The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West Part 10

He was created Earl of Wilts.h.i.+re by Henry VII., in 1509, and const.i.tuted a Knight of the Garter by the same monarch, being the two hundred and fifty-eighth on the roll of the Order.

The Marchioness of Dorset was his second wife. His first was Muriel, daughter of Sir Edward Grey,--created Viscount L'Isle, 1483,--brother to Sir John Grey, father of the Marquis of Dorset, and therefore cousin to the Marchioness's first husband. The Earl of Wilts.h.i.+re left no issue by either of his wives. He died 6 March, 1523, when his t.i.tle became extinct.

On a boss in the vaulting of the choir of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, is his badge, _a Stafford knot argent, differenced by a crescent sable_, and on a stall-plate below are his arms, quarterly:--1. _France and England within a bordure argent_ (PLANTAGENET).--2. BOHUN.--3. STAFFORD.--4. BOHUN, EARL OF NORTHAMPTON; there are no supporters. The crest, _in a ducal coronet, per pale sable and gules, a demi-swan argent, beaked gules, the wings endorsed_. Motto, "HUMBLE ET LOYAL" (Willement).

The carved escutcheon of this Earl, quartered as above, with _crescent_ for difference, and encircled by the Garter, was found among the ruins of the Cluniac Priory of St. Mary Magdalene at Barnstaple, and is now preserved in a modern residence built on the site. The _knot and crescent_ are found on the churches of Axminster, Ottery St. Mary, and Seaton, and will be further referred to.

We do not hear much more of the Marchioness, but she evidently stood very high in the Court of Henry VIII., for in September, 1533, at the christening of the Princess, afterward Queen Elizabeth, daughter of Queen Anne Boleyn, at Greenwich, Hall relates that "the old Marchioness of Dorset, widow," was one of the child's G.o.d-mothers, and in the grand procession the Marquis her son, bore the Salt, and she afterward made the infant-princess "a present of three gilt bowls pounced with a cover."

By her will, dated 6 March, 1528-9, 19 Henry VIII., she "_bequeathed her body to be buried in the Chapel of Astley, in the tomb where her husband the late Lord Marquis lay, and a thousand ma.s.ses to be said for her soul. That a goodly tomb should be made in the Chapel of Astley over the Lord Marquis her husband, and another for herself, and two priests daily to sing in the said Chapel of Astley by the s.p.a.ce of eighty years, to pray for the soul of the said Lord Marquis and her own soul._"

The exact date of her death does not appear to have been ascertained, but probably before, or by 1530, when she would have been about seventy years old.

With the death of Cicely Bonville--last of her name and race--the main personal interest of our little narrative ceases, and it is not intended, in bringing our story to its conclusion, to give a long detailed account of the two next succeeding generations of the Greys, which belongs rather to national history.

Thomas Grey, eldest son of Thomas Grey, first Marquis of Dorset, and Cicely Bonville, was summoned to Parliament in 1509, as Lord Ferrers of Groby, and in 1511, as the second Marquis of Dorset. He married first Eleanor, daughter of Oliver, Lord St. John, by whom he had no issue, and secondly Margaret, daughter of Sir Robert Wotton of Bocton in Kent, by whom he had Henry, his successor;--John, ancestor of the Earls of Stamford;--Elizabeth, married to Thomas, Lord Audley of Walden, K.G., Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII., who sat as High Steward at the trial of Henry Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter, and who died in 1544;--Catherine, to Henry Fitzalan, eighteenth and last Earl of Arundel of that family, Lord High Steward to Queen Elizabeth, and K.G., who died 1579;--and Anne, to Henry Willoughby of Wollaton, Nottinghams.h.i.+re.

He appears to have enjoyed the favour and confidence of that dangerously uncertain despot Henry VIII., and in 1512 was const.i.tuted Commander-in-Chief of the expedition sent into Spain, designed as an augmentation of the forces of the Emperor Ferdinand in the invasion of Guienne, and with him were a.s.sociated the second Lord Willoughby de Broke and other n.o.blemen. In 1514, he was with Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, in France at the jousts of St. Denis, and acquired considerable renown; as afterward at the meeting of Henry and Francis in 1521 on the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He was one of the lords who signed the celebrated letter to Pope Clement touching the king's divorce, and subscribed to the articles of impeachment against Cardinal Wolsey. Altogether a pliant and observant courtier probably, who carefully noted, studied, and complied with the errant phases of his grim master's will, the only safe way of getting on with him, and keeping his head on his shoulders, but, of course, requiring the aid of a not too-exacting conscience.

