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No. VIII.

(Talbot Papers, Vol. C. fol. 83.)

LORDS OF THE COUNCIL

TO THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY.

AFTER our right hearty commendations. According to our promise to your good Lordship at your departure hence, we have thought good to communicate unto you such good news as whereof we have received of late advertisement.

Portohercole* (being such a place in Italy of succour, as for the Turk's purpose, and the Frenchmen, was marvelously of them esteemed and set by) is lately won by the Emperor, and four forts round about it; which is a matter of great importance,

it surrendered to the English. In 1551 he was appointed Warden of the West Marches, and Governor of Carlisle; and in 1553, Warden of the East Marches, and Governor of Berwick. He died June 8, 1556, without issue male; leaving by his wife Maud Clifford, daughter of Henry Earl of Cumberland, three daughters, his co-heirs Anne, married to Antony Kemp, of Ollantigh, in Kent; Elizabeth, to Thomas, son of Sir Arthur Darcy, Knight; and Katherine, to John Atherton, of Atherton in Lancashire. Of which ladies only Elizabeth leaving issue, the estate, and magnificent castle of Hornby, near Richmond, in Yorkshire, which was built by William, first Lord Conyers, and is called from its fine situation, the Windsor of the North, descended to the Darcys; and are now in the possession of his Grace the Duke of Leeds, whose eldest son bears the title of Lord Conyers, and is the heir general of the family, through his late mother, Amelia, only daughter of Robert Darcy, last Earl of Holderness.

* A port town of Tuscany, now subject to Sicily.

especially if it may be kept from being recovered again of the Turks. In the valiant assault of one of the said forts were slain at least 500 Frenchmen, and the Allemaynes put the said Portohercole in such a fear as at only the sight of the approaching of the Emperor's army they yielded at discretion, and the whole blame hereof imputed by them to the cowardice of Pietro Strozzi, whose forsaking of them, and carrying away with him three or four of the best captains, put them altogether in despair. After this news almost immediately came other also very good; conveying, in effect, that, beside the distress of another number of Frenchmen upon the river of Poho, lately done by the Marquis of Pescara, there have been 300 men at arms also slain and taken by the Imperials in Piedmont, under the conduct of the said Marquis, after the coming into those parts of the Duke of Alva, whom we understand to be presently arrived at Milan. And, besides that, we hear say that the Genoese are like to be again masters in Corsica. We are credibly advertised, moreover, that the Knights of the religion of St. John, at Malta, have lately sunk three of the Turk's galleys, and taken five others besides. We have news, also, out of India, that where, one being a subject of the Emperor's and the King's Majesty there, and having revolted against them in those parts, with such power as he could gather together, he himself, and all his are now overthrown, and those countries reduced again into good order

and quietness; from whence are lately arrived three millions of gold.

The King and Queen's Majesty's Ambassadors* that went to Rome, having obtained at length their dispatch, are now coming thence, and took their journey homewards the 20th of the last. All which news being so good, and of such weight as they are, like as we could not but make you partaker of them (and shall desire your Lordship to signify the same unto the Wardens, and other of the King and Queen's Highness's officers in those parts, such as you think good) so, hearing of late a great bruit of the King of Denmark's navy, which we hear say to be arrived in Scotland, we have thought good, their exploit being so doubtful as it is, to desire your Lordship to learn what you can may be thereby intended, at the hands of the said Wardens; who, being nearer, may, by their diligent espialls, and other means, procure some knowledge of this matter, and advertise you thereof accordingly; and what certainty your Lordship shall know in this behalf, we doubt not but that you will signify the same unto us also with all convenient speed. Thus we bid your good Lordship most heartily well to fare. From Hampton Court, the 11th of July, 1555.

Thirleby, Bishop of Ely, Sir Anthony Browne, and Edward Carne, LL.D., who had been sent to Rome towards the end of the last year, to notify the obedience of England to the Apostolic See.

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To our very good Lord the Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord President of the King and Queen's Majesty's Council in the North. - Haste, haste, post, haste, with all diligence. dd. at Hampton Court the 11th of July, at 5 of the clock in the afternoon.

* Sir Robert Rochester, K.G. son of Sir John Rochester, of Tarling, in Essex (in which parish his family had possessed estates for near three hundred years) by Grisel, daughter and coheir of Walter Writtell. He had been a principal officer of Mary's little household during the late reign, in the last year of which he was committed to the Tower for refusing to communicate to his mistress the injunctions of the Privy Council respecting divine worship in her family. At her accession she recompenced him for this and some other hardships which he had undergone, in consequence of his fidelity to her, by bestowing on him the order of the Garter, and the appointments of Comptroller of the Household, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, in which offices he died, November 28, 1557. Sir Robert Rochester's marriage is not recorded; but it appears that he left daughters, styled co-heirs, one of whom married John Humfrey, of Topefield, in Essex.

+ Sir Edward Waldegrave, Knight; ancestor of the present noble family of that name; Knight of the Shire for the county of Somerset; Master of the Great Wardrobe; and, after the death of his uncle, Sir Robert Rochester, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. His rigid adherence to Popery advanced him in this reign and pulled him down in the next, for he died a prisoner in the Tower, September 1, 1561.

Sir John Bourne, Knight; one of Mary's principal Secretaries. We have scarcely any intelligence from history concerning this minister. He was a bigotted Papist, to which he probably owed his share of the Queen's confidence; and was one of the twenty-one persons appointed by her commission of Feb. 8, 1556-7, to proceed against the Protestants; in the execution of which charge, he distinguished himself by his persecution of the amiable Bishop Sandys. He seems to have been the founder of his family, for no pedigree of it is to be met with in the visita

No. IX.

(Talbot Papers, Vol. C. fol. 51.)

LORD CONYERS

TO THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY.

PLEASETH it your honourable Lordship to be advertised that, the 14th of this instant, I, and the Lord Yester, Warden of the Middle March of Scotland, held a day of March at Ridingborne, where we made good redress, and on either party had delivery for 15 or 16 bills. And, so far as I can learn, the Scottish Queen does greatly desire that justice be ministered on the borders. And, for the more appearance thereof, since her repair to Jedworth, I do well understand that she has called before her divers of the most and greatest falters both of Teviotdale and the March, and doth punish them in ward; so that by my intelligence I cannot wit that she means any thing at

tions, and he had a grant of arms in 1553. Be this as it may, he left great estates in Worcestershire, which were sold by his eldest son, mostly to the Lord Chancellor Bromley, some of whose des

cendants yet remain in that county. It appears by his funeral

certificate that he died at his house, Holt Castle, in Worcestershire, May 13, 1575; leaving issue by his wife, Dorothy, daughter of John Hornehold, Anthony Bourne, his son and heir, who married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Edmund Horne, of Sarsden in Oxfordshire; Charles; Elizabeth, wife of George Winter, of Hoddington, in the county of Worcester; Margaret, married to William Clark; Persyda; and Anne.

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