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The Golden Falcon |
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Chapter X/4 - Plot |
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The 19-year old Robert Devereaux, 2nd earl of Essex was introduced to court by his step-father Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester as a rival to Walter Raleigh who was 13 years older. There are several portraits of Robert Devereaux, 2nd earl of Essex, but the most haunting is Nicholas Hilliard's portrait of "A Young Man with Roses" reputedly the earl of Essex because of the Latin motto above it "Dat panas laudata fides" said to indicate that his family rose to power through being drapers. Robert's sister Dorothy Devereaux married first Thomas Perrot, son of Sir John Perrot, illegitimate son of Henry VIII and then Henry Percy, the "Wizard" earl of Northumberland. Essex quarrelled with Raleigh as his sister Dorothy was not allowed to meet Elizabeth I at North Hall because of her clandestine marriage with Thomas Perrott who fought a duel with Henry Brounker for which both were imprisoned. Robert's other sister Penelope Devereaux married Robert, 3rd lord Rich and lived at Leez Priory near Chelmsford, Essex where her brother spent his holidays when he was at Cambridge university. Robert Rich's grandfather Richard, 1st Lord Rich helped to bring down Thomas Cromwell, Edward Seymour, earl of Somerset, John Dudley, duke of Northumberland, Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More. Rich's son became a Protestant. Penelope Devereaux, sweetheart of Philip Sidney, was left an orphan when her father died in Ireland and forced into marriage with Robert Rich by her Puritan guardian, the earl of Huntingdon. She hated her husband but had seven children by him after which she ran off with her lover, Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy by whom she had 5 more children. Fig.
101 - Sidney, Dudley, Devereaux, Dormer and Walsingham. Sir
William Sidney >: (a)
Jane Sidney = Dormer > Jane Dormer
= Gomes Suarez de Figueroa, duke of Feria (b)
Henry Sidney = Mary, d. of Sir John Dudley Sir John Dudley >: (a)
John Dudley (b)
Mary Dudley = Henry Sidney >:
1. Sir Philip Sidney =
Frances, d. of Sir Francis Walsingham = (2) Robert Devereaux, 2nd
earl of Essex
2. Mary Sidney = Henry
Herbert, 2nd earl of Pembroke = (4) Mary, d. of John Dudley, earl of
Warwick Essex went to live at Leicester house in Wanstead, Essex where his mother, Lettice Knollys, lived after Dudley's death and became a Privy Councillor, Master of Ordnance, Earl Marshal, Acting Secretary and Lord Deputy of Ireland. He fought in the Netherlands and was in charge of the Azores expedition being made Governor of Cadiz after the invasion. In 1588 he challenged Raleigh to duel and the Council had to put a stop to it. He made friends with Raleigh later and was godfather to his daughter Dameri Raleigh at Mile End. He was Lord Marshall during Raleigh's raid on Cadiz and rear admiral of one of 4 squadrons sent to attack the naval base of El Ferrol on the Galician coast of Spain but their forces were insufficient to attack so they lay in wait for the treasure fleet at the Azores but missed it. Essex was on bad terms with Cecil and Raleigh brought them together. Robert Devereaux's reputation as a gallant was such that it gave rise to suspicions that he was the lover of Elizabeth I, a woman old enough to be his grandmother. She probably favoured him because his mother was her cousin and his stepfather was Robert Dudley, her former favourite and girlhood lover whom she wanted to marry but was prevented from doing so by the rumours of murder after his wife Amy Robsart's death. Amongst Devereaux's mistresses were Lady Mary Howard, Mistress Russell, Mistress Bridges and Elizabeth Southwell by whom he had a son. He owned Barn Elms in Putney (where the Gunpowder plotters later gathered) and his residence Essex House, backing onto the Thames, was the old Bishop's house on the Strand, south of Aldwych where St. Clement Dane's stands near Essex Street and Devereaux Court. Many of the aristocrats houses ran between Westminster and the City of London and Essex House was an intelligence centre from which spies were sent out all over Europe. Anthony Bacon, brother of Francis Bacon, was one of them. There arose a feud between Essex and Robert Cecil, both of whom angled for places for their favourites in Elizabeth’s court. During the rebellion in Ireland of the earl of Tyrone, Essex was encouraged by Francis Bacon (who was jealous of his cousin Cecil) and Cecil himself to go to that country. In 1599 Essex deserted the army in Ireland after making a truce with Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone. He returned secretly to court, broke into the Queen's bedchamber, accused Sir Walter Raleigh and Robert Cecil