He made his will 1530, "_ordered his body to be buried at Astley, near his father, and his executors to make and build a Chapel at Astley, according to the will of his father, with a goodly tomb over his father and mother, and where he himself resolved to be buried_."

Together with further bequests "_to found an alms house for thirteen poor men, who were to have twelve pence a week, and a livery of black cotton yearly at a cost of four s.h.i.+llings, and three honest priests to pray for his soul, &c._"

Relating to the burial of this n.o.bleman, we append the following, given as a quotation by Burke,--

"The Collegiate church of Astley, founded by Thomas third Lord Astley, whose heiress-general married the ancestor of this Marquis, a most rare and beautiful piece of workmans.h.i.+p, having fallen down, a new chancel was erected by the paris.h.i.+oners. When on opening the vault where the body of the Marquis was laid, a large and long coffin of wood was found, which at the curious desire of some, being burst open, the body which had lain there for seventy-eight years, appeared perfect in every respect, neither perished nor hardened, but the flesh, in colour, proportion, and softness, alike to any corpse newly interred. The body was about five feet eight inches in length, the face broad and the hair yellow. All which seemed to be well preserved from the strong embalming thereof."

Henry Grey, third and last Marquis of Dorset, was const.i.tuted Lord High-Constable of England for three days at the coronation of Edward VI., 1547. In 1551 made Justice in Eyre of all the King's Forests, and in 1552 Warden of the East, West, and Middle Marches toward Scotland, and 11 October of the same year was created Duke of Suffolk, and installed Knight of the Garter.

He married first Katharine, daughter of William, Earl of Arundel, but by her had no issue.

Secondly, he espoused Frances, daughter of Charles Brandon, created Duke of Suffolk in 1514, and K.G.,--by his third wife the Princess Mary, second daughter of king Henry VII., widow of king Lewis XII., and so Queen-Dowager of France. The issue of this marriage was three daughters, Jane, Katharine, and Mary.

The Lady Jane Grey married the Lord Guilford Dudley, son of John Dudley, created Duke of Northumberland in 1551 and K.G.; by his wife Jane daughter of Sir Edward Guilford, knt. The Duke his father, was beheaded on Tower Hill 22 Aug., 1553.

The Lady Katharine Grey, married first Henry, Lord Herbert, eldest son of William, Earl of Pembroke, from whom she was divorced. Secondly she married Lord Edward Seymour, son of the Protector Somerset, who was beheaded on Tower Hill, 22 Jan., 1552. Lord Edward Seymour was created by Queen Elizabeth in 1559, Baron Beauchamp of Hache, and Earl of Hertford. But for marrying the Lady Katharine without the permission first obtained of the imperious and unfeeling Queen, they were both committed to the Tower. He was fined five thousand pounds, and endured nine years imprisonment. His wife bore him three sons during her captivity, and she died while still a prisoner in that fortress 26 Jan., 1567. He died at an advanced age in 1621.

The Lady Mary Grey married Martin Keys, Groom-Porter to Queen Elizabeth.

It is not necessary here to enter into the mournful circ.u.mstances of the deaths,--perhaps the most sad in English history--of the youthful Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guilford Dudley,--they are fully known to all who have the slightest acquaintances.h.i.+p with our national annals. The event occurred on 12 Feb., 1554.

The same remark will apply to the fate of the Duke of Suffolk, her father,--his partic.i.p.ation in Wyatt's rising, the story of his fleeing from his pursuers, hiding in a hollow tree in his park at Astley, and betrayal (under circ.u.mstances somewhat similar to Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham), by Underwood, one of his own park-keepers to whom he had confided the secret of his life,--need only the outline of relation here, to give semblance of completion to our little history.

He found his death also by the executioner's hand on Tower Hill, 23 Feb., 1554.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EFFIGY OF FRANCES BRANDON, d.u.c.h.eSS OF SUFFOLK.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY]

The d.u.c.h.ess of Suffolk, his widow, married secondly Adrian Stokes, Esq. She was buried in St. Edmund's Chapel in Westminster Abbey, where, on a high-tomb of the same costly material, reclines her effigy in alabaster, clad in the rich costume of the period, with a crowned lion at her feet. On one side of the tomb is this inscription,--

HERE LIETH THE LADIE FRANCES, DVCHES OF SOVTHFOLKE, DOVGHTER TO CHARLES BRANDON, DUKE OF SOVTHFOLKE, AND MARIE THE FRENCHE QVENE; FIRST WIFE TO HENRIE, DUKE OF SOVTHFOLKE, AND AFTER TO ADRIAN STOCK, ESQVIER.

and on the other the following,--

IN CLARISS: DOM: FRANCISCae SVFFOLCIae QVONDAM DVCISSae EPICEDION.

