Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

heretofore, and even on his return to this country. Desire him to pay you the hundred crowns which you have lent him, by my treasurer; but I wish you to have a little consideration towards the others, as well the English as the Scotch, for neither will your means or mine be sufficient." (She then desires four thousand francs may be divided between Westmoreland, Ligons, and Monceaux, but to keep it very secret, lest the Scots should be jealous).

In 1577, the Earl having complained of the neglect of the Queen of Scotts, she directs her ambassador to speak to the Spanish ambassador in his favor; and proceeds (25th March)

"I esteem and honor his good will, and will not neglect whatever may be in my power; which let him understand from me, assisting him if necessary with two or three hundred crowns."

In the same year Sir F. Walsingham writes to Sir Henry Sydney, that the Queen (Elizabeth) "being advertized, from her ambassador resident in France, that the Earl of Westmoreland should be privately repayred into Ireland about some practice; and thoughe she fyndeth yt a matter unlykely, yet her pleasure is, that your Lordship should, in some secret sort, use some apt instruments in the discoverye whether he be there or not, and in case he be ther, to seke all the wayes you may for the apprehension of him."-20th July, 1577.-Collins, Sydney Papers, p. 200.

Shortly afterwards he was at Maestricht.* In 1579, he writes to the Earl of Leicester:-" My vearye good lordwhereas I wrote a letter unto my brother Pellam, with whome I woulde have conferred by wourde of mouthe onelye, as touchinge my submyssion unto the Quenes Majestie, for that I am an yll penman. I understande, by a letter wrytten from my Lo. Bourley, to her who hath made me privy thereunto, the Quenes Majestie, by no means, wyll graunte therunto, which greveth me not a lytle, notwithstandinge I doo most wyllingley obeye her

"The two Morleys was lately at Anwarpe and is gone to Mastryke in companie of the Earl. Don John hath secretly charged all rebels and fugitives to absent themselves, but, yet, he giveth order for their pensions. I was earnest enough with hm, but I could not anger hym; he telleth me they are all banyshed, and he will make none accounte of any that is not faithful to the Quenes Majestie, whom he professeth to honor in such a faithful manner, as, before God, I do not believe him."-Brussels, 10 March, 1577.Dr. Wilson to Lord Burghley.-S. P.

Majesties pleasure, as my dewtye requireth what soo ever wyse is thought of me: besechinge your Lo. to stand my good Lo. in thys my banyshment, and to forget all private respectes that hath passed betwene us heretofore: and so ayde me wyth your Lo. furtherance towardes the opteninge of the Quenes Majesties favor to the restoringe againe of my decayed howse; wherebye you shall binde me and myne alwayes to be yours, and I assure your Lo. ther withall that if it woulde please her Majestie to pardon thys my former youthe, I shall not onlye remaine her loiall and dewtiful subiectt for ever, but also, I trust, within fewe yeares, by servyce to recompense my errours past.

Thus, desiringe your Lo. to deall soo favorably with me, as that I may be advertysed by your letters, whyther your Lo. wyll stande my good Lord herein, or no; for, if your Lo. shoulde refuse me herein, as I truste you wyll not, I doo greatlye dyspare of the good success of my sute, as knoweth the Almightie God, unto whose tuition I leave you.

From Anvers, thys iiij of Maye, 1579, youre Lo. assured in hys small power.

Orig. Cott. M. S.-Vesp. C. xiv. 243.

C. WESTMERLAND."

On the 22nd of March, 1581, his name appears amongst the pilgrims at Rome, in the records of the English college there.Collect. Topog. p. 79, 1837.

In 1593,* the Countess of Westmoreland died.

In the "Estate of the English Fugitives," (1595) which, being written with an evident party purpose must be received with due caution, it is stated, that the Earl had the command of a regiment of English men, and was at the "seige of Dermounde"; and he is said to have been concerned in various brawls, and to have been suspended from the command by the Duke of Parma. He was evidently treated with neglect, and only regarded, with consideration as a person whose influence might be useful in the frequently contemplated invasions of England.

In this year, one Diaper gives an unfavourable account of the Earl's morality, in Flanders; and says, that-" he kepeth daily company with Sir Timothy Mocket; whose life and behaviour is either as bad, or worse than my Lord's."-Strype, Vol. 4, p. 164.

In 1600, when his advanced age rendered him unfit for such an enterprise, a spy writes, that-"The Earl of Westmoreland beginneth to pursue again his sute for Richardots daughter, and Richardot (as is said) standethe upon this-that he procure 200 crowns a month, pension, more than he hath alredie, which he will have, to be assured of his daughter, which, (if he get yt) must be had from the King.-Bruxelles, 15 Oct. 1600."S. P. In the following year he was released from all earthly trouble, as appears by the following letter, written by a spy dated the 20th Nov. 1601.-"Th Erle of Westmerland fell sick here, at the campe, above three weeks agone; from whence he was caryed in a coach to Newport, and there continued sick till the 16 of this month, and then died.* What benefit his heirs may reape by his lands in England, I knowe not; but I thinke his executors shall get little by his goods here, dienge in as many mens debt as he could borrowe monye of; and to the King that he had gotten beeforhand, of his entertaynment, which, as you know, was 200 crownes a month." -S. P.

Thus perished on a foreign shore, after an absence of thirty years from his native land, subjected to every species of contumely and privation, and living on the precarious bounty of strangers the last Earl of Westmoreland, of the noble house of Neville. And now, (says Surtees) "of all this stately branching cedar, whose boughs shadowed the land, the house of Abergavenny, not distinguished in modern peerage either by superior titles or splendid fortunes-alone remains." Cambden, in noticing his death, (which he has placed under 1584, Hist. Elizabeth, p. 304) says, "From this family, fruitfull in nobility, there sprung (besides six Earls of Westmorland) two Earls of Salisbury and Warwick; an Earl of Kent; a Marquess Montacute; a Duke of Bedford; a Baron Ferrers, of Ousely; Barons Latimers; Barons Abergavenny; one Queen; five Dutchesses to omit Countesses and Baronesses; an Archbishop of York; and a great number of inferiour gentlemen."

*Of so little moment was the Earl's death, that Winwood, in a letter from Paris, Dec. 1, 1601, O. S. mentions the fact to Mr. Secretary Cecyll, without comment, and simply says, "The Earle of Westmoreland is lately dead at Newport."-Winwood's Memorials, v. I, p, 364.

[graphic][merged small]
« AnteriorContinuar »