of treason, claiming they were paid by Spain to ruin England and was placed under house arrest in 1600. Essex was proved right about the Spanish pensions in 1613 but it was Cecil and the Howards who were the pensioners. Devereaux's accusation was considered a slander at the time but by 1613-15 James I became aware of the truth about the Spanish pensions. Henry Howard, earl of Northampton was in Philip of Spain's pay as early as 1582 and Sir Charles Cornwallis, ambassador in Madrid wrote to Robert Cecil of his suspicion that William Monson was also in Spain's pay, little realising that Cecil was a pensioner himself. The earl of Essex was released but accused Raleigh and Cobham of plotting to kill him. Before his rebellion, Shakespeare's play "Richard II" was performed at the Globe Theatre at Southwark to remind Elizabeth that kings could be overthrown. Sir Jocelyn and Sir Charles Percy attended. On 8.2.1601 Essex tried to rally support in London and failed. Charles, Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord Admiral, later earl of Nottingham led the loyalist forces which put down the revolt and the earl was executed on the 25th. Many of Essex's followers, involved in the rebellion, came from the Welsh Marches. Others were aristocrats like Henry Wriothesley, 3rd earl of Southampton his staunch adherent (son of the 2nd earl sent to the Tower after the plot to marry the Queen of Scots to the Duke of Norfolk), the 32-year-old earl of Rutland, Essex's marshal Sir Charles Blount, William Parker (Lord Mounteagle), Francis Tresham (whose house at Lyvedon was searched but who was saved by the intervention of Catherine Howard, daughter of Thomas earl of Suffolk), John Grant (the Winters' brother-in-law), Robert and Thomas Winter, Robert Catesby, John Wright and Edward Baynham who was a leading member of a gang called "The Damned Crew." Edward may have been a kinsman of Thomas Bayneham (married to Sir William Winter's daughter Mary) who sailed with Drake to Cartagena de la Indias, Colombia. Essex's guilt revolved around the tract "Conference on the Next Succession" by none other than the Jesuit Robert Parsons using the "non-de-plume" of Doleman. This was about an alleged discussion by Robert Cecil regarding the right of the Infanta of Spain to the English throne. The Spanish royal family had a strong claim through descent from Katherine and Philipa Plantagenet of Lancaster, John of Gaunt's legitimate daughters whilst the Tudors' frail claim came through the illegitimate line of the Beauforts hence the importance of Henry VII's marriage to Elizabeth Plangtagenet of York (Edward IV's daughter) and the repeal of the Act by which she had been declared illegitimate during the reign of Richard III because of a pre-contract between Edward IV and Lady Eleanor Butler, widow of Thomas Butler and daughter of John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury. Even at that time of the rebellion, Robert Cecil was suspected by all of having conducted negotiations with Spain regarding the succession. This was probably true as James I later tried to negotiate a marriage contract between his son Charles and the Infanta, ruined by the behaviour George Villiers, earl of Buckingham, which shocked the Spanish court. During the trial Essex wore about his neck a letter received from James VII of Scotland (later James I of England). Lord Chief Justice Popham, Edward Somerset, earl of Worcester and Walter Raleigh were witnesses for the prosecution. Thomas Howard, as the most junior noble, began the declarations against the conspirators and Francis Bacon who had been the protégé of Essex turned against him. Bacon and Coke were later brought down by their enemies. Essex was executed a fortnight later on 23.2.1601 aged only 33. Walter Raleigh whom James I disliked, was imprisoned and later executed after the Arabella Stuart Plot. Attorney General Sir Edward Coke prosecuted the rebels who followed Essex and later the Gunpowder Plotters as well as presiding over the Overbury murder trial. Sir Christopher Blount, (Lettice Knolly's third husband), Sir Gelli (Gwilym) Meyrick (Essex's Master of Horse), Henry Cuffe, Sir John Davies, Surveyor of Ordnance and Sir Charles Danvers were tried with Essex. Cuffe and Meyrick were executed at Tyburn on 13.3.1603, Danvers and Blount were on the same day on at Tower Hill despite Danvers attempt to redeem his life by payment of £1,000 to have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment - Davies was reprieved. Shakespeare's patron, Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, was imprisoned in the Tower but lived to be James I's courtier. The earl of Rutland, the earl of Bedford, lords Sandys, Mounteagle, Cromwell, Sir William Catesby and the future Gunpowder plotters paid fines. Robert Devereaux's son became a Roundhead; his Adjutant General