MIL DECVS AVT SPLENDOR, NIL REGIA NOMINA PROSVNT SPLENDIDA DIVITIIS, NIL JVVAT AMPLA DOMVS; OMNIA FLVXERVNT, VIRTVTIS SOLA REMANSIT GLORIA, TARTAREIS NON ABOLENDA ROGIS.

NVPTA DVCI PRIVS EST, VXOR POST ARMIGERI STOKES; FVNERE NVNC VALEAS CONSOCIATO DEUS.

Below in panels are sculptured the arms of France and England, Brandon and Stokes with numerous quarterings.

Of this lady says Dean Stanley,--

"She had thrown herself headlong into the Protestant cause. She had dressed up a cat in a rochet to irritate the bishops; and had insulted Gardiner, as she pa.s.sed by the Tower, 'It is well for the lambs when the wolves are shut up.' Naturally in her own turn she had to fly after her husband's and her daughter's b.l.o.o.d.y death, and lived just long enough to see the betrothal of her daughter, Catherine Grey to the Earl of Hertford, and to enjoy the turn of fortune which restored her to the favour of Elizabeth, and allowed her sepulture beside her royal ancestors.

The service was probably the first celebrated in English in the Abbey since Elizabeth's accession; and it was followed by the Communion service, in which the Dean (Dr. Bill) officiated, and Jewell preached the sermon. Could her Puritanical spirit have known the site of her tomb, she would have rejoiced in the thought, that it was the first to displace one of the venerated altars of the old Catholic saints."

The effigy, a very n.o.ble one, clasps a book, presumably intended for the Bible, in her hands, doubtless another evidence of her "Puritanical spirit," and which she probably deemed of more importance than the choicest relics of "saints" preserved in the "venerated altars" that teemed around.

Adrian Stokes, or Stock, Esq., who married the d.u.c.h.ess of Suffolk, 1 March, 1555, just twelve months after the Duke's death, is said to have acted as her Master of the Horse. In spite of this disparity of social position, and also of age (he being about seventeen, and the d.u.c.h.ess thirty-two years old at the date of their marriage), the union appears to have been a happy one (she only survived four years), for at her death in December, 1559, she left him in possession of large estates in Warwicks.h.i.+re and Leicesters.h.i.+re. In 1571 Stokes was returned to Parliament for Leicesters.h.i.+re, having under his charge the Lady Mary Grey, his step-daughter, and about that period, married secondly, Anne, widow of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton. He died without issue 30 Nov., 1586. He erected this fine monument to her memory.

His ward the Lady Mary Grey appears to have had no higher ambition in the selection of a husband, than her mother's second venture, having married, as previously related, Martin Keys, Groom-Porter to Queen Elizabeth. It may be, her step-father's social position was against anything better.

The memorials of Cicely Bonville, Marchioness of Dorset, are fairly numerous and interesting. "The walls of many churches," says Mr.

Davidson, "in the neighbourhood of this lady's extensive possessions testify by the arms and devices of her family and connections, that she employed a part of her immense wealth by a.s.sisting in their erection."

The most considerable of these, is the beautiful Chapel on the north side of the nave of the Collegiate Church of St. Mary, at Ottery, and known as the "Dorset aisle," which without doubt she built. It is of considerable size, and its fan-traceried vaulting very rich; on the pillars of the arcade are the arms of Bishop Oldham, and his rebus, _an owl holding a label in its beak inscribed with the last syllable of the prelate's name_, =ham=,--1504-19; and also of Bishop Vesey his successor, 1519-51. This shews that its erection occurred within those dates, after her marriage with the Earl of Wilts.h.i.+re, but before her death, which took place about 1530. Studding the moulding under the parapet outside are the family badges, the Harington _fret_, Stafford _knot_, _bull's-head_ of Hastings, and Bourchier _knot_, often repeated, while over the porch-entrance are the denuded remains of what was evidently the armorial achievement of this lady. There is a s.h.i.+eld surrounded by the Garter, but the bearings are quite undecipherable, except the traces of a _fret_, the supporters appear to have been a _lion_ on the dexter side, and on the sinister an _antelope_. Above the s.h.i.+eld is a helmet, and remains of a crest. At the top and in the base of the panel is the Stafford _knot_, of large size, and on each side this device is repeated alternately with the _mullet_ of Bonville.

