of
foliage. There are no bearings on the shields. Here, doubtless, the
masses _pro bono statu_ of the deceased nobleman's soul were regularly
sung and said for the time specified. No memorial to Willoughby is
visible in the chantry, excepting a small brass, that probably had its
original station within it, but is now affixed to the opposite wall,
which records the following,--
=Of yo^r charyte pray for the soule of Edmond Semar late se'v'nt
to Robt wylughby knyght late lord Broke whiche Edmond decessed
y^e xiii day of Ianuary the yer of o^r lord m v^e xxiii on whose
soule Ihu haue mercy amen=
William Willoughby succeeded to the Arch-Presbytery of Beer-Ferrers 21
April, 1533,--patron _Walter Seymour_, by virtue of grant from Lord de
Broke. He died 1565, and the Arch-Presbytery expired with him. Both
probably were members of the same family.
A review of the life of the first Lord Willoughby de Broke exhibits no
salient features, beyond those associated with the social distinctions
and worldly prosperity, usually conferred on and accompanying the
faithful subserviency, that follows in the wake of a conqueror. His
public functions scarcely reached in importance those exercised by his
companion at Court and in arms, and fellow west-countryman Giles, Lord
Daubeney; but in the main they were much alike; each served Henry as a
military commander, both on sea and land, abroad and at home, were the
envoys entrusted to negociate his crafty, vacillating, compromising
policy in missions to foreign potentates, and held respectively the
highest positions at his court, the one as Lord Chamberlain, and the
other as Lord Steward of his Household. Although the Edgcumbe episode
seems to pourtray him in his younger years as a daring and lawless
marauder on his neighbour's peace and possessions, large allowance
must be made for the disorganized state of society in that distracted
age, where every man essayed to be a law unto himself, and might
became right, in a very large sense of the word. In after years--like
Lord Daubeney--when Henry was firmly seated on the throne, and order
largely restored, Lord Willoughby de Broke was probably a careful and
cautious courtier, steering clear of the intrigues that stalked about
Henry's court (and infested the Tudor dynasty to its close), one who
studied the mercenary, selfish policy of his royal master, and made
himself generally useful as opportunity and circumstance occurred, and
in return was rewarded with honours, accompanied by grants of his
neighbour's confiscated lands, which cost the generous monarch he
served, nothing to bestow. His name, somewhat prominent from the
functions he exercised, helps to fill up the middle distance of the
picture, that environs the advent of the first Tudor king.
Concerning the history of the subsequent possession of the antient
home of the Willoughbies de Broke,--Charles Blount, the fifth Lord
Montjoy, who married Anne the daughter of Robert, the second Lord
Willoughby de Broke by his second marriage, had in her right, livery
of the manor, 31 Henry VIII., 1539. He was of eccentric turn, served
in the rear guard of the army sent to France in 1544, and by his will
made at that time, he ordered a stone to be set over his grave in case
he was there slain, with the following epitaph, as a memento to his
children, to keep themselves worthy of so much honour as to be called
forward to die in the cause of their king and country--
"Willingly have I sought
And willingly have I found,
The fatal end that wrought
Thither as dutie bound:
Discharged I am of that I ought
To my countrey by honest wound;
My soul departyd Christ hath bought;
The end of man is ground."
and further devised some extensive charitable bequests. He died in
1545, and was buried in the church of St. Mary Aldermary, London
(Weever)--his grandson Charles Blount, eighth baron (raised to the
dignity of Earl of Devonshire, and K.G. in 1603),--sold Broke Hall and
Manor to William Jones, of Edington, Wilts, gent, in 1599.
Yet one more remembrance of the Willoughbies and of the same house as
the Lords Willoughby de Broke, waits notice, and our little chronicle
concerning them is concluded. In Southleigh churchyard in east Devon,
close to the chancel end of the church is a high-tomb, erected
evidently to a person of some position; on the end panel is incised
the grand achievement of Willoughby de Eresby, as on the tomb at
Callington, and with the _crescent_ for difference, shewing that he
was of the same descent. The form of the letters in the inscription is
of an extraordinary uncouth kind, and tell us
HERE LIETH THE BODY OF HENRY WILLOUGHBY
WHO DYED THE 28 DAY OF SEPTR. 1616.
but we have been hitherto unable satisfactorily to place him in the
Willoughby pedigree; the following however may be added.
Sir William Willoughby, second son of Sir John Willoughby of Broke,
and brother to Robert, Lord Willoughby de Broke, was of Toners-Piddle
near Bere-Regis, Dorset, and by his will dated 28 November, 1512,
proved 13 February, 1512-13, ordered his body to be buried in the
church of St. John the Baptist at Bere-Regis. He endowed a Chantry at
Edington in Wilts, and gave to the Abbey of Milton in Dorset fifty
marks. Nicholas Willoughby his son was also of Toners-Piddle, where,
says Hutchins, "he held this manor and advowson, and four hundred
acres of (plough) land, two hundred of mead, three hundred of wood,
and two thousand of furze and heath, there and in Snelling and
Chilborough, of Lewis Mordant as of his manor of Duntish, in free
socage and by fealty." In 1546 Robina his widow instituted John
Brikill to the rectory. By his will dated 15 May, 1542, he ordered
his body to be buried in the church of Bere-Regis, as did also Leonard
Willoughby his son. "At the upper end of the north aisle," Hutchins
remarks, "are two altar tombs of grey marble, but the brass plates,
effigies, escutcheons, and inscriptions gone; perhaps they belong to
the family of the Willoughbies." In 1653 Sir Robert Willoughby and
Elizabeth his wife sold the capital mansion-house, farm, and advowson
of Toners-Piddle to Robert Lewen. Toners-Piddle church "was re-built
in 1759, the little aisle of the Willoughbies was not re-erected.
There were no inscriptions in it, that family generally burying at
Bere." Christopher Willoughby, another son of Sir William, married
Isabel daughter of Nicholas Weeks of Dodington, Gloucester, and he had
a son named _Henry_, who married Jane daughter of Dauntsey of
Lavington, Wilts.
Richard Willoughby, third son of Sir John Willoughby of Broke, was of
Silton, Dorset, having married Isabel daughter of John Bedyke of that
place, who brought the manor to her husband. He died 1523, she 1524,
and both by their wills ordered their bodies to be buried in the
church of St. Nicholas there. They left several descendants.
Henry Willoughby's tomb at Southleigh has been carefully and
substantially repaired by a representative of the family.
Back to Beer-Ferrers again our thoughts return, and recall the memory
of our last visit to the antient home, successively of Ferrers,
Champernowne, and Willoughby, names all now extinct, that had
relationship there. Evening is creeping on, as we leave the little
jetty and find ourselves afloat, slowly making way out into the Tamar
proper. How many a story speaks to us of the past, from its dim cliffy
banks, that history and tradition have preserved, how many more,
silent and forgotten, are lost for ever. Such the doom and fate of
human life, little episodes on the stream of time, successive and
evanescent as the wavelets that rise and die against the bosom of our
little craft. Of Willoughby de Broke, a larger remembrance remains,
but it only points in a fuller sense to an often recurring issue of
human life, graphically summed up concerning them by the quaint old
historian Westcote,--"but this family fading in his very blossom, soon
came to his period."
TAMAR'S FLOW.
O Tamar's flow! lowly I bend mine ear,
And listen to thy lisp that greets the shore,
Bearing Tradition's burthen soft and clear,
From the dim portals of the never more;--
Two voices spell me from thy mingled tide,
One, mighty ocean's whisper, murmurous, deep,
Telling of ventures glorious, that hide
Within its billowy bosom rocked in sleep;--
The other, rippling from thy crystal fount,
A tinkle sweet of elves, and fays, and flowers,
Legends borne down from woodland, vale, and mount,
Departed homes, and haunted shrines and towers;--
Flow on,--until this trancèd ear shall be,
But one more memory that is merged in thee!
[Illustration: EFFIGY, PRESUMED TO REPRESENT
CICELY BONVILLE, MARCHIONESS OF DORSET.
ASTLEY CHURCH, WARWICKSHIRE--CIRCA 1530-5]
EXTINCT, FOR THE WHITE ROSE.
Leaving the antient town of Colyton by its south-western approach, the
broad turnpike-road that leads over the hill to Sidmouth, at about
half-a-mile's distance up its ascent, a turn to the right takes us
into the trackway of a winding and somewhat narrow Devonshire lane. A
pleasant prospect opens across the valley below, through which the
Coly sparkles along with sinuous course, and immediately in the
mid-distance appears the old ruinous cradle of the Courtenay family,
Colcombe Castle, grey-walled, ivy-clad, and orchard environed. Beyond
and just under the further fir-topped hill-line, another grey dot
strugglingly emerges from among the dense garnishing of foliage that
surrounds it, and shews us what remains of old Shute House, while to
its left, across the far valley, rises the beautiful tree-crested
acclivity of Shute Park; localities of special importance pertinent to
the interests of our little narrative, to be referred to by and by. In
front a delightful and typical Devonian landscape extends itself.
