Lord Wriothesley of Titchfield, (one of the newly dissolved monasteries) in the county of South

1

which was held impregnable; and made the rest of the Ilands, as Pike, Saint Georges, and Gratiosa, obedient to the Generals seruice; Then the Fleete returning from Fiall, it pleased the Generall to diuide it, and he went himselfe on the one side of Gratiosa, and the Earle of Southampton with some three more of the Queenes Ships and a few small Marchants Ships sailed on the other, when early in a morning by spring of day, "This braue Southampton light vpon the King of Spaines Indian Fleete laden with Treasure, being about foure or fiue and thirty Saile, and most of them great warlike Gallioons; they had all the aduantage that sea, winde, number of ships or strength of men could giue them; yet like a fearefull heard they fled from the fury of our Earle; who notwithstanding gaue them chase with all his Canuase; one he tooke, and sunke her, diuers hee dispierst which were taken after, and the rest he druae into the Iland of Tercera, which was the vnassaileable. After this, he ioyned with the Generall againe, and came to the Iland of Saint Michaels, where they tooke and spoiled the Towne of Villa Franca; and at Porte Algado made a Charrackt runne on grounde and split her selfe; after being ready to depart, the enemie taking aduantage of our rising, and finding that most of our men were gone aboard, & but only the General, the Earle of Southampto, St. Francis Vere, & som few others left on Shoare, they came with their vt most power vpon them, but were receiued with so hot an incounter, that many of the Spaniards were put to the sword, and the rest inforced to runne away: and in this skirmish no man had aduantage of safetie, for the number was (on our part) so few, that euery man had his hands imployment; and here the Earle of Southampton ere he could dry the sweat from his browes, or put his sword vp in the scaberd, receiued from the Noble Generall, Robert Earle of Essex, the order of Knighthood.sca

"After this, he returned for England and came fortunately home, but fel he here a sleep with any inchantment either of Peace or Pleasure? Ono; but here he did, as it were, but new begin the progresse of his more noble actions: for now the wilde and sturdy Irish rebels (fatned with some Conquests, and made strong with forraigne aide, to get more Conquest) began to rage like wilde Boares, and to root vp euery fruitfull place in that Kingdome, so that without a sodaine chastisement, it was likely the euill would grow past all cuer; To this worke the Earle of Southampton buckles on his Armour, and after the Generall was chosen, which was Robert Earle of Essex, he is the first tenders his service; he is instantly made Lieutenant Generall of the Horse,

ampton; and in 1544, constituted Lord Chancellor, and installed a Knight of the Garter. King Henry

prepares for the expedition, and with all possible speed came into Ireland, there he was a principall instrument in calming all the turmoiles, and ceasing the seditions in Munster, reducing that fruitfull and well-peopled Prouince to their auncient and true obedience, and making those which favour and grace could not reclaime, by force of Armes to lye humbly prostrate before him; witnesse Mongarret, Donna-spaniah, the Souggan, Oni-mac-Rori, and a world of others, which being the wickedest of men, came and threw themselves at the feete of the General, and only cryed out for the Queenes and his mercy; Thus he also reduced the Country of Fercall, and diuers other places, and then returned.

"But is here an end of his progresse in the warres? questionlesse the whole world would haue so imagined, for his deare and dread Soueraigne, the euer memorable Elizabeth dying, the next that succeeds is the incomparable King Iames; he enters not with an Oliue Branch in his hand, but with an whole Forrest of Oliues round about him; for he brought not Peace to this Kingdome alone, but almost to all the Christian Kingdomes in Europe: he closed vp both ours and our neighbours Ianus Temple, and writing Beati pacifici, found both the worke and the Reward in his admirable proceedings; here our great Earle stops, but retires not; hee keeps his first ground, and the King (like the Sunne which suruaies al things) found that he was fit for either the one or the other seruice; Peace and Warre were to him but a couple of hand-maids, and he knew how to employ either according to their Vertue: hence he makes him a Priuie Counsellour of the State, and in that seruice he spent the marrow and strength of his age.

Now at last, when Mischiefe and Policie went about by delicate and inchanting poisons, not only to stifle our Peace, but to murther and confound all our louing neighbours which guard vs ; and that Charitie her selfe complained how our almes were much to penurious; he who is one of the first which rises vp to this labour of amendment: but our Southampton, he whom although the priviledge of white haires, the testimony of his former actions, and the necessitie of his imployments in the present state might haue pleaded many vnrefellable excuses; yet he is the sonne of Honour, aud with her he will liue and die in all occasions; hence he embarks himself into this present action: Go on then braue Earle, and as thou art by yeares, experience, and the greatnesse of thy former places and commandments in the warres, the eldest sonne of Honour in this Army, so giue vnto these thy Companions

5

on his death bed constituted him one of the executors of his will, and appointed him to be of the council to his son. Three days before the coronation of Edward the Sixth, [Feb. 16, 1546], he was created Earl of Southampton, but soon afterwards was divested of his office of Lord Chancellor, and removed from his place in the Council. Though he is highly extolled by the contemporary historians, his inhuman treatment of the pious and unfortunate Anne Askew, whom with his own hands he tortured on the rack 4, has affixed a stain on his memory which no time can efface. He died July 30, 1550, at his house called Lincoln' Place in Holborn, (afterwards distinguished by the name of Southampton House), and was buried in a vault near the choir of St. Andrew's Church in Holborn; but his body, pursuant to the directions of his son's will, was afterwards removed to Titchfield, where there lately remained an inscription, recording his titles and issue ".

examples of thy goodnesse; shew them the true paths of Ho nour, and be thou the Eies and Conduct to leade to the restitution of the lost Palatinate, for therein consists my Prophesie."

Honour in his Perfection: or, a Treatise in Commendations of the Vertues and Renowned Vertuous vndertakings of the Illustrious and Heroyicall Princes Henry Earle of Oxenford. Henry Earle of Southampton. Robert Earle of Essex, and the euer praise-worthy and much honoured Lord, Robert Bartue, Lord Willoughby, of Eresby: With a Briefe Chronology of Theirs," and their Auncestours Actions, &c. 4to. 1624.

3 Hayward's Life of Edward VI. p. 6, 103.

4 Ballard's Memoirs of British Ladies, p. 57, 8vo. MS. Stow, Maxims of great men, inter alia of Thomas Earl of Southampton.

5 Esc. 4 Edw. VI. p. 2, n. 7.

6 Some part of what is here stated seems to have been derived from the information of Mr. Thomas Warton. I have no doubt that the letter from that accomplished writer which contained it will be gratifying to the reader. BosWELL.

EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON.

433

ah aid no

His only son, Henry, the second Earl, continued no less attached to popery than his father had been,

With great favourite

King Henry the Eighth granted the Promonstratensian Abbey of Tichfield, Hants, endowed about 280l. per annum, to Thomas Wriothesley, Esq. in a of that king, created Baron Tichfield about the same time, and Earl of Southampton, in 1546. He died at Lincolne-place in Holborn, afterwards called Southampton House, Jul. 30, 1550. He was buried in the choir of St. Andrew's Church, Holborn, near the high altar, w with a stately monument. His only son Henry, second Earl, by will, dated Jan. 29, 1581, bequeaths his body to be buried in the chapel of Tichfield-church, where his mother Jane had been interred: ordering that the said chapel should be repaired and improved by his executors, with new sides and windows of stone: the roof to be stuccoed and fretted like that of his mansion-house at Dogmersfield *: the floor to be fairly paved: and the opening to be separated from the church with iron grates. And, that two fair monuments should be made there; one for his father (whose body he wills to be removed thither), and mother; the other for himself, with portraitures of all three in alabaster other cost for chapel and monuments to be one thousand marcs, appointing, at the same time, that 2007. should be distributed to the poor, within his several lordships, to pray for his soul and the souls of his ancestors. He married Mary, daughter of Antony Viscount Montagu, seated at Coudray (a most, noble house, now remaining in all its ancient magnificence) near Midhurst, in Sussex, by whom he had one son Henry, and Mary, a daughter, married to Thomas Lord Arundel of Wardour. He was buried in the chapel of Tichfield church above-mentioned. The said Henry, the third earl, and Shakespeare's patron, married Elizabeth, the daughter of John Vernon, of Hodnet, in Shropshire; by whom he had two sons, John who died in the Netherlands, and Thomas the fourth earl and three daughters; Penelope, married to Lord Spenser, of Wormleighton; Anne, to Robert Wallop, Esq. of Farley, near Basingstoke, Hants; and Elizabeth, to Sir Thomas Estcourt, knight, a master in Chancery. This earl, Henry, died Nov. 22, 1624, and was buried with his ancestors at Tichfield.

66

* In Hants, an alienated palace of the Bishop of Bath and Wells.

and was one of the most zealous partizans of Mary Queen of Scots, an attachment which occasioned

"Thomas his son, the fourth earl, was sincerely attached to the interests of King Charles the First, during Cromwell's Rebellion. At the Restoration, his services were not forgotten; when he was made a Knight of the Garter, and Lord High Treasurer of England. He died at Southampton-house, London, May 16, 1667, and was interred in the family chapel at Tichfield.

"I visited Tichfield-house, Aug. 19, 1786, and made the following observations on what is now remaining there. The Abbey of Tichfield being granted to the first Earl, Thomas, in 1538, he converted it into a family mansion, yet with many additions and alterations: we enter, to the south, through a superb tower, or Gothic portico, of stone, having four large angular turrets. Of the monastic chapel only two or three low arches remain, with the moor-stone pilasters. The greater part of what may properly be called the house, forming a quadrangle, was pulled down about forty years ago. But the refectory, or hall of the abbey, still remains complete, with its original raftered roof of good workmanship: it is embattelled; and has three Gothic windows on each side, with an oreille or oriel window. It is entered by a portico which seems to have been added by the new proprietor at the dissolution; by whom also the royal arms painted, with the portcullis and H. R. [Henricus Rex], were undoubtedly placed over the high-table. At the other end is a music-gallery. Underneath is the cellar of the monastery, a well-wrought crypt of chalk-built arches; the ribs and intersections in a good style. In a long cove-ceiled room, with small parallel semicircular arches, are the arms of King Charles the First on tapestry; he was protected here in his flight from Hampton-court. Two or three Gothic-shaped windows, perhaps of the abbey, in a part of the house now inhabited by a steward and other servants. In these and other windows some beautiful shields of painted glass are preserved; particularly one of Henry the Eighth impaling Lady Jane Seymour, who were married at Maxwell, twenty miles off, and who seem from thence to have paid a visit at this place to Lord Southampton. Here are some fine old wreathed chimneys in brick. In an angle of the dilapidated buildings, to the west of the grand entrance or tower, is an elegant shaft of a pilaster of polished stone, with the springing of an arch which must have taken a bold and lofty sweep: these are symptoms of some considerable room or office of the monastery. Near the house, are stables on a very extensive and magnificent scale, which seem to have been built about the be