Sir John Meyrick, was nephew of Gelli Meyrick. Also involved were the earl of Sussex and Ferdinando Gorges who was spared after Essex pleaded for him. Gorges was Raleigh's kinsman and related to the Howards through the marriage of Edward Gorges and Anne Howard, daughter of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk. Sir Thomas Gerard and Lord Grey also took part in the rebellion. Thomas, Lord Grey had a grudge against Essex as he had been imprisoned after attacking Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton. Robert Catesby was injured while fighting for Essex; his servant Bates was probably in the fight too so where the two Wrights and the two Winters. Thomas Percy was a relative of the two Percies, Jocelyn and Charles who arranged the staging of Shakespeare's "Richard II" on the night before the Essex revolt. Henry Percy, possibly a kinsman, was an employee of Anthony Bacon. Francis Tresham (who had guarded the Privy Councillors held as hostages in Essex House) was fined £2,000 and William Parker, Lord Mounteagle £4,000. Nearly all were either Catholics or Protestants reconverted to Catholicism (Protestantism was essential for inheriting property). Catholics who did not attend the Protestant church on Sunday had to pay fine of £200 a month for recusancy and receipts show that amongst who paid heavily were Sir Thomas Tresham, father of Francis Tresham (cousin of the Winters and Catesby), Robert Winter's father-in-law John Talbot of Grafton, the Lytteltons of Hagley and Abington or Habington of Hindlip. Thomas Habington of Hindlip Hall, Worcestershire was imprisoned for 5 years in the Tower after the Babbington conspiracy and when released wrote a history of that county in retirement. The Jesuit Oldcorne was his chaplain and his house was riddled with priest holes; Hugh Owen, Father Garnet and a lay brother George Chambers visited his house at Oldcorne's invitation. Sir Christopher Blount and Sir Charles Danvers were cross-examined closely to discover what promises to Papists the earl of Essex had made. Blount's "confession" suggested that Essex was a Catholic sympathiser. He had promised toleration of religion. Blount made it clear that the earl was "wont to say that he did not like any man to be troubled for his religion" [SP. Dom. 648-9]. Those who later plotted with Fawkes believed Essex had meant that Catholicism could be practised freely and openly in England if the rising succeeded. Puritans too could expect more freedom. Essex was more sympathetic to their cause, he opened the courtyard of Essex House to preachers excluded from their own churches for their Puritan beliefs and was regarded all over Europe as the fiercest, most militant defender of the Reformation in England. Elizabeth I died on 24.3.1603 and the following July there were two plots known as the Main and Bye Plots - one led by a Catholic priest Father Watson to capture the king because he had not relaxed the recusancy fines nor given toleration to Catholics and the other to place the Protestant Arabella Stuart on the throne which was revealed to James I by the Jesuits. Henry Brooke, 11th Lord Cobham, his brother George Brooke, Copley and and Sir Griffin Markham were involved in the Bye Plot. Brooke's confession implicated his brother Cobham and Sir Walter Raleigh (whom James disliked) was called to give evidence. He told the Council about Cobham's dealings with the Spanish ambassador Count Arenberg regarding peace with Spain and Spanish pensions. Cobham himself confessed he was to receive half a million crowns to distribute as pensions to supporters of peace with Spain out of which Raleigh would get a share. Raleigh (who had been jailed by Elizabeth for marrying Bess Throckmorton without her knowledge or consent) was sent with his wife to the Tower of London for a second time where he attempted suicide. George Brooke was executed, his brother Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham and Griffin Markham were reprieved at the scaffold, Henry Cavendish and Gilbert Talbot, 7th earl of Shrewsbury together with his wife Mary Cavendish (Bess of Hardwicke's daughter) were implicated. Robert Winter's father-in-law, John Talbot of Grafton, was cousin of the 7th earl of Shrewsbury.. Cecil and Howard got Spanish pensions after the plot. By his first wife Margaret (d. 9.6.1540), daughter of Edward Bostock of Whatcross, Cheshire Sir William Cavendish had a daughter Catherine (b. 1535) who married Thomas Brooke, son of Lord Cobham. Arabella Stuart was grand daughter of Sir William Cavendish by his third wife Elizabeth "Bess" Hardwicke of Hardwicke Hall (d. 10.8.1547 at Bradgate, Leicester). Mary, Queen of Scots, was left in charge of Bess of Hardwicke from 1570-1. It was the court gossip that Bess told Mary and which the queen wrote in her letters that finally caused her death. Fig.