Sprinkled over with the deserted homes of the olden lesser
squirearchy, the antient lords of the vale, and picturesquely varied
alternate with copse, plantations, and well-timbered hedgerow, the two
valleys of the Coly and the Brinkly bifurcate just at this point,
meeting under the shadow of the remarkable pyramid-shaped hill, Waddon
Pen, and then stretch away, variously broken into lesser knoll and
vale, until lost in the misty outline of the high, far-distant curtain
of the Farway hills, with their tiny clumps of trees that just break
the even contour, and stand like sentinels on the rampart-appearanced
outline against the grey sky. They recall also for the moment to the
historic memory, the burthen of a pleasant story, connected with its
breezy, and comparatively unfrequented altitude, one of the numberless
traditions that throng the hills and vales of the olden region of the
Danmonii.
A rest for awhile on the parapet of the bridge spanning the little
Morganhayes brook, hastening to join the Coly a few fields' distance
below; a rivulet whose banks at Spring time are almost fairy-land with
abundance of some of our finest wild flowers, broad stretches of
daffodils, myriads of white-starred anemones, gleams of pale primroses
and bleached lady-smocks, and sheen of golden-cups in their
succession, but specially, when uncertain April brings her tears and
sunshine, the haunt of the most gorgeous of them all
THE MEADOW RANUNCULUS.
Close by the rippling streams' translucent marge,
Ranunculus of gold,
Bright to the sun in constellation large,
Thy glowing stars unfold.
'Mid all the wealth Spring scatters without stint,
By meadow, bank or stream,
Gay daffodil, or king-cup's myriad glint,
Spread like a golden dream;--
She brings no rival whose attractions may
With thee in all compare,
Brave thy full beauty in its strong array,
And matchless clusters dare.
No, nor sweet Summer when adown the land
Her flower-sprent steps incline,
Bearing the sceptred iris in her hand,--
The glory still is thine.
Continuing our pilgrimage, about a mile's distance further brings us
to a bridge spanning another small stream, also flowing down to meet
the Coly below at a place appropriately named Bournehayne, and
immediately at the entrance of the little village of Southleigh.
Passing under the shadow of some fine old yews, our steps lead up a
little acclivity to the left, into the churchyard. There we halt for a
minute to scan the Willoughby tomb, with its grand escutcheon and
uncouth caligraphy, and then look inside the little sanctuary, where,
owing to the necessity of almost entire rebuilding, only one monument
of importance remains, preserved in the chancel, to be further
referred to in the course of our little story. On the porch threshold
the eye is arrested momentarily by an almost obliterated
seventeenth-century flat stone, bearing the still-traceable
yeoman-gentleman name of Starre of Beer, and the fragment of another
leaning against a grave near, of contemporary date, inscribed with the
patronymic of Clode--a name still existent in the parish,--and whose
earthly calling is described as '_goldsmith_,' a strange vocation to
find chronicled here in this rural vale, and the memorial probably of
one who practised the craft in busier scenes elsewhere, and returned
to his native parish, when he finally laid down burnisher and graver,
to find his last resting-place.
Down a small meadow below the church, to the rill we crossed on
entering the hamlet, and our path inclines along its banks up the
valley through which it flows, and a right pleasant vale it is,
flanked on the left by extensive plantations of almost every species
of useful conifer, which stretch down, exhibiting great luxuriance of
growth, their different habits finely contrasting, and adding the
great charm of variety; while the opposite ascent is also
picturesquely wooded with ordinary foliage. So we leisurely continue
a full mile or more, when the valley somewhat expands. Here some fine
trees are scattered park-like in appearance around, with a small
modern mansion in their midst, and this brings us to our present
destination.
Who would imagine, viewing the peace and retirement of this delightful
rural solitude, so far removed from the ken and the movements of busy,
anxious, restless, ambitious man, and where only the voice of the
thrush, the flicker of the butterfly, the hum of the bee, the rustle
of the coney, the song of the lark, the bleating of the flock, or the
low of the kine, is seen or heard, that a story of wondrous historic
interest and significance "take hys begynnyng" from this spot? Yet an
apt symbol of how small and comparatively unknown beginnings, at times
end in being engrafted into the largest results, lies close beside us.
Who shall predict the ultimate destiny of the humble ripple of water
that sparkles along at our feet? Down through this valley it hastens
to the Coly, then on to join the larger Axe, thence to mingle with the
salt tide and be merged in the blue expanse of the Channel, and
finally be found adding its tiny tribute to the grandeur of the great
Atlantic.
As of the stream, so of the story that has origin here on its banks,
and from him who was one of the earliest settlers thereon, back in the
twilight of the days of the early Plantagenets, when a country
gentleman with no recorded pretension to influence or fame, beyond the
inalienable witness of Norman descent, betrayed by his name, to this
place found his way and fixed his abode. After sundry generations the
descendants of his race, although still holding their original home
here, travelled far afield, away from the quietude and peace of these
sylvan scenes, lured into the dangerous path of ambition, and became
prominent actors in the great, stirring, troublous drama of mediæval
English history, as active and devoted partizans in the contending
factions, fighting to the death amid the strife of its kings, and
shedding their blood unstintedly in the conflict. Then followed the
great but dangerous honour of kinship with royalty and its fatal
glamour, culminating at last in their aspiration to the possession of
the crown itself, with the result, finally, of laying one of their
last and most guileless representatives, headless on the steps of the
throne to which they laid claim. A relation of real incidents that
needs no garnishing of romance to enhance its extraordinary interest.
Wiscombe,--Wescombe, probably originally West-combe, is the name given
to these historic precincts. The very earliest mention of its
ownership assigns it as among the possessions of the Abbey of St.
Michael de Monte, _in periculo maris_, in Normandy, and was at the
beginning of the thirteenth century held of its Abbot by Roger de
Daldich, of the family of Daldich of East-Budleigh. After awhile came
a change of ownership, and then we get the first mention of the name
of the family, the outline of whose succeeding generations we propose
to attempt, albeit imperfectly, to chronicle. A story, nevertheless,
of surpassing interest, even among the crowd of great traditions that
form the historic heritage of the famed county of Devon.
This was, according to Pole, its grant, or sale, with the reservation
of twenty shillings yearly rent, "about ye middest of the raigne of
kinge Henry III.," by the aforesaid Abbot and Roger de Daldich to
Nicholas de Bonville, evidently a gentleman of that era, and whose
name--_de bonne ville_--'of the fair or good village'--unmistakably
pointed to the original birthplace of his family, as being found in
the land immediately beyond the southern sea, from which his ancestor
doubtless also migrated in the train of the Conqueror.
All we know of the life of this Nicholas de Bonville, presumably the
first of his name as possessor of Wiscombe, is that he married a lady
named Amicia, and it was probably he, who in accordance with the
religious custom of the age, was the donor of a rent-charge at
'Tuddesheye,' now Studhayes, in Kilmington, to the Abbey of Newenham,
in the adjoining valley of the Axe, and in its Conventual church was
buried, as described by Mr. Davidson, "lastly against the north wall
of the choir, lay Sir Nicholas Bonville, a benefactor to the abbey who
died in 1266."[11] He left a son named William.
[11] _History of Newenham Abbey._
But according to another account of the early generations of Bonville,
the first recorded was Nicholas Bonville who was living in 1199. To
him his son William Bonville (not Nicholas), who married Amicia, did
homage for lands in Somerset, 6 Feb., 1265, and was succeeded by his
son William, who married Joan, a widow.[12]
[12] Vivian's _Visitations of Devon_.
William Bonville wedded a lady named Joan,--in a list of the Guild
Merchants of the antient borough of Totnes, dated 1260, and still
preserved, the third name that occurs is _Will's de Boneuille_, but
whether to be identified with an owner of Wiscombe of that name, may
not be determined, but the era accords. Of him we learn nothing
further beyond the date of his death 2 Edward I., 1273; and that he
was succeeded by his son Nicholas.
Nicholas de Bonville was styled also "of Shute," by right of his wife
Elizabeth de Pyne, of whom and her dower a few words.
The first recorded owners of Shute, and from whom it received its
name, were Sir Lucas and Sir Robert de Schete, who held it early in
the reign of Henry III. From them it passed to Sir Robert and Sir
Thomas de Pyne, of the "antient progeny" of Pyne in east Devon. Sir
Thomas who was Sheriff of Devon 56 Henry III., and successively 6, 9,
and 10 Edward I., at his death left two daughters coheiresses. One of
these distaffs, Matilda (otherwise Hawise), wedded Nicholas de
Bonville of Wiscombe, to whom she brought Shute as her portion. "In
this place (Shute) the famylye of Bonvill," says Pole, "made their
principall dwellinge, which had (longe before this Nicholas had the
mansion howse, and mannor of Shute) divers lands within Shute, namely
Sir Nicholas Bonvill (his grandfather) had Leggeshayes, and other
lands their, his dwellinge beinge at yt tyme at Wiscombe." The policy
of this marriage is therefore apparent. Himself and wife appear to
have both died the same year, 23 Edward I., 1295. They left a son and
heir named Nicholas, and another son John, who married Joan, daughter
of Waryn Hampton of Musbury, and she married secondly John Sachville,
and thirdly John Faringdon of Faringdon.
Sir Nicholas Bonville of Shute and Wiscombe, married Johanna, daughter
of Sir Henry Champernon of Clyst-Champernon (who died in 1320), by his
wife Johanna daughter of Henry Bodrugan. He was two years old only at
his father's death, but the date of his own decease does not appear.
There were four children, of whom Sir William was the eldest son and
successor.
Alexander, the second son, married Hawise, daughter of Henry de la
Forde in Musbury, and had a son Nicholas, styled "of Forde," whose
daughter Edith, married Richard Okebeare, through whose descendant,
Pole, afterward of Shute, was the representative, before he purchased
the Bonville's forfeited inheritance, and through whom they quarter
the arms of de la Forde; _Sable, a poppy with roots and fruit or_, and
Bonville.
