No. IV. (Talbot Papers, Vol. E. fol. 53.) LORDS OF THE COUNCIL TO LORD TALBOT.* AFTER our most hearty commendations to your good Lordship. Where the Queen's Majesty pre view, for he was the darkest character of his time, and delighted in deriving the success of his schemes from the operation of remote causes, and the agency of obscure instruments. It is highly probable that the Queen of Scots, and the Duke of Norfolk, were sacrificed to this crooked sort of policy; a conjecture which tends to wipe out somewhat, though, alas! but little, of the bloody stain which those enormities have left on Elizabeth's memory. He married, first, Anne, daughter and heir to Sir John Robsart (for a particular account of whose murder, and the suspicions that fell on her husband, see Ashmole's History of Berks): secondly, Douglas, daughter of William Lord Howard of Effingham, and widow of John Lord Sheffield, by whom he had a son, Sir Robert, who will be frequently mentioned in the papers of the next reign. But soon after, having conceived a violent passion for Lettice, daughter of Sir Francis Knollys, and widow of Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, whose late death had been attended by strong indications of foul play, he wedded her, and disowned his former marriage, and its unfortunate offspring. Douglas submitted patiently, and lived for some time in the obscurity which suited her disgraced character, till Leicester having attempted to take her off by poison, she married Sir Edward Stafford of Grafton, in hopes of shielding herself against the Earl's future malignity by affording him in her own conduct a presumptive evidence in favour of his allegations. All the curious circumstances relating to this double bigamy may be found in Dugdale's Warwickshire. Touched, however, at last with remorse, he left his great estates to his brother, Ambrose Earl of Warwick, only for life, and gave the inheritance to Sir Robert, who wandered abroad till his father's death, when he returned, and challenged his right to his family dignities; which being denied, he determined to quit for ever a country in which he had experienced so much injustice. To complete this long scene of iniquity, James I. seized the estates by virtue of Mary's statute of fugitives; but, in order to avoid the odium which so tyrannical an act justly merited, obliged Sir Ro This nobleman, George Lord Talbot, succeeded to the Earldom on the death of his father, Earl Francis, on the 21st of September following. sently, by her most honorable letters, commits unto you a special charge of great importance, tending to the necessary service of the realm for defence of the same against certain attempts of the French, lately disclosed though not published; and with her Highness's said letters, there are addressed a certain number of particular letters to divers persons within that county of Derby, of good livelihood, to will them with all speed to make ready certain horsemen, and to send them to Newcastle, so as the same may be there by the day appointed in your letters from her Majesty; we have thought meet, besides the matter contained in her Majesty's letters, to signify part of our minds for the furtherance of the same service. First, you shall do well to send for the Sheriff, and some other of the principal in every quarter of the shire, and confer with them how this charge and service may be best performed; and use their helps therein. And if any of the same shall be appointed by her Majesty to send out any, you shall procure them to make haste with their charge, for the better example of others. If you shall understand that some are appointed to find horses for demi-lances, and shall not have meet horses for that purpose for lack of stature; rather than to hinder the service you shall give commandment that if they can set forth a bert to consent to a nominal sale of them to Henry Prince of Wales, at one third of their value, and even that was never paid. Thus this great property was unjustly drawn back to the same source from which, with so little merit, it had been originally derived. good, strong, and well-set gelding (though he be not very high) and a man on his back meet to wear a corslet, and shoot a dagge, it shall suffice. And if the party appointed have not, nor cannot suddenly provide, a corslet, ye shall, nevertheless, give warning that he stay not thereupon; but send him to Newcastle, where he shall have a good corslet for 30s. the piece, and a case of daggs upon reasonable terms. If any one shall be appointed to this charge of whom you may judge (for his insufficiency) that he was not here known to her Majesty, or to us of the Council, to be insufficient, you may do well to spare such person, and to provide some other, if you can find any not assigned, but forgotten; for which purpose you have the Queen's Majesty's letters to direct, according to her Majesty's express authority given you in that behalf; and of that your change you shall advertise the Duke of Norfolk her Majesty's Lieutenant in the north. You shall also assign some one of most discretion to be a guide to the rest, for the expedition of their journey towards Newcastle. If you find any assigned being unwilling to further this service, you shall forthwith advertise us, that remedy may be provided. If any assigned are at this present gone out of the country, leaving his household there, you shall cause such as have charge of his house to accomplish the Queen's Majesty's commandment; and (rather than fail) to see the commandment executed, though it may chance the party shall not be able to come to Newcastle at the day appointed by four or five days. Finally, you shall understand that the Queen's Majesty will be pleased though of the whole number there be a third party furnished as demy-lances, so as the rest are well furnished with strong geldings, meet to carry a man with a corslet. And herein you may shew yourself to do at this present very acceptable service to the whole realm, as the end we trust shall better declare. And thus we bid your Lordship right heartily farewell. From Westminster, the 23rd of Dec. 1559. N. BACON. C.S. F. BEDFORD. PEMBROKE. G. ROGERS. W. CECIL. WILLM. PETRES. F. KNOLLYS.* To our very good Lord the Lord Talbot. # Sir Francis Knollys, only son of Robert Knollys, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Henry VIII. He was brought to Court very young towards the end of that reign, and held an inferior office in the household till the accession of Mary, when his strict adherence to Protestantism obliged him to leave England, and, meeting with Knox, and others of his persuasion abroad, he became a regular Puritan, being perhaps the first Englishman of note who espoused that wayward sect. Elizabeth, to whom his hatred of Popery sufficiently recommended him, gave him the order of the Garter, and in 1566 appointed him Vice-chamberlain, Captain of her Guard and Lieutenant of the county of Oxford. He succeeded Sir John Mason as Treasurer of the Chamber in the same year, and in 1568 was sent to Carlisle, to receive the Queen of Scots: He had the custody of that lady, jointly with the Lord Scroop, during her abode at Bolton Castle, and was one of the Commissioners for her trial. last public office was that of Treasurer of the Household, in which he died in 1596; leaving the character of a sagacious courtier, who never mixed in the high intrigues of the times, and the His No. V. (Talbot Papers, Vol. E. fol. 95.) TO THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY. My duty humbly remembered to your good Lordship. The present occurrences here are rather uncertain than sure, especially towards the north ;* honourable testimony of his mistress, who used to say that she promoted Sir Francis Knollys because he was an honest man. He married Katherine, sister of Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, and cousin german to Elizabeth; by whom he had six sons: Henry William, created Viscount Wallingford, and Earl of Banbury; Sir Robert, K. B.; Richard, Francis, and Thomas, Knights: And four daughters; Lettice, wife, first, of Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, secondly, of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester; Anne, married to Thomas Lord Delawar; Cecilia, to Sir Thomas Leighton, of Feckenham in Wilts; and Katherine to Lord Ophaley, son and heir of the Earl of Kildare. As the honours conferred on William, the second son, are supposed by many to have been forfeited by an act of attainder, and other opinions equally ill founded are held on that subject, it may not be impertinent to state here the true reason for the suspension of them. He married, first Dorothy, daughter of Edmund, Lord Bray, and relict of Lord Chandos, by whom he had an only daughter, who died an infant; and secondly, in his old age, Elizabeth Howard, eldest daughter of Thomas Earl of Suffolk, who survived him, and declared in her attestation to his funeral certificate, and otherwise, that she had no children by him. She then married Nicholas Lord Vaux of Harwedon, and soon after produced two sons, whom she affirmed to be the legal issue of the Earl of Banbury. Charles, the eldest, was slain in France Nicholas, his brother, who enjoyed not only the Knollys estates, but also those of his reputed father-in-law, Lord Vaux, assumed the titles of Earl of Banbury, &c. and claimed his seat soon after the Restoration. This claim was repeatedly urged in the course of the following forty years, but was never decided on by the Peers, who lately decided against it, after a long and solemn hearing. * Immediately after the treaty of Cambray (April 2, 1559,) Henry II. and the Guises compelled the Dauphin and the young Queen of Scots to take up the style and arms of King and Queen of England; an ill-fated measure, which completed the ruin of the French interest in Scotland, and opened that scene of misery which terminated in the murder of Mary. Henry's |