102 - Hardwick, Stuart, Tudor, Grey, Brandon:
John Hardwick (d. 1595) = Elizabeth Leake of Hasland = (2) Ralph Leche >
by (1): a.
Mary Hardwick = Richard Wingfield. b. Elizabeth = (1) Robert Barley = (2) Sir William Cavendish = (3) Sir William St. Loe = (4) George Talbot, 6th earl of Shrewsbury: By (2) > Elizabeth Cavendish (b.1555, d. 1582) = Charles Stuart (b. 1555, d. 1576), earl of Lennox in 1574 > Arabella Stuart (b. 1575, d. 1615) = William Seymour, earl of Hertford & 4th Duke of Somerset in 1610. Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford, 1st duke of Somerset, Lord Protector (brother of Queen Jane Seymour) = (1) Catherine Filliol (disinherited her children at the instigation of 2nd wife) = (2) Anne Stanhope > Edward Seymour, 2nd duke of Somerset = Katherine Grey (sister of Lady Jane Grey) >: a.
Thomas Seymour (d. 1600), 3rd duke of Somerset = Isabel (d. 1610). b.
Edward Seymour, lord Beauchamp > William Seymour, 4th duke of
Somerset =
Arabella Stuart (memorial
at St. Margaret's Westminster). Edward
IV = Elizabeth Woodville (desc. Jacquetta de St. Pol, Duchess of Bedford)
> Elizabeth Plantagenet = Henry VII > Margaret Tudor = (1) James IV
(reigned 1488-1513) = (2) Archibald Douglas, 6th earl of Angus
> Margaret Douglas = Matthew Stuart, 4th earl of Lennox (d. 1571) >
Charles Stuart, earl of Lennox (d. 1576) = Elizabeth Cavendish > Arabella
Stuart (1575-1615) = William Seymour, duke of Somerset (d. 1660). James
II (reigned 1437-60) = Mary of Gueldres > Mary Stuart = James, Lord
Hamilton (d. 1479) > Elizabeth Hamilton = Matthew Stuart, 2nd
earl of Lennox (d. 1513) > John Stuart, earl of Lennox (d. 1526) >
Matthew Stuart, 4th earl of Lennox = Margaret Douglas > Charles Stuart,
earl of Lennox (d. 1576) = Elizabeth Cavendish > Arabella
Stuart (1575-1615) = William Seymour, duke of Somerset (d. 1660). Brandon, duke of Suffolk Arms: "Barry of 10, argent & or, crowned per pale or": Thomas
of Brotherton, Duke of Norfolk > Elizabeth Plantagenet, duchess of
Norfolk = Sir Robert Goushill > Elizabeth Goushill = Sir Richard or
Robert Wingfield of Letheringham > Elizabeth Wingfield = 28.4.1497 Sir
William Brandon > Sir William Brandon, Standard Bearer to Henry VII at
Battle of Bosworth Field and died in battle, held manor of Beckenham, Kent
in right of his wife = as her 2nd husband Elizabeth, d. and
heiress of Sir Henry Bruyn and widow of Sir Thomas Tyrell of Heron, Essex =
(3) William Mallery > Charles Brandon, 1st duke of Suffolk =
(1) Margaret, d. of John Nevill, 1st Marquess of Montagu, widow of Sir John
Mortimer (repudiated) = (2) Anne. d. of Sir Anthony Browne (made null &
void) = (3) Lady Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VII = (4) Lady Catherine
Willougby d'Eresby, d. of William Willoughby, baron Willoughby.