Isabel, who married Sir Roger de Nonant of Broad-Clyst, and last of
that name; they left two daughters, Alice who married John Beauchamp
of Ryme, and Eleanor. The beautiful monument with effigy in
Broad-Clyst church is supposed to represent this knight, who reclines
in a recess on the south side of the chancel, and is clad in plate
armour with bascinet, mail-gorget, surcoat, and ornamented baudrick.
The feet rest on a lion, the head on a tilting helmet, and angels are
at the shoulders. A richly foliated canopy of screen-like character
fronts the figure on the side toward the church.
Anne, the second daughter became a nun at Wherwell.
Sir William Bonville, of Shute, "a very sweet and noble seat, adorned
in those days (as it still is) with a fair park and large demesnes,"
the first prominent representative of this family, and who added
greatly to its social status, was a wealthy and munificent man. He
married first Margaret, daughter and coheiress of Sir William
d'Aumarle of Woodbury, Devon, who died 15 Nov., 1361, by his wife
Agnes de Meriet, daughter of George de Meriet, of Merriot, Somerset.
By her he had four sons, and two daughters. She died 13 May, 1399.
Early in the succeeding century Sir William married secondly Alice
(whose surname has not been recovered), widow of Sir John Rodney, who
died 19 Dec, 1400. Sir William Bonville was her _fifth_ spouse, for
she had wedded three husbands previous to Sir John Rodney. Firstly,
John Fitz-Roger, lord of the manor of Chewton-Mendip, Somerset; by
whom she had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married John Bonville, her
last husband's eldest son by his first wife; secondly, she married Sir
Edmond de Clyvedon, of Clyvedon, Somerset, who died 13 Jany., 1375-6;
and thirdly, as his second wife, Sir Ralph Carminow of Menheniot,
Cornwall, who deceased 9 Oct., 1386. Sir Ralph who is said to have
been "by a brase of Greyhounds pulled over a Cliff and died," was
buried in Menheniot church, where there is a small brass,--probably
the earliest remaining in Cornwall--to his memory, thus inscribed,--
=Orate pro anima domini Radulphi Carmynow militis, cuius anime
propicietur deus Amen.=
Lady Alice Bonville survived all her husbands nearly twenty years, and
died 27 March, 1426.
A glance at the numerous ventures of this much-married lady will give
the uninitiated in the study of genealogy some idea of the
difficulties which beset it, in sifting, tracing, and separating the
tangle of relationship that wove together the leading families of the
west during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. It was
the custom to marry very early in life, often at fifteen or sixteen,
and that short widowhoods and remarriage almost invariably followed
decease on either side, and not uncommonly resulting further also, in
the children of the previous marriages matching together, a "matter of
mere attorneyship," probably in many cases entered into to consolidate
the family estates.
Beside his "mansion howse" at Shute, which was his principal
residence, Sir William, as was usual, had a town house or hotel, in
the parish of the Holy Trinity, Exeter. On 17 April, 1404, Bishop
Stafford licensed John Govys rector of Holy Trinity, as the parish
church was being rebuilt at the time, "_ut in aula infra mansum domini
Willelmi Bonevyle, militis, infra parochiam dicte ecclesie Sancte
Trinitatis situatum, divina possis celebrare, ac per presbiteros
ydoneos facere celebrari, necnon parochianis tuis quibuscumque
Sacramenta et Sacramentalia conferre et ministrare valeas_."
Of Sir William's sons, Richard the eldest died without issue before
1397. John the second son became his father's heir and successor.
Thomas Bonville, third son, married Cicely, daughter of Sir John
Stretche of Sampford-Arundell, Somerset, who died 6 Aug., 1390, by his
wife Katharine daughter of Sir John Beaumont, of Sherwill, North
Devon. They had two sons, William who died 28 Aug., 1412, and John in
1426. Both were styled "of Merriot, Somerset," property that descended
to them through their great-grandmother, and died without issue. He,
Thomas, died about 1401, and his widow soon after married Sir William
Cheney of Broke, Wilts, and died 18 Oct., 1430.[13]
[13] See page 5.
William, the fourth son, died without issue; we hear nothing of him
beyond his being a witness to his stepmother's will.
Katharine, the eldest daughter, married first Sir John Cobham, of
Blackborough, Devon, by whom she had a daughter Elizabeth, married to
Walter Charleton. Secondly she married John Wyke of Nynehead-Florey,
Somerset, and thirdly Humphry Stafford of Grafton, Worcestershire. She
died 1 Aug., 1416.
Elizabeth, second daughter, married about 1390, Sir Thomas Carew of
Ottery-Mohun, who died 25 Jan., 1431. She died 8 Feb., 1450-1.
Sir William who was Sheriff of Devon 13 Richard II., 1400, died on 14
Feb., 1407-8, and was buried before the great Cross in the choir of
Newenham Abbey Church. Beside him was afterward laid Alice his second
wife. This was during the abbacy of Leonard Houndalre, who presided
over the Community 1402-13.
He bequeaths by his will,--a very long document written in
French,--and made
"on the Saturday next before the feast of the Assumption of our
Lady, 1404, my body to be buried before the High Cross of the
church of Newenham; to Alice my consort my mansion at Exeter for
her life, all my books, vestments with other apparel belonging to
my chapel, all kinds of necessaries belonging to my hall,
chambers, pantry, buttery, kitchen and fish-pond, within my manor
of Shute, and all other chattels on my manors of Wescombe, &c.,
&c., elsewhere, 100 marks in money, and the half of my silver
vessels, &c.; 100 marks, to assist in making and repairing the
bridges and roads that are weak and fallen within my lordships of
Devon and Somerset; to alienate by mortmain 50 marks of land and
of rent per year for a _Maison Dieu_ in Combestreet at Exeter,
for 12 poor men and women to be lodged there always, also 300
marks to the said Maison Dieu in honour of God, and to sustain
the said house, and the aforesaid poor men and women, all my
rents in Exeter, except my mansion;--to Dame Anne Bonville, nun
of Wherwell, 10 marks, a _hanapp_ (drinking cup) with silver
cover, and my best _hoppelond_ (great coat) with the fur. To
William my son 200 marks to assist him in getting married; to
Thomas son of John Bonville £20 in money; to John son of Thomas
Bonville to assist him in getting married 100 marks. To my
daughter Dame Katharine Cobham £20; to my daughter Dame Elizabeth
Carew, £20. I devise that all my debts be duly and fully paid,
and if any offences or extortions by me have been committed
against any persons I will that they be restored to them,
according to the greatness of the offence; 24 torches of wax, and
24 poor men be clothed the day of the interment of my body, and
to other poor people coming on the day of my burial £10, that
each who comes may have one penny; and that my mansion and my
retinue be kept just as it is for one quarter of a year after my
death. Appoints Alice my consort, and six clerks executors;
Monsieur Thomas Brooke and John Strecch, surveyors; nothing to be
done without the counsel and assent of the said surveyors."
There is also included a very large number of religious bequests to
pray for the good estate of his soul, at various places, and legacies
in money and kind, to the poor on his extensive estates.
John Bonville, son and heir of Sir William and Margaret d'Aumarle,
married Elizabeth, only child and heiress of John Fitz-Roger, daughter
of the first husband of his father's second wife. She was
heiress-general to the Fitz-Rogers and brought the manor of
Chewton-Mendip, near Wells, Somerset, and much other property into the
family. In the south aisle of the chancel of Chewton-Mendip church, on
a high-tomb are the recumbent effigies of a knight and lady,--the
knight in chain and plate armour, with bascinet, mail-gorget, baudrick
and spurs. On his surcoat are embroidered _three lions rampant_, the
arms of Fitz-Roger. The lady is in long robe, wimple and cover-chief.
The armour and costume are assignable to this era. John Bonville had
two sons, William eldest and heir, Thomas, and one daughter Isabel.
Thomas the second son, who was Sheriff of Cornwall, married first
Johanna eldest daughter of Hugh de St. John, eldest son of Thomas de
Poynings, Lord St. John of Basing, by his wife Elizabeth daughter of
Martyn Ferrers of Beer-Ferrers. By her he had one son John. Secondly,
he married Leva, daughter and heir of John Gorges of Tamerton-Foliot,
Devon, and widow of John Wibbery. She died 16 Dec, 1461. Thomas died
11 Feb., 1467.
John Bonville son of Thomas, married first Johanna Wibbery daughter of
his father's second wife, by her first husband John Wibbery. By her
he had two daughters, Anne married to Philip Coplestone, and Joanne
married to John Elliot of Coteland. Secondly, he married Katharine, by
whom he had two daughters, Florence who married first Sir Humphry
Fulford, K.B., and secondly, Thomas Hext; and Elizabeth who married
Thomas West, Lord Delawarr. John Bonville died 24 Aug., 1494.
Isabel, only daughter of John Bonville, son and heir of William
Bonville, married Sir Richard Champernowne of Modbury, son of Sir
Richard Champernowne, who died 26 Feb., 1418-19, and Katharine
daughter of Sir Giles Daubeney, and who were both buried at Dodbrooke,
near Kingsbridge.
John Bonville, her father, died in the lifetime of his father, 21
Oct., 1396, and Elizabeth Fitz-Roger, his widow, married secondly Sir
Richard Stuckley of Trent, Somerset.