These arms together with some other sculpture within the porch, appear to have been designedly mutilated, perhaps after the attainder and execution of the Duke of Suffolk, by order of Queen Mary, similarly to the manner the heraldic achievements of the Countess of Salisbury in her beautiful Chantry in the Priory Church of Christ Church, Hants, were commanded to be obliterated ("_delete_") by Henry VIII., after her savage beheading.

The outer armorial panel is supported by columns with a crocketted canopy, and figures of angels stand on the pillars; at their base are small s.h.i.+elds with the _merchant's mark_ and _initial_ of Goodwyn of Plymtree, who held that manor of the Hastings family at the time.

There are several of the original bench-ends within the Chapel; on one is a large _double rose_ and on another _pomegranates_, but they are of comparatively plain character in carved detail.

At the meeting of Henry VIII. and Maximilian at Terouenne in 1515, Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham was "attired in purple satin, his apparel full of _antelopes_, and _swans_ (of Bohun) of fine gold bullion, and full of spangles." Henry Stafford, Earl of Wilts.h.i.+re, his brother, and second husband of Cicely Bonville, bore on his banner the _swan_ (of Bohun) amid _semee of Stafford knots_, with the motto, "HUMBLE ET LOYAL."

Knightstone, in Ottery St. Mary, originally the inheritance of the Bittlesgate family, became the property of the Marchioness of Dorset in 1494, the remainder having previously been vested in William, Lord Bonville. On the attainder of her grandson, the Duke of Suffolk, in 1554, it was purchased by Mr. William Sherman, a merchant of Ottery, who died in 1583, and whose bra.s.s effigies are on the pavement of the south aisle of the church.

In the church of Limington near Ilchester, Somerset, two memorials are found, but whether they are to be considered mementoes of Cicely Bonville, or of her son the second Marquis, is not so clear. These consist of two finely carved bench-ends, in the chancel. They are of considerable height, having _fleur-de-lys_ shaped finials on the top, and below occurs, on one the _rose_, and on the other the _pomegranate_, of Henry VIII. Then follows a large s.h.i.+eld, quarterly,--1 and 4, _six mullets pierced, three, two, one_ (BONVILLE).--2 and 3, _a fret_ (HARINGTON); and under this the initials W. C. joined by a cordon. Beneath are four _roses_, single and very thickly double, alternate.

The Bonvilles acquired considerable property in Limington, Somerset, of the representatives of the De Gyvernay family. The last of them Henry de Gyvernay died seized of the manor 35 Henry III., leaving a daughter Joan married to William de Shareshull. The very fine and well-preserved effigy in the uniquely-groined north transeptal Chantry, was probably placed to the memory of one of them (although the armour and appointments are comparatively late), and the other three earlier effigies on the floor doubtless represent preceding generations.

The initials W. C. on the bench-end evidently allude to Walter c.o.c.ks, inc.u.mbent of the parish, who was inducted in 1535, patron the Marquis of Dorset. This would be about five years after Cicely Bonville's death, and in the lifetime of her son, but the marshalling of the arms seems to allude more directly to his mother.

On escutcheons in the panels of the carved parapet of Axminster church are the Harington _fret_, and the Stafford _knot, surmounted by a crescent_; this last badge having allusion to Henry Stafford, Earl of Wilts.h.i.+re, her second husband, he being the second son of Henry, Duke of Buckingham. "As the manor of Uphay in the parish belonged to her,"

remarks Mr. Davidson, "it is not surprising she should have contributed to the enlargement of the church at Axminster."

Among the s.h.i.+elds shewing the descent of Walrond, that formerly had place on a screen in their Chantry in Seaton church, is one charged with the Stafford _knot_ and _crescent_, probably included out of compliment by the squire of Bovey to his n.o.ble neighbour of Wis...o...b...

It also occurs over the tower door at Hawkchurch, together with the arms of Daubeney, and the Abbey of Cerne.

But the most interesting of all, is the presumed effigy of Cicely herself, in the portion remaining of the once beautiful church of Astley, in Warwicks.h.i.+re. This, for a long time fixed upright in the wall of the tower, at the west end of the choir, now reclines on a low tomb. The figure is of alabaster, with pyramidal head-dress, gown richly embroidered and gilt, and mantle, on which are traces of crimson colour, the head rests on a cus.h.i.+on originally guarded by angels. From her girdle are suspended an _aumoniere_ on the right side and a rosary on the left.