By (3) > Frances Brandon = Henry Grey, 3rd Marquess of
Dorset >: a.
Lady Jane Grey = Guildford Dudley. b.
Katherine Grey = Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford > Edward Seymour, lord Beauchamp > William Seymour, 4th duke of Somerset = Arabella Stuart. Many Catholics who practised their religion in secret, surfaced during the beginning of James I's reign and the king, alarmed by their numbers, banished Catholic priests in February 1604 and by November recusancy fines were renewed. Angered by James I's proposal to marry his son Charles to the Spanish Infanta, Raleigh took part in the plot to place Arabella Stuart on the throne. She escaped punishment but when she married William Seymour without the King's consent she and her husband were both imprisoned;. she with the Bishop of London and he in the Tower. An escape was arranged and they were to join a French vessel at Tilbury but there were two French ships there at the same time and eavh took a separate one. Just outside Calais harbour, Arabella's ships was overtaken by a royal ship but Seymour escaped. She was brought back and imprisoned for 4 years in the Tower where she died a lunatic on 27.9.1615. Raleigh remained in the Tower until 1616 when he was released to undertake a fruitless voyage to the Orinoco to find the gold mines of "El Dorado". There was a misconception about "El Dorado" which was not a place but a person. Each day the Amerindian king of Manua was covered in gold dust blown through a reed and sacrificed anually, covered in gold, by being thrown into a lake. Pizarro's lieutenant Orellana pretended he had discovered a land of gold called El Dorado between the rivers Orinoco and Amazon. Raleigh who had sailed in search of El Dorado, published a highly coloured account of its enormous wealth. He was sent to Guyana in 1671, attacked San Thome and returned in 1618 with a mutinous crew when the Spanish Ambassador Gondomar (who had great influence over James) demanded Raleigh's execution which took place on 29.10.1618 in Palace Yard. Robert and Thomas Winter and their cousin Robert Catesby were friends of Mounteagle (to whom they were connected by his marriage to Tresham's sister), John and Christopher Wright (to whom they were related through the Inglebys and whose sister had married Thomas Percy), John Grant (the Winter's brother-in-law), Sir Edward Bayneham (possibly kinsman of Thomas Bayneham who married Mary, daughter of Sir William Winter), Sir John and Edward Littleton or Lyttleton (at whose house Robert Winter later took refuge during the Gunpowder Plot failed) all took part in both plots. Sir Walter Raleigh paid a sum of money to obtain Edward Bayneham's freedom. Robert Catesby was descended from William Catesby who acquired the rights to the manor of Ladbroke, Warwickshire in 1349; his son and grandson added Lapworth and Radbourn also in Warwickshire and Ashby St. Ledgers, Northamptonshire which the family of Catesby owned for 200 years. One member of this family was William Catesby the "Cat" of the doggerel rhyme of Richard III's reign which ran "The Cat, the Rat and Lovel the Dog, rule all England under a Hog" - the "Rat" being Ratcliffe and "Hog" Richard himself as his crest was a white boar. Sir William Catesby was Richard III's Chief Minister and Speaker of the House of Commons (beheaded by Henry VII), Lovel was Francis Lovell and Richard Ratcliffe one of the Comissioners of the Peace in Scotland. Catesby was executed in 1485 at Leicester after the battle of Bosworth Field. Henry VII restored the estate to George Catesby, his son and the line continued until Robert Catesby was executed in 1605 for his part in the Gunpowder Plot. There were cadet branches of the Catesbys at Bickenhall and Knowle, Warwickshire and Woodford and Hinton, Northamptonshire. The 20th century members are descendants of John Catesby (1486) of Whiston, Northamptonshire which belonged to his family until George Catesby sold it in 1656. His brother Thomas Catesby, who died in 1699, was born at Ecton, Northamptonshire. There was a branch at Hardmead, Buckinghamshire which expired when Thomas Catesby died in 1681 and another at Seaton, Rutland. All existing branches descend from Mark Catesby (1601-77), younger son of Sir Kenelm Catesby (d. 1605) of Seaton, Rutland. Robert Catesby (b. 1573) was the son of Sir William Catesby (d. 1598) of Ashby St. Ledgers, Northamptonshire by Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court, near