Leland thus speaks of the "maner places" of the Bonvilles, Wiscombe,
and Shute:--
"on the west part, over an hille byyond Seton is Wiscombe, a fair
maner place, sumtyme the Lord Bonvilles; now longging to the
Marquise of Dorsete. The parkes and maner places of Wischum and
Shoute abowte Axminster in Devonshire were the Lord Bonevilles,
and after a knightes of that name or ever they came to the
Marquis of Dorsetes hand."
In Sir William Bonville, the eldest son of John Bonville and Elizabeth
Fitz-Roger, we reach the most celebrated individual of his race, and
practically the last male in the direct line, as his son and grandson
died in his lifetime. His father having died in 1396, when he was
quite a child, and his mother being married again to Richard Stuckley,
it is probable the boy was in the custody of his grandfather at Shute
up to his death in 1407, and subsequently in the guardianship of his
step-grandmother the Lady Alice until his coming of age, and taking
possession of his large property in 1414, which year his mother died,
but his step-grandmother lived twelve years afterward, dying in 1426.
The particulars as to the birth and baptism of this wealthy and
unfortunate man, as they were deposed to by the witnesses appearing
before the escheator at the enquiry held to make proofs as to his
coming of age, are very homely and interesting.[14] This was taken at
Honiton on "Tuesday, All Hallow's Eve, in the first year of the reign
of King Henry the Fifth after the Conquest, before Henry Foleford, the
Lord the King's Escheator in the county of Devon." Numerous witnesses
were examined, and John Cokesdene and two others deposed,--
"that William the son of John, is of the age of 21 years and
upwards, having been born at Shute, on the last day of August in
the 16th year of the reign of the Lord Richard, late King of
England, the Second after the Conquest (1393), and baptized in
the parish church of the same vill on the same day about the hour
of vespers. And this they well know to be true, as they the said
jurors were, on the said last day of August, together elected at
Honiton, on a certain 'Love Day' to make peace between two of
their neighbours, and on that very day there came there a certain
Lady Katharine, widow of Sir John Cobham, knight, and then wife
of John Wyke of Nynhyde, an aunt of the said William the son of
John, proposing to drive to Shute, thinking that she should be
Godmother to the said infant, and met there a certain Edward
Dygher, servant to the said Sir William Bonevile, who was reputed
to be half-witted in consequence of his being loquacious and
jocular, and who asked her whither she was going. Who answering
quickly said: 'Fool, to Shute to see my nephew made a Christian,'
to which the said Edward replied, with a grin, in his mother
tongue, 'Kate, Kate, ther to by myn pate comystow to late,'
meaning thereby that the baptism of the child was already over.
Whereupon she mounted upon her horse in a passion, and rode home
in deep anger, vowing that she would not see her sister, to wit
the said child's mother, for the next six months, albeit she
should be _in extremis_ and die."
[14] From _The Porlock Monuments_, by the late Mrs. Halliday, a
very able and comprehensive monograph of Harington, with much
collaterally of Bonville.
Thus much for the Lady Katharine's appearance, her disappointment and
displeasure at not being able to be present at the child's baptism,
although she had adjournied so far for that purpose, and her immediate
return. Then a certain John Prentys and two others testify that
"all the matters as to the said Lady Katharine are true, inasmuch
as the whole took place in the said John Prentys' house, where
they themselves were present at the time, and saw and heard all."
Then comes an interesting testimony shewing the lord of Shute still
kept full interest in the older home of the family at Wiscombe, and at
the date of his grandson's birth was engaged near there in a business
transaction with squire Walrond of Bovey, living thereby. Richard
Lutrell and John Prustes relate,--
"on that day Sir William Bonevile was at his manor of Southleigh
busy in setting up certain boundary marks between a parcel of his
own land called Borcombe to the same manor belonging, and the
land of one William Walrond, on which occasion the aforesaid
Richard and John were present at the special request of the said
Sir William Bonevile. And then and there came Andrew Ryden, a
servant of the same Sir William, and told his master that his son
John had a son born to him, upon hearing which the said Sir
William rejoicing exceedingly lifted up his hands, and thanked
God, and immediately mounting upon his horse rode home."
Following this is the evidence of those who witnessed the ceremony of
the christening in the little church on that summer evening, William
Hodesfelde, and Richard Damarle, probably a relative of the child's
grandmother. They also speak of the grandfather's delight and the
present he made his grandson thereon, and say,
"they were present in the said church on that day at the time of
the solemnization of the baptism of the said William the son of
John, to hear vespers, and as soon as the ceremony was over there
came one Walter Walsche, the said William Bonevile's bailiff of
his manor of Stapyldon in the county of Somerset, and told his
master that he had well and finally completed the autumn
gathering, both of his said manor of Stapyldon and his manor of
Sokke, and had brought with him 400 lambs of that year's produce
of the manor of Sokke aforesaid, of which said lambs the said
William Bonevile immediately gave 200 to the said infant then and
there baptized."
Finally we get the information as to who were the child's sponsors and
of the high ecclesiastic who was one of them, and doubtless came
across specially from Newenham Abbey to perform the ceremony, making
his distinguished godson a commensurate present. Thomas Bowyer and
Ralph Northampton remember
"that they were personally present in the said church, and saw
there three long torches burning, and two silver basins, with two
silver ewers full of water, John Legge then Abbot of Newenham and
Sir William Bonevile being the godfathers and Agnes Bygode the
godmother of the same child, upon whom the said Abbot there
bestowed a silver gilt cup of the value, as it was said, of 100
shillings, with 40 shillings in money told, contained in the
same, which as it appeared to them was the most beautiful they
had ever beheld in a like case."
Poor child! The lambs bleating outside, and the glittering gift
cup,--"the most beautiful they had ever beheld,"--and filled with
silver pieces! The costly christening vessels and flaming torches, the
abbot in his robes, the knights and ladies in their splendid apparel,
the clustering parishioners gathered round, curiously and respectfully
to witness the baptism of the heir, and the solemn evening twilight
softly stealing through the casements of the little sanctuary. What a
suggestive picture of country wealth and peace thus surrounding the
first hours of the child, and what a contrast to the scene that was
destined to environ that child's last hours, of whose bitterness, what
seer, had he been then present, would have been bold enough to
predicate? When crushed by misfortune, his son and grandson having
fallen by the sword before his eyes a few weeks previously, and
although bowed by age, yet still attracted by the glamour of the
deadly conflict,--far away from these happy precincts, with a captive
king in his keeping as a ransom, but powerless to save him,--he stood
an unfriended prisoner alone in the hands of a relentless enemy,
surrounded by the ghastly wrecks of a battlefield, and then hastily
perished amid the ghastlier paraphernalia of the scaffold, the axe and
block, the executioner in his mask and the jeering soldiery. With what
boundless mercy are the ultimate issues of these lives of ours hidden
from us!
Being in possession of his large property, it was not likely that a
young man of his distinguished station, in those stirring times should
long remain "with idle hands at home." Accordingly we find him three
years afterward, in 1418, employed in the military service of his
country, for "being then a knight" he proceeded to France in the
retinue of Thomas, Duke of Clarence, brother to Henry V., in that
king's expedition to Normandy. In the first year of Henry VI., 1422,
he served the office of Sheriff of Devon.
In 1428 we get an interesting incident recorded, of amenities passing
between Sir William and his neighbour the Lady Joan Brooke, widow of
Sir Thomas Brooke, of Weycroft, near Axminster, and Holditch Court,
Thorncombe, "on the 14th April of that year Nicholas Wysbeche, Abbot
of Newenham," says Mr. Davidson,
"was appointed with five of his neighbours a mediator in a
dispute between Sir William Bonville of Shute, and Joan widow of
Sir Thomas Brooke, arising from the obstruction of several public
roads and paths in the formation and enclosure of the park at
Weycroft by the lady and her son. The transcript of an instrument
has been preserved which recites the circumstances of the case at
great length, and concludes with an award, which as the abbot
was nominated by the lady Brooke, does credit to his justice as
an umpire, as well as to his hospitality; for after deciding on
every point in favour of Sir William Bonville, and directing all
the ways in question to be thrown open to the public, that the
knight and the lady should ride amicably together to Newenham
Abbey on a day appointed, where they should exchange a kiss in
token of peace and friendship and dine together at the abbot's
table. The deed is dated at Axminster 13 August, 1428."
[Illustration: EFFIGY OF JOHN TALBOT, EARL OF SHREWSBURY, K. G.
WHITCHURCH, SHROPSHIRE--A.D. 1453.]
The brass effigies of Sir Thomas and his lady are in Thorncombe
church, still very perfect.
Amicably and pleasantly settled, and justly too withal by the good
Abbot Wysbeche, and with proper regard to the rights of way exercised
by the public at large, which seem to have been duly cared for and
protected by the lord of Shute.
Nearly fourteen years now elapse before we hear further of him, and
then in 1442, he appears to have held a maritime command, and "sailed
from Plymouth to Bordeaux with twenty-five ships and four thousand
men," and the year following was employed on land service, being
"retained by indenture to serve the king a whole year with twenty men
at arms, and six hundred archers, and was made Seneschal of
Acquitaine."
In 1449, he was commissioned "to serve the king upon the sea, for the
cleansing of robbers and pirates," and the same year he held Taunton
Castle, but was compelled to surrender it to the Duke of York. In 1450
a letter was sent to him amongst others, by the king requesting help
for the preservation of Lower Normandy from the French.
Doubtless in consideration of these military and other services,
actively and faithfully rendered to Henry VI., he was by that king
raised to the honour of the peerage, by writ of summons dated 23
September, 1449,--26 Henry VI.,--to Parliament by the title of BARON
BONVILLE OF CHEWTON (from Chewton-Mendip in Somerset), where he
inherited a large property, derived from his mother as heiress of the
Fitz-Rogers. He was also created a KNIGHT OF THE GARTER, being the one
hundred and eighteenth in the succession of that noble Order.
In 1453 he was ordered to France with a force sent for the relief of
Guienne. While there it is probable he was a participator in the
engagement wherein the gallant Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, lost his
life. The same year "in consideration of his further services he was
constituted Governor of the Castle of Exeter, and the year following,
1454, made Lieutenant of Acquitaine."
From this partial relation of his public services, our thoughts wander
for a time, to the domestic surroundings of his home life.
Lord Bonville married first a lady named Margaret, but who she was the
labours of investigators have as yet failed to discover. By her he had
one son, William, and two daughters,--Philippa, who married William
Grenville, brother to Sir John, and second son of Sir Theobald
Grenville, by Margaret daughter of Sir Hugh Courtenay of Haccombe, by
his third wife Matilda daughter of Sir John Beaumont, and was thus
grandson to Earl Hugh and Margaret Bohun of Colcombe,--and Margaret,
second daughter, who married Sir William Courtenay of Powderham,
Sheriff of Devon in 1483, and who died in 1485.
Lord Bonville wedded secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward
Courtenay, third Earl of Devon, known as "the blind Earl," who died in
1419, and was presumably buried at Ford Abbey; by his wife Matilda,
daughter of Thomas Lord Camoys. She was then the widow of Sir John
Harington, fourth Baron Harington of Aldingham in the County of
Lancaster, and who died 11 Feb., 1417-18. She died 28 October, 1471,
thus surviving her second husband ten years, and her first husband
fifty-three years!--and was probably buried with her first husband in
Porlock church, where they founded a perpetual Chantry, and where
their splendid tomb still exists, with effigies recumbent; moved
probably from its antient position, and now much shorn by time and ill
usage of its original glory, but still displaying ample evidence of
the taste and skill of the mediæval craftsman. By his second marriage
Lord Bonville left no issue.
The figures on the monument at Porlock are sculptured in alabaster,
and Lady Harington-Bonville wears cote-hardie and gown, with mantle
over, fastened across the breast by cordon and tassels. Around the
hips is a rich cincture, and a double chain with dependant jewel
encircles the neck. The head-dress is horned, the hair secured in a
reticulated caul splendidly embroidered, and with jewelled ornaments
filling the interstices. Just over the brow is a band-coronet, studded
with pearls and crested by fleurs-de-lys, and her fingers are
ornamented with rings. Angels support the cushions on which her head
rests, and an animal, probably intended for a boar, as allusive to her
family, is at her feet. Lord Harington is in plate armour, orle around
his bascinet, plate gorget, large epaulières with deeply scolloped
terminations, diagonally placed sword-belt with sword, rich baudrick
across the hips with anelace, small tuilles, gauntlets, and about his
neck a chain of ornamented link-work, with the usual trefoil clasp and
small pendant. The head reclines on a helmet with crest of _a lion's
head couped at the shoulders_, and angels were originally on each side
supporting it. The feet rest on a lion. The armour is of an
interesting character, and of later date than that worn at the death
of the knight, being referable to what was in use about the middle of
the fifteenth century, accounted for by the appearance of his wife by
his side, who survived him more than half a century. There is a fine
canopy over the effigies.
[Illustration: EFFIGIES OF ELIZABETH COURTENAY, LADY BONVILLE,
AND HER FIRST HUSBAND, JOHN, FOURTH BARON HARINGTON OF ALDINGHAM,
PORLOCK CHURCH, SOMERSET.--A.D. 1417-71.]
We broke off our little personal history in the year 1454, when
presumably Lord Bonville had returned from Aquitaine, of which
province he had been made Lieutenant. The next glimpse we get of him
is in the year following, and the incident, that brings him before us,
is quite in keeping with the belligerent spirit of the times, and
which seems to have invaded both public and private life at this
turbulent and lawless era. The old historian, Westcote, gives a
succinct outline of this remarkable quarrel,
"In this parish (Colyton) are yet remaining the two antient seats
of two illustrious families, Colcombe of Courtenay, Earl of
Devonshire, and Shute alias Sheet, of the Lord Bonvile; each of
them having their parks and large lati-funds (broad-acres),
but seldom any good neighbourhood, familiarity, or friendship
between them. This emulation increased at length to a quarrel,
and eagerly taken a both sides, about a couple of dogs, or
hounds, if you will, which could not by any mediation of friends,
or intercession of their equals, be qualified or appeased, until
it was valiantly tried in a single combat (which is now by a
fitter word termed a duel,) upon Clist-Heath, which manfully and
constantly performed by both parties, and after they had well
tried one the other's strength and valour, and with their sharp
swords, they at last lovingly agreed and embraced each other, and
ever after there continued great love and amity between them."
Shute was antiently part of Colyton, its church being a dependant
chapelry,--it now forms a distinct parish.
A very singular spectacle, this valiant performance, between these
noble neighbours, and ending according to the gossiping topographer in
genuine three-volume style. Dugdale says, Lord Bonville had the best
of the encounter, and Prince, after narrating the bellicose
transaction and "the great love and amity" said to have existed
between the combatants afterward, naïvely adds, "which I can hardly
believe for a reason, which hereafter may be observed in reference to
this Lord." Cleaveland however gives probably the truer version of its
cause, observing
"But Hollingshed and others do say, that several men on both
sides were slain in the quarrel, and that the Lord Bonvile
prevailed and went to Exeter, and had the gates opened to him.
And this is most likely to be true, for there was a great
animosity between those two great men, before this quarrel
happened, they being engaged in different parties; the Earl of
Devonshire was zealous for the house of Lancaster, and the Lord
Bonvile for the house of York, and the civil war between these
houses did then begin to break out, and no wonder the city of
Exeter opened its gates, to the Lord Bonvile, for the Duke of
York had at that time all the power in his hands, and no doubt
the city favoured those of the prevailing side. But whoever had
the better of it in this quarrel, both the Earl of Devonshire and
Lord Bonvile were great sufferers by that bloody and unnatural
war, for the Earl's three sons, successively Earls of Devon, lost
their lives for that quarrel for the house of Lancaster, and it
is said by some the Earl himself came to an untimely end by it.
And the Lord Bonvile lost both his son and grandson in the battle
of Wakefield, and the Lord himself was put to death after the
second battle of St. Alban's. The Earl's family became _extinct_
as to the first branch of that illustrious house, and the Lord
Bonvile's became _wholly extinct_."
A large and melancholy history in a few lines, and a pertinent
illustration of the effects and horrors of civil war, but this new
position of affairs requires careful scrutiny, as far as the slender
means at disposal afford.
Up to 1454, at least, Lord Bonville's allegiance must have been true
to the interests of the king, Henry VI. He had been employed, as would
be usual with men of his position and military aptitude, in the
warlike expeditions of the time abroad, and in the command of the
forces on land and sea, at home. In this respect he was evidently
esteemed an able and trusted servant, and the king had rewarded these
services by conferring on him a peerage, and investing him with the
order of the Garter, two of the highest honours at the sovereign's
disposal, and it would be presumable, in view of the foregoing, that
Lord Bonville's sympathies would naturally be on the side of Henry
VI., and the cause of the Red Rose, in the bitter conflict then just
beginning to be developed.
Although we have no direct testimony to the contrary in the earlier
stages of the warfare, as to Lord Bonville's then actually throwing in
his lot with the partizans of the White Rose, still the inferential
evidence remaining seems to point to it. The quarrel between Courtenay
and himself, although said to be over a couple of dogs,--if it really
happened as described,--had its basis probably in the absorbing social
questions that then stirred men's hearts to the deepest. A strange and
fierce development of ill-feeling, such as is related, between
neighbours and almost relatives of such distinguished station, could
scarcely arise except over some very weighty cause. Lord Bonville was
then married to the aunt of the Earl Thomas Courtenay he is said to
have fought with, and it is also fairly presumable they were close
neighbours, living within a mile of each other, the one at Shute and
the other at Colcombe. The Earl of Devon had married Margaret Beaufort
daughter of John, Earl of Somerset, and grand-daughter of John of
Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; three of their children were buried at
Colyton, and the beautiful monument in the church is considered to be
the memorial of his wife, the Countess Margaret herself, so the Earl
and his family must have been in residence there about that time.
Beyond this encounter, presumably begotten through the combatants
holding opposite views in the contending factions, we have no direct
evidence for four or five years as to Lord Bonville's active
participation in the fortunes of the White Rose.
Before proceeding further, we had better resume our notes as to the
family relationships following in Lord Bonville's domestic circle, and
their possible influence eventually on him.
William Bonville, Lord Bonville's only son by his first wife, was
probably born about 1416-17, soon after which date his father wedded
his second wife, Elizabeth Courtenay, widow of John, fourth Lord
Harington.
He married about 1440, Elizabeth sole daughter and heir of William,
fifth and last Lord Harington of Aldingham, who died 3 March, 1458,
brother and heir to his stepmother's first husband. One son, William,
was the issue of this marriage; the mother appears to have died in the
lifetime of her father, Lord Harington, for at the _inq. post mortem_
following his death, held April, 1458, this grandson William, son of
his daughter Elizabeth, was found his next heir, and then aged 16
years. The above William Bonville, the father, fell at the battle of
Wakefield, 31 Dec., 1460, fighting on the side of the White Rose.
Between the date of his wife's father's death in March, 1458, and his
own decease in Dec., 1460, he would by courtesy bear the title of Lord
Harington, _jure uxoris_.
William Bonville, only son of the foregoing William Bonville, _jure
uxoris_ Lord Harington, and grandson of Lord Bonville, was born about
1441-2.
He made a distinguished match indeed, having married Katharine, fifth
daughter of Sir Richard Nevill, K.G., eldest son of Sir Ralph Nevill,
K.G., the first Earl of Westmoreland, who died in 1425, by his second
wife the Lady Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of
Lancaster, and Katharine Swynford.
Her mother was the Lady Alice Montacute, daughter and heir of Sir
Thomas de Montacute, K.G., Earl of Salisbury, Baron Montacute and
Monthermer, who died 1428,--by his wife the Lady Elizabeth
Plantagenet, daughter of Thomas, and sister of Edmund, Earl of Kent;
and in her father Sir Richard Nevill, was revived in 1442 the title of
Earl of Salisbury, and the Baronies of Montacute and Monthermer.
Thus the Lady Katharine Bonville was sister to Richard Nevill, the
"great Earl of Warwick, the king-maker," and aunt to his daughters,
the Lady Isabel who married George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence,
brother to Edward IV., drowned in a butt of malmsey in the Tower,
whose son Edward was cruelly beheaded by Henry VII., and whose
daughter Margaret, the aged Countess of Salisbury was remorselessly
butchered by Henry VIII.; and also to the Lady Anne, married first to
Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VI.,--so foully slain by Edward
IV. and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, or by their orders, immediately
after the battle of Tewkesbury,--and to whom, as that poor prince's
widow, Gloucester, afterward king Richard III., was subsequently
married.
The Lady Katharine Bonville was also sister to George Nevill, Bishop
of Exeter, between 1455-65,--and afterward Archbishop of York and Lord
Chancellor. Of this prelate the only remaining remembrance of his ten
years' supervision of the diocese appears on the shield in the east
window of Branscombe church.
William Bonville, her husband, only son of William Bonville, Lord
Harington _jure uxoris_,--and grandson of Lord William Bonville,
K.G.,--also fell with his father at the battle of Wakefield, fighting
on the side of York and the White Rose, and when he could have been
scarcely twenty years of age.
He left one infant daughter, Cecilia or Cicely Bonville, at her
father's untimely death probably under a year old.
Lady Katharine Bonville married secondly Sir William de Hastings, the
first Lord Hastings of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. He was the eldest son and
heir of Sir Leonard de Hastings, who died in 1456, by his wife Alice,
daughter of Thomas, Lord Camoys. The career of this prominent man, and
his tragic death, form one of the most remarkable episodes in English
history, is strangely, but directly interwoven with our little
narrative, and the relation of which, however well worn, could not be
passed over here.
He acted a conspicuous part in the political events of the time, was a
devoted Yorkist, to whom Edward IV. was greatly attached, and who
literally heaped appointments, honours, and possessions upon him. He
was constituted at various times, Master of the Mint (coining, during
his term of office, the first new gold piece, value eight shillings
and four pence, called the "Noble"), Steward of numerous Royal manors,
and Ranger of Royal Forests,--Constable of Leicester, Nottingham, and
several other Castles,--Captain of Calais and its dependencies,
Chamberlain of the Exchequer, Lord Chamberlain of the Household, and
Chamberlain of Wales. On 26 July, 1461,--1 Edward IV.,--he was created
by patent Baron Hastings of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and afterward invested
with the dignity of the Garter.
Then comes a curious and special bit of family history, strongly
reflecting the habits and policy of the age, that has a most
interesting bearing on our annals. On 14 April, 1464, he entered "into
an agreement with Dame Elizabeth Grey, late wife of Sir John Grey,
knt., son and heir of Edward Grey, late Lord Ferrers, that he should
have the wardship of her son Thomas (afterward Marquis of Dorset), on
whose part it was stipulated, that he should, within five or six years
afterward, _marry the eldest daughter of Lord Hastings that might then
be living_."
A monstrous arrangement, thus to betroth young people, mere children
often, _nolens volens_, but a very common one at the period. Now it so
happened that the mother of Thomas Grey became Queen to Edward IV.,
and Lord Hastings had married the Lady Katharine Bonville, whose only
child by her first husband was Cicely. It is true that by Lord
Hastings she subsequently had another daughter, Anne, who married
George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, but Cicely Bonville was one of the
greatest heiresses in England, which the young man's mother, the
Queen, and her husband, Edward IV., were quite aware of. Thomas Grey,
however, Lord Hastings' ward, who must have been considerably older
than Cicely, does not seem to have waited for her, but married first,
Anne daughter of Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter,--she however appears
to have died sufficiently in time for him to marry Cicely. Lord and
Lady Hastings had been legally constituted the guardians of Cicely,
together with the custody of her estates, and her coming of age was
fixed at sixteen years. Immediately after this, which would be about
1476-7, she appears to have been married to the Marquis, but at the
time the "arrangement" for her marriage was entered into by her
step-father, Lord Hastings, she could not have been more than four or
five years old.
Thus one nice little family compact was negociated, and contained the
secret of Cicely's alliance, which altogether turned out to be happy
enough. The agreement of marriage with the eldest daughter of Lord
Hastings was thus construed to include his wife's also, if that was
not really intended to be the essence of the contract in the first
instance. The step-son of the king was to be married to the
step-daughter of his friend and favourite, a rich heiress in her own
right and also to the titles of Bonville and Harington.
The ward, or guardianship, of fatherless or orphan children of noble
parentage, was a trust practically vested in the king, or crown, and
by him was usually given to some Court favourite, being eagerly sought
after as a rule, because it generally conferred the almost absolute
control both of the ward's property and future destiny, and of wedding
him or her, if desirable, to a child of the guardian nominated. Lord
Hastings, from his position and influence, appears to have acquired
and exercised this questionable position to the utmost, as will be
seen.
For this was only one of the wardships obtained by Lord Hastings,
because he had sons as well as daughters to be wedded. He further
procured the wardship of Mary, only daughter of Sir Thomas Hungerford,
who was tried and beheaded at Salisbury, 8 Edward IV., and entered
into an agreement with her mother and step-father, that Edward his son
and heir should in due time take her to wife, and in the event of
Edward's death, then George or Richard, the younger brothers. Edward
Hastings however lived to marry Mary Hungerford, sole heiress of the
elder descent, and to the baronial titles of Hungerford, Bottreaux,
Molyns, and Moels, which were afterward revived in his person by Henry
VII.
We have mentioned Lord Hastings had one daughter also, by his wife
Katharine Neville-Bonville, named Anne, and she had to be provided
for. The Marquis of Dorset had been allotted to his step-daughter
Cicely Bonville, and therefore from a clause in his will we learn that
he had yet another "ward and marriage to him granted," in the person
of George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and if George should die, then
the contract was to extend to his next brother Thomas. But George
lived to marry the young lady. So these family compacts were arranged
and went merrily forward. Property, honours, and influence, appear to
have been the sole objects of these unnatural arrangements; love and
natural predilection not considered at all, and nowhere, being
evidently not deemed of the least importance,--marriage being treated
in all respects as a "matter of mere attorneyship." And do not these
transactions afford a clue to the amours and intrigues that infested
the age? The vengeful results of outraged hearts, and the sure
outcome.
Shakspeare well describes this 'brokerage' of marriageable maidens, in
the fourth act of the third part of _Henry VI_.--
HASTINGS. 'Tis better using France than trusting France:
Let us be back'd with God, and with the seas,
Which he hath given for fence impregnable,
And with their helps only defend ourselves;
In them, and in ourselves, our safety lies.
CLARENCE. For this one speech, Lord Hastings well deserves
To have the heir of the Lord Hungerford.
KING EDWARD Ay, what of that? it was my will, and grant;
And, for this once, my will shall stand for law.
GLOUCESTER. And yet, methinks, your grace hath not done well,
To give the heir and daughter of Lord Scales
Unto the brother of your loving bride;
She better would have fitted me, or Clarence:
But in your bride you bury brotherhood.
CLARENCE. Or else you would not have bestow'd the heir
Of the Lord Bonville on your new wife's son,
And leave your brothers to go speed elsewhere.
KING EDWARD. Alas, poor Clarence! is it for a wife
That thou art malcontent? I will provide thee.
CLARENCE. In choosing for yourself, you show'd your judgment;
Which being shallow, you shall give me leave
To play the broker in mine own behalf;
And, to that end, I shortly mind to leave you.
In 1470 Hastings accompanied Edward IV. in his hasty flight from Lynn,
in Norfolk, to Holland, when he also so narrowly escaped capture by
the Easterlings, and the king had nothing beyond his "gown lined with
martens" to pay the captain of the ship for his voyage. He also
returned with that monarch, when he landed at Ravenspur, to reclaim
the kingdom,--the place where Henry of Bolingbroke, a century and a
half previously, had disembarked to dethrone Richard II. Although his
wife's brother was the 'king-maker,' and engaged in the opposite
interest, Hastings remained loyal to Edward IV., and at the battle of
Barnet, on April 14, which ended so disastrously for Warwick, was one
of the king's principal commanders. So also he took active part in the
decisive action at Tewkesbury on 4th of May following. Then comes the
darkest episode in this nobleman's career. The Queen Margaret and her
son, the Prince Edward, were made prisoners, and the royal youth was
ushered into Edward's presence, who, flushed with success,
ungenerously asked him "How he dared to invade his dominions," to
which question, the answer was proudly but perhaps imprudently given,
"To claim my father's crown and mine own inheritance." Stung probably
by the conscious truth and nobleness of the reply, Edward unmanfully
struck the youth on the mouth with his gauntlet, whereon the Dukes of
Clarence and Gloucester, the Lords Hastings and Dorset, taking this as
a signal for further violence, hurried the prince away from Edward's
presence, and despatched him with their swords. Pity evaporates over
any misfortunes that may overtake men guilty of such deeds as this. In
1474 he got leave from the king to 'unpark' some seven thousand acres
at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and elsewhere, and to 'fortify' his mansions on
his different manors, specially the magnificent castle he erected at
Ashby. He was in the retinue of Edward at the inglorious peace of
Pecquigny, and got his share of the spoil, "his French Majesty at one
time making him a present of plate valued at ten thousand marks." He
is said to have refused at first to accept the pension awarded him on
this occasion by the king of France, but "after some courteous and
friendly correspondence" consented to receive it in a left-handed way,
refusing to give any receipt for it, saying, "put it (the gold) here
into my sleeve, for other acknowledgment you get none from me, for no
man shall say, that king Edward's Lord Chamberlain hath been pensioner
to the French king, nor that my acquittances be found in his Chamber
of Accounts." So these 'great' men magnanimously salved their qualms
of conscience, and satisfied the questions of their pride; and it is
further added, his pension was ever after paid without further
acquittance.
Then came his amour, or rather passion, for the beautiful Jane
Wainstead, afterward Jane Shore. It is related he was smitten by her
charms while still under her father's roof, and his attentions aroused
the suspicions of her father, who thereupon, to save his daughter, got
her suitably married to Mr. Matthew Shore, the goldsmith of Lombard
Street. Hastings not to be baffled, followed his prey after her
marriage, until on an occasion, when he attempted to pass the
boundary of honour, he got indignantly discharged and interdicted all
future communication. Thereon he is said, out of revenge, to have sent
the royal spoiler on the track, with a success but too well known.
Hastings' old affection however appears to have survived, and at
Edward's death he took her,--all sullied in reputation as she
was,--under his protection, until the day of his own death, his
acquaintanceship with her being made a chief accusation against him by
the relentless Gloucester.
Although so devoted to the king, Edward IV., he was by no means
friendly disposed toward his Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, and at king
Edward's death this dislike evidently greatly increased, which was in
great measure the Queen's fault, as she manifested considerable
antipathy toward the older nobility, being much wrapt up in the
welfare of her own family, but recently ennobled. Doubtless Hastings
and others saw this, and it had its due influence on them; but he was
perfectly loyal to the king's children. Almost immediately after
Edward's decease Hastings and Buckingham were sent for to confer with
Gloucester at Northampton, the young king being then with his uncle
and governor the Earl Rivers at Ludlow Castle, and his brother, the
Duke of York, with the Queen-mother in London. At this meeting was
urged the danger of the Queen-mother's influence, the necessity of
removing the young princes from her control, the advisability of
Gloucester's assuming the Protectorate, and the securing and, if
necessary, destroying the persons of the Rivers and Grey families as
dangerous to the common peace. All this the well-pleased and astute
Gloucester cleverly managed, and Hastings was sent on to London to
pacify the city, where he had great influence, and when the citizens
in alarm at hearing of the apprehension of Rivers and others, the
young king's attendants, and that they had been sent northwards toward
Pontefract, he deceived them with the assurance that they were simply
transported thither for conspiring against Gloucester and Buckingham,
and would be duly put on their trial; and Gloucester completed the
illusion by bringing the young king with much ceremony to London. Soon
after, Hastings "readily gave his assent" to the execution of the Earl
Rivers and others in custody at Pontefract, although still ignorant of
Gloucester's final design, and still more so of the grim fate that was
hanging over his own head, for it was also agreed on by those in the
secret, that he himself,--whose interest for the young king was well
known,--should be gained over in harmony with the project, or
dispatched out of the way, if necessary.
Although Hastings does not seem to have seen through Gloucester's
designs, his companion and friend Lord Stanley, "a man of deep
penetration," appears to have comprehended the whole situation, and
spoke his mind fully thereon to his colleagues, then assembling day by
day making preparations for the young king's coronation, of which
council Hastings was a member with others, the young king's friends,
but Hastings, it is related, still doubted Gloucester's plotting, and
also that the other council, sitting under Gloucester's presidency at
Crosby Place, were engaged in no design against the young king, and
that he would "pawn his life" if anything detrimental to the youthful
monarch were transacted there, he should be instantly informed of it
by a trusty member thereof, devoted to the king's interests; moreover
he was still prepossessed of Gloucester, and believed his council were
only desirous of humbling the Queen's party, whom he, Hastings, so
greatly disliked.
This 'trusty member' was none other than Richard Catesby, "a lawyer,
who had, through Lord Hastings' means, been placed in a position of
considerable trust, in the counties of Northampton and Leicester,
where Hastings' property lay," and this man, his friend and confidant
as he supposed he was, eventually betrayed him. Stanley's fears, it
seems, were greatly modified or allayed by Hastings' assertions, and
they quietly proceeded with their arrangements for the coronation,
while Gloucester was carefully doing all he could to prevent it, and
secretly and busily laying his dark plans for a very different issue.
Catesby, who had become the creature of Gloucester, unknown to
Hastings, was despatched by Gloucester to sound Hastings, "with all
the caution imaginable," most carefully guarding the grand secret. The
part was well played, and Hastings, not distrusting Catesby, told him
of Stanley's suspicions, and that for himself, rather than the late
king's children should be deprived of their rights, he would see ruin
and destruction overtake Gloucester and Buckingham, and that he would
employ every means in his power, even to his very life, to prevent its
succeeding.
All this intelligence Catesby carefully transmitted to Gloucester. Its
receipt appears to have greatly embarrassed him, as Gloucester greatly
desired to secure Hastings' adherence, knowing the importance his
assistance would afford. Wishing therefore to be perfectly assured of
the attitude Hastings was likely to assume, and to a considerable
extent fearing his influence if exerted for the king, Gloucester sent
Catesby to him a second time, with instructions to get as complete an
answer as possible. Catesby appears to have spoken plainly in this
second interview of Gloucester's designs, and to have received similar
answer to that given at their first parlance, and he left Hastings
with the knowledge that he had discovered Gloucester's intentions, and
also revealed to him his own treachery. Gloucester in due time was
made acquainted with the fact that in Hastings he had, under the
circumstances, now only an adversary to deal with. The Protector's
mind was soon made up, and Hastings' death resolved on; no one was to
stand between him and the throne, and live.
On June 15, 1483, Gloucester called a council at the Tower, ostensibly
to finish the preparations for the king's coronation. Rapin, from
information condensed from the various old chroniclers, thus
circumstantially describes the final scene,--
"The Protector came himself at nine o'clock in the morning with a
cheerful countenance, courteously saluting the lords, as if he
had nothing in his mind that gave him the least uneasiness. After
that he went out and desired the council to continue their
deliberations in his absence.
"About an hour after, he returned with an angry countenance,
knitting his brows, and biting his lips, and shewing all possible
signs of perturbation of mind. Remaining some time without
speaking, he broke silence with these words,--_My Lords, what
punishment do they deserve who have plotted against my life?_'
The Lords not immediately answering, Lord Hastings replied,
'_Whoever is guilty of that crime ought to be punished as a
traitor_.' The Duke answered, '_It is that sorceress my
sister-in-law, with her accomplices_.' These words astonished
many of the council who favoured the Queen, being afraid this
accusation concerned them. But the Lord Hastings was far from any
such fear. All knew he was a sworn enemy to the Queen, and
consequently there was no likelihood of his joining her in such a
design. Besides, he had lately approved of the order sent to
Pontefract to behead the lords prisoners, who were to be executed
that very day.
"After a short pause the Protector, unbuttoning his left sleeve,
shewed the Council his arm, dried and withered, saying with
extreme emotion, '_See what that sorceress, and Shore's wife have
done by their witchcrafts. They have reduced my arm as you see,
and my whole body would fain have been the same, if by God's
mercy their infamous plot had not been discovered._' These words
caused a greater surprise than the former, the whole Council
knowing the Duke's arm had long been in that condition; besides,
if the Queen had framed such a project, Jane Shore would have
been the last person she would have imparted it to, since of all
women she most hated her.
"The Lord Hastings who, since Edward's death, had kept Jane
Shore, perceiving she was involved in the accusation, could not
forbear to shew how much he doubted her being guilty by saying,
'_If they had committed such a crime they deserved to be
punished_.'
"Then the Protector raising his voice said, '_What, dost thou
answer me with 'Ifs' and 'Ands,' as if I forged this accusation?
I tell thee they have conspired my death, and thou thyself art
accessory to the crime._' As he ended these words he struck the
table twice with his fist, and immediately the room was filled
with armed men.
"As soon as they were in, the Protector turning to Lord Hastings
said to him, '_I arrest thee for High Treason.' 'Who, me, my
Lord_,' answered Hastings. '_Yes, thee traitor_,' replied the
Protector. At the same time he delivered him to the custody of
the soldiers.
"During the bustle one of the soldiers would have cleft the Lord
Stanley's skull, with a battle-axe. But he avoided part of the
blow by sinking under the table, however he was dangerously
wounded. Probably the soldier had orders to kill him as it were
by chance, under pretence that he would have defended the Lord
Hastings. It is not hard to guess why the Protector desired to be
rid of him. Having missed his aim, Stanley was arrested with the
Archbishop of York, and the Bishop of Ely, it being the
Protector's interest to put it out of their power to hurt him,
whom he knew to be zealously affected for the young king.
"As for the Lord Hastings, he would scarce give him time to make
confession to the next priest that came, swearing '_By St.
Paul,--he would not dine until his head was struck off_.'
Accordingly he was beheaded upon a log that was found on the
green before the Tower Chapel, the time fixed by the Protector
being too short to erect a scaffold."
So miserably and brutally perished the Lady Katharine Bonville's
_second_ husband, one of the chief friends and favourites of Edward
IV., through the remorseless malice aforethought of that king's
brother, the Duke of Gloucester. Lord Hastings was a prominent, it may
be said, representative character of that age of intrigue and
unscrupulous ambition. Although loyal to Edward and his sons, he was a
"sworn enemy" to Queen Elizabeth Woodville, notwithstanding his wife's
daughter, Cicely Bonville, was married to her eldest son, and he is
said to have "greatly contributed" to the execution of the prisoners
at Pontefract, Anthony, Earl Rivers, and Richard, Lord Grey, the
Queen's brothers, and near relatives of his step-daughter Cicely
Bonville's husband, the Marquis of Dorset; by a most remarkable
retribution he was awarded a similar fate to theirs, said to have
occurred on the same day, and at the same hour. His hands too are
reputed to have been imbrued with the blood of Margaret of Anjou's
unfortunate youthful son. His amour with Jane Shore was made the
handle of Gloucester's accusation, and sudden and cruel as his fate
was, it was perhaps merciful as compared with the suffering that was
reserved for her. While Hastings, her protector, lived, her position
was one of comparative safety, but at his death none dared befriend
her, and true to the hideous completeness of the part Gloucester was
acting, she was to be the next victim. Then the poor, frail, beautiful
and withal amiable creature,--Edward used to call her the 'holiest' of
his three mistresses, the other two being respectively the 'wittiest'
and the 'merriest'--one to whom a king, and 'the handsomest man in
Europe' to boot, had paid court, amid unstinted opulence and luxury,
was dragged forth and exposed to the gibes, jeers, and insults of a
vulgar mob, with studied opprobrium publicly disgraced, and finally
with contumely driven away to eke out the remainder of her days in the
most abject poverty, misery, and distress. The purist,--forgetful his
mother was a woman,--may say the degradation was deserved; but there
is no human shortcoming that gives justification for unmanliness, the
most detestable of all crimes.
By his wife Katharine, widow of William Bonville, and daughter of
Richard Nevill, Earl of Salisbury, Lord Hastings had issue four
sons:--1. Edward, eldest son and heir; he married Mary, grand-daughter
and heiress of Robert, Baron Hungerford, Bottreaux, Molyns, and Moels,
and in right of his wife was summoned to Parliament, though still a
minor, in 1483, by the title of Baron Hastings of Hungerford; he died
in 1507.--2. Sir Richard.--3. Sir William.--4. Sir George; and one
daughter, Anne, married to George Talbot, fourth Earl of Shrewsbury.
Lord Hastings made his will 27 June, 1481, bequeaths his body to be
buried in the "_Chapel of Seynt George at Wyndesore_," and "_that
there be ordeigned a tumbe convenient for me by myne executors, and
for the costs of the same I bequeath c marks_." After many religious
bequests,--"_also when George, Erle of Shrewsbury, whose warde and
marriage to be, me is granted, &c.,--hath married Anne my daughter, I
woll that if the same Erle should die, which God defend, &c., that
then Thomas brother of the said Erle take to wife, her the same Anne,
&c._,"--gives to "_Kateryn myn entirely beloved wyff_," sundry manors
and constitutes her one of his executors, and "_ordaynes John, Lord
Dynham_," a contemporary of west-country fame, as one of the
surveyors.
Katharine, Lady Hastings, made her will 22 Nov., 1503, and orders her
body "_to be buried in our Lady Chapell, within the parish church of
Ashby-de-la-Zouch_," gives numerous religious bequests, and "_where I
owe unto Cecilie, Marquesse Dorset, certain summes of money which I
borrowed of her at diverse times, I woll that the said Cecilie in full
contentation of all summes of money as I owe unto her, have my bed of
arres, tittor, tester, and counterpane, which she late borrowed of me;
and over that I woll that she have my tabulet of_ _gold that she now
hath in her hands for a pledge, and three curtains of blew sarcionet,
and three quishons of counterfeit arres with imagery of women, a long
quishon, and two short of blew velvet, also two carpets_;" and "_makes
and ordaines Cercell, Marquis Dorset, widow_," one of her executors.
She died in 1504.
Lord Hastings was buried in the Chantry erected by his widow, and
dedicated to St. Stephen, in the north arcade of the choir of St.
George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. The screen that separates it from
the aisle, is of three stories, the two upper of open work with
tracery. Above is a cornice with Tudor flower cresting, and in the
centre, an open-vizored helmet with mantling, supporting the Hastings'
crest, _from out a ducal coronet, a bull's head affrontée, couped at
the shoulders_. Below are the arms of Hastings, _a maunch sable_, and
this device with the Garter appears in a series below. The screen was
originally richly painted and gilded. There is no monument within it,
and probably there never was such. In general design the Hastings'
Chantry has much in common with Canon Oxenbridge's, on the opposite
side of the choir.
To return to Lord Bonville. We have thus traced as clearly and
succinctly as may be, this somewhat tangled genealogy of their
descents, and its bloodstained surroundings, to clear the ground, and
get a more comprehensive view of the circumstances that may have had
their influence on the last years of Lord Bonville's life, and also to
afford some reason as to when, and why, he finally transferred his
influence and allegiance from the Red to the White Rose.
Our last glimpse of him was in 1455, when he was said to have
"valiantly performed" the duel on Clyst-Heath, with Thomas Courtenay,
Earl of Devon, the real basis of which quarrel it is inferred, but not
authenticated, was his presumed sympathy then with the cause of the
White Rose, and so raised the anger of his antagonist, who was warmly
interested on the side of the Red.
Apart from this rather apochryphal incident, there does not appear to
be any direct evidence of his identification, at least actively, with
the cause of York for the next five years. There were reasons why
perhaps this might not be so. He was then married to his second wife,
a Courtenay, the member of a family strongly identified with the
fortunes of the Red Rose. She was the widow of a wealthy peer, and her
present husband's son was married to the heiress of her first
husband's house, in the person of her niece, the only daughter of his
brother; and there does not appear to be any evidence as to which way
the Haringtons leant toward the impending struggle, that may have
influenced him. Lord Bonville may from conviction have passively
inclined toward the interest of York, but no mention is made of his
being at the first battle of St. Albans (which took place the same
year as the duel on Clyst-Heath) 22 May, 1455, nor as to his being in
any way concerned with the fluctuating aspects of the strife during
the next four years, up to and including the battle of Bloreheath,
which occurred 23 Sep., 1459.
But about 1458-9 a new and very powerful factor found admission into
Lord Bonville's family, in the marriage of his grandson with
Katharine Nevill, the sister of the king-maker, Richard, Earl of
Warwick, the central point around which the hopes of the White Rose
concentrated, while her other brother George Nevill presided over the
diocese of Exeter. It is difficult to estimate the important influence
this relationship would naturally exercise on the Bonvilles,
especially if already inclined that way, and doubtless it did add
considerable weight to turn the scale promptly, and as it turned out
irremediably, on the side of York, as immediate events shew.
Taking the foregoing speculations and surmises, however, only for what
they are worth, by the middle of the year 1460, there could be no
doubt as to the side Lord Bonville had taken, whether by the "subtile
insinuations" of his grandson's wife's family or otherwise. The battle
of Northampton took place 10 July, 1460, and the unfortunate
half-demented Henry VI. being taken prisoner, we are told by Prince,
with probable correctness, the king was, "among others, committed to
the care and custody of the Lord Bonvil."
Doubtless afterward, Lord Bonville, accompanied by his son and
grandson, found distinguished places in the retinue of the king-maker,
in their triumphal march back to London, escorting the captive monarch
in the train.
Short spell of success and victory, soon to be followed by a terrible
nemesis! The scared but determined Margaret of Anjou, and her son
Edward had escaped into Scotland, and presently the dark war-clouds
were again gathering north and south for another sanguinary conflict.
Six months of preparation brought the combatants together, and on the
31 Dec., in the same year, the frightful and merciless battle of
Wakefield shattered, for the time, the hopes of York to the centre.
Among the nobles fighting on the side of Queen Margaret, was Lord
Bonville's neighbour and old antagonist, Thomas Courtenay, Earl of
Devon; and on the other, arrayed in the cause of York, were the three
generations of the Bonvilles, two of whom we
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