Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/75

  1579, He escorted the duke to Antwerp in February 1581-2. About June 1583 Elizabeth showed her respect for him by making him lord chamberlain of her household in succession to the Earl of Sussex. But his neglect of his office in the north and frequent absence from Berwick angered Elizabeth in the following year. His son Robert reported to his father that in a torrent of passion she threatened 'to set him by his feet' and send another in his place. Hunsdon once again explained to Lord Burghley (8 June 1584) that his salary was in arrear, that his soldiers and servants were in want of food and clothing, and that he had done his duty as well as man could under such disheartening conditions. This storm soon blew over, and on 14 Aug. of the same year Hunsdon received the Earl of Arran at Berwick, with a view to renewing the old league between England and Scotland. A little later he resisted the order to put some exiled Scottish noblemen — who declined to recognise James VI's authority — in possession of the island of Lindisfarne. Hunsdon argued that the disaffected noblemen would prove dangerous neighbours for England, and be likely to imperil Elizabeth's amicable relations with James VI. The Scottish king made similar representations; Walsingham finally acknowledged the Justice of Hunsdon's arguments, and permitted him to evade the order. Hunsdon attended the meeting of the Star-chamber on 23 June 1585, when the treasons of Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland, who had shot himself in the Tower, were formally published. In October 1586 he was at Fotheringay as one of the commissioners for the trial of Mary Queen of Scots.

The execution of Queen Mary nearly precipitated a breach with the king of Scotland, and in April 1589 Hunsdon was deputed to proceed to Scotland on the delicate mission of placing the relations between James and Elizabeth on a friendly footing. James talked freely to the English ambassador of the tempting offers made him by Spain if he would declare against the English alliance, but he readily consented to reject them in Elizabeth's favour. Hunsdon was not, however, well impressed by James or by James's court. He wrote to Elizabeth from Berwick 24 Oct. 1587 that the king was quite capable of deceiving her, and that the company about him were 'maliciously bent against your highness.' Full powers were given Hunsdon to maintain 'the good intelligence' between the two realms, and in December 1587 James sent Sir John Carmichael to Berwick to renew proffers of friendship. Elizabeth rewarded Hunsdon's successful diplomacy with the office of lord warden-general of the marches of England towards Scotland, and keeper of Tinsdale (31 Aug. 1589). A grant of a part of the temporalities of the see of Durham followed, and a rumour was abroad that Hunsdon was about to be created count palatine.

The need of preparing to resist the Spanish Armada brought Hunsdon to the south, and a force of 36,000, formed to act as the queen's body-guard, was placed under his command at Tilbury Fort. In 1590 he, with Lord Burghley and Lord Howard of Effingham, was appointed commissioner for executing the office of earl marshal, and in 1591, with Lord Howard of Effingham and Lord Buckhurst, negotiated an alliance with France. Many other duties were placed upon him during the last years of his life. He was commissioner for the trials of William Parry, D.D., 20 Feb. 1584-5; of Philip, earl of Arundel, 14 April 1589; of Sir John Perrot (for treasonable correspondence with Spain), 20 March 1591-2; and of Patrick O'Cullen (for the like offence), 21 Feb. 1593-4. He also held the office of chief justice of the forests south of the Trent, and master of the game of Hyde Park; he was elected recorder of Cambridge 25 April 1590, high steward of Ipswich 11 Sept. following, and high steward of Doncaster in October.

Hunsdon died on 23 July 1596 at Somerset House, the use of which the queen had granted him. Fuller reports the story that his death was caused by disappointment at not being created earl of Wiltshire, the title borne by his maternal grandfather, [q. v.]. It is said that the queen visited him during his last illness and presented him with the patent of the new title and the robes of an earl, but that Hunsdon declined both on the ground that honours of which the queen deemed him unworthy in his lifetime were not worthy of his acceptance on his deathbed