Alcester, Warwickshire (Katherine Winter nee Throckmorton's niece). Robert was educated in Gloucester (now Worcester) College, Oxford. His father Sir William knew Father Gerard by whom Robert was converted in 1580. Robert was 6 feet tall, strikingly handsome and an expert swordsman, described as being "very wild and as he kept company with the best noblemen in the land, he spent much above his rate and so wasted a good part of his living". Ben Jonson, a Catholic, met Thomas Winter, Francis Tresham and Catesby whom he described as "a man of his own age, of great charm and beauty, above two yards high and was well proportioned to his height as any man should see". In 1592 he married Catherine, daughter of the strongly Protestant Sir Thomas Leigh of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. Robert inherited lands in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire worth some £3,000 per annum; Hardmead in Buckinghamshire near Manor farm, 1 km south west of the church where there are brasses to the Catesbys and Chastleton in Oxfordshire which he inherited from his grandmother Catherine Throckmorton but as he took part in 1602 in the earl of Essex's rebellion, he was fined £3,000 so had to sell Chastleton that year. He was wounded during Essex's rebellion and taken prisoner with William Parker, Lord Mounteagle, Thomas Percy, John Wright, Francis Tresham and John Grant. His wife died the same year and he went to live with his mother at Ashby-St.-Ledgers, Northamptonshire. In 1603 Parker, Percy and Catesby planned Thomas Winter's Spanish trip via Flanders. There is a record: "1604 - Thomas Winter to fetch Fawkes from Flanders" [Index Library Administration Vol II PCC]. Christopher Wright and Guy Fawkes joined the plot which was hatched in Catesby's house in Lambeth, opposite Westminster. John Wright (b. December 1567) and his brother Christopher (b. 1571) came from a Yorkshire family of Plowland Hall, Holderness but lived at Twigmore, Lincolnshire. They were nephews of Francis Ingleby of Ripley, the Catholic martyr and therefore cousins of the Winters whose mother, Joan Ingleby, was Francis's sister. John Wright, another good swordsman, was involved the Essex rebellion with his brother Christopher, delegate in the Jesuit mission to the court of Spain. He married Margaret, sister of Thomas Ward, one of Lord Mounteagle's secretaries (the other was Thomas Winter). One of the Wright's sisters, Martha, was married to Thomas Percy and another Ursula, was wife of Marmaduke Ward, brother of Thomas Ward. John Wright stayed at Horseferry, Lambeth when in London; his brother Christopher and Robert Keyes with Mrs Moore at St. Giles Field. Secretary Conway wrote a letter to Salisbury about an informer Henry Wright who told Sir Thomas Challoner and Lord Chief Justice Popham about Jesuit practices two years before the Gunpowder Plot who had not been rewarded. The official story mentions two brothers of Wright's (with the Saxon genitive and not the two brothers Wright) so perhaps there was a third brother. Thomas Percy, a native of Beverley, Yorkshire, was third or fourth cousin of Henry Percy, 9th earl of Northumberland (the "Wizard" earl) who made him constable of Alnwick and Warkworth Castle in Northumberland and Steward of his northern estates. Thomas was baptised a Protestant but changed his religion. He had access to court as Captain of Court Pensioners in Ordinary and Gentleman of Honour. He was about 45-6 years old at the time of the Plot and resided at Vinegar House, Parliament Place, London. James I had promised Thomas Percy toleration for Catholics but his advisers prevented him from carrying this out. The Percies originated in Percée, Normandy (meaning a clearing in the wood). William de Percy held Topcliffe after the Conquest (1066). Another William de Percy (1147) fought and died on Crusade in Palestine. Some time after 1151 his daughter Agnes married Joscelin of Louvain, founder of Sawley Abbey and cousin of Godfrey de Bouillon, Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre and his brother Baldwin, king of Jerusalem. Joscelin's descendants took the name of Percy and became earls of Northumberland. The Percies were descended from Warenne, Lusignan, Talbot, Nevílle and Devereaux. One of Joscelin's sisters married William of Ypres and Loo, commander of King Stephen's Flemish mercenaries and heir of the Counts of Flanders; the other, Adeliza the "Fair Maid of Brabant" was Henry I's second wife and subsequently wife of William d'Aubigny, earl of Arundel. Adeliza was ancestress of the families of fitzAlan of Clun, the Stuarts of Scotland, the Tateshalls, the Cromwells, the Montaults of Hawarden, the Somerys of Dudley, the Suttons de Dudley, the Dudleys (earl of Leicester & Warwick), Stranges of Knockin, the Sullys, the Erdingtons and the Winters of Wych. The 7th earl Thomas Percy was a Catholic, favoured by Mary Tudor who revived the earldom for him but was beheaded in 1572 after a rebellion. His brother Henry, the 8th earl, intrigued on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots and was sent to the Tower where he shot himself. His son Henry Percy the 9th earl, known as the "Wizard" earl, was brought up in the Tower, was a scientist and astrologer but not a Catholic and married Dorothy, sister of Robert Devereaux, 2nd earl of Essex. Everard Digby was descended from Simon Digby, jailer of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester. Another ancestor was hanged for supporting Perkin Warbeck. Everard, a Protestant born in 1596, was nephew of Robert Digby of Coleshill and inherited Tilton and Drystoke in Rutland. In 1597 he married Mary Mulshoe, an heiress with an estate in Buckinghamshire and lived at Goathurst or Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire bought from Sir Francis Drake by her father William Mulshoe but Everard moved to Coughton, Thomas Throckmorton's house. Gayhurst was then bought by the Wrights and passed to the Carringtons. Everard Digby rented Coughton Court from the Throckmortons at the time of the Gunpowder Plot after which he was hanged. Digby's Walk, a path which leads after approximately a mile to a bath, is supposed to be haunted by Everard's ghost as it was one of his escape routes. It is reached by a hidden passage under the road where there is a chalybeate spring from which the iron has long since disappeared. Digby hid there when a search was made for him. Some initials of his family are scratched on the doorposts at Gayhurst; amongst them is a memorial of the execution of Charles I "1648-XC". His son, Sir Kenelm Digby became a naval commander and diplomat. He was with Charles Stuart and the duke of Buckingham in Madrid in 1623, defeated the French and Venetians in Scanderoon harbour, fought a duel on Charles's behalf, was a friend of Descartes, was made a diplomat by Oliver Cromwell and a courtier was at the Restoration. He was a member of the Royal Society who discovered that plants needed oxygen for life and a famous physician in the reign of Charles II who knew about allergies. There is a miniature of him at Greenwich Museum. He married Venetia Stanley who was a consumptive and brought snails especially from France for her which still breed there. John Evelyn wrote in his diary that he met Sir Kenelm Digby (18.9.1641) on his way to Cologne. He later found him on a course of chemistry in France (20.12.1651) and Sir Kenelm visited him (5.5.1654). A library was built by Sir Kenelm Digby at Oxford (12.7.1654) who told him about allergy to roses: 18.6.1670:
"Dining at Goring House, Lord Stafford rose from table in some disorder
because there were roses stuck about the fruite when the discert was set on
the table; such an antipathie, it seems, he had to them as once Lady
Selenger (St. Ledger) also had and to that degree that as Sir Kenelm Digby
tells us, laying but a rose upon her cheeks when she was asleepe, it rais'd
a blister, but Sir Kenelm was a teller of strange things." In April 1646 John Evelyn met John Digby, Kenelm's cousin and on 27.9.1650 he met Henry Howard in Milan. John Digby, earl of Bristol (1586-1653) was knighted in 1603, and ambassador in Spain in 1611, he was Vice Chancellor and Privy Councillor and was created Lord Digby in 1618 and earl of Bristol in 1622. In 1613 he discovered a list of the Spanish pensioners which included Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, Henry Howard, earl of Northampton, Katherine Howard (née Knyvett) Countess of Suffolk, Sir William Monson, Admiral of the Narrow Sdeas and Justice Coke (who was dismissed in disgrace) but Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset was exonerated by Digby of being a pensioner. John was in Spain at his own expense so was forgiven his debts and allowed to buy Sherborne for only £10,000. His opposition to Charles I and the earl of Buckingham led to his retirement and exile in France. |