Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/371

 he was entertained at Welbeck 'in such a wonderful manner, and in such an excess of feasting, as had scarce ever before been known in England; and would have been thought very prodigious if the same noble person had not within a year afterwards made the king and queen a more stupendous entertainment, which no man ever after in those days imitated' (, Rebellion, i. 167). For the first of these visits Jonson wrote the masque entitled 'Love's Welcome at Welbeck;' for the second, 'Love's Welcome at Bolsover.' The two entertainments together cost the earl 20,000/. (Life, p. 192). He was lord-lieutenant of Derbyshire 1628-38, and of Wiltshire 1626-42 and from 1660 till death. A letter to Strafford, dated 5 Aug. 1633, shows his desire of important court office. I have hurt my estate with the hope of it. If I obtained what I desire, it would be a more painful life, and since I am so plunged in debt, it would help very well to undo me. Children come on apace, and with this weight of debt which lies on me I know no diet better than a strict diet in the country (Strafford Correspondence, i. 101). The earl's ambition was at length gratified when in 1638 the king appointed him governor of the Prince of Wales, and made him a member of the privy council (, State Papers, ii. 7;, p. 27). For Prince Charles the earl drew up a very interesting paper of instructions, which has been printed by Sir Henry Ellis (Original Letters, 1st ser. iii. 288). The prince is warned not to be too devout, for one may be a good man and a bad king, bidden to be courteous to everybody, and enjoined to remember that he cannot be too civil to women. The earl succeeded in making his pupil an accomplished horseman. Our gracious and most excellent king, he wrote in after years, is not only the handsomest and most comely horseman in the world, but as knowing and understanding in the art as any man (New Method and Extraordinary Invention, p. 7). The outbreak of the Scotch rebellion enabled the earl to show his loyalty. He lent the king 10,000/., and raised a volunteer troop which consisted entirely of knights and gentlemen of quality (Life, p. 9). In defence of the dignity of this troop Newcastle challenged the general of the horse, the Earl of Holland, to a duel to be fought when the war was over. The king, however, intervened. In May 1641 Newcastle resigned his office as governor of the prince, and retired from court (17 May,, 144). According to Clarendon, his resignation was due to the hostility of Essex and Holland, who thought that his influence with the prince would not be agreeable to their designs (Rebellion, iv. 293). A more likely reason is the discovery of the earl's share in the first army plot which became known about this time. Suckling and Jermyn had selected him to succeed Northumberland in the command of the army, and the earl, with the prince, according to the deposition of Colonel Ballard, was to meet the army in Nottinghamshire with a thousand horse. Although there was not ground enough for a judicial proceeding, yet there was ground of suspicion, says the parliament in its remonstrance of 26 May 1642, and their suspicions made them resent the king's appointment of Newcastle as governor of Hull (11 Jan. 1642; Lords' Journals, 14 Feb.). The earl hastened down secretly to seize that important magazine. I am here at Hull, he wrote to the king on the 15th, but the town will not admit of me by no means, so I am very flat and out of countenance (S. P. Dom. Charles I, vol. cccclxxxviii. No. 55). He strove to gain a party in the town, and, according to the duchess, would have secured the admission of the king's troops had not Charles changed his policy and suddenly recalled him. The House of Lords, which had required his attendance, admitted the king's commission as sufficient defence, and allowed him to retire to the country. In the summer, when the king began to raise forces, Newcastle joined him at York, and was despatched thence in the middle of June to secure Newcastle-upon-Tyne and take the command of the four northern counties. The lands and influence he inherited from the family of Ogle enabled him rapidly to raise troops, while the possession of a port enabled him to forward to the king supplies of arms and money from Denmark and Holland, and facilitated his correspondence with the queen. The appeals of the Yorkshire royalists for help obliged Newcastle to march south, but he prudently refused to move till the support of his army was assured (A New Discovery of Hidden Secrets, 1645). At the end of November 1642 he entered Yorkshire, defeating Hotham at Piercebridge, and successfully raising the blockade of York. A few days later he attacked Fairfax at Tadcaster, and though the battle itself was indecisive, Fairfax was forced to retreat and abandon the attempt to hold the line of the Ouse (7 Dec. 1642). Newcastle proceeded to garrison Pontefract, to despatch troops to occupy Newark, and to send a strong division to invade the West Riding, but its repulse from Bradford, and the recapture of Leeds by Sir Thomas Fairfax (23 Jan. 1643), obliged him to return to York and await reinforcements. In February he carried on an animated controversy with Lord Fairfax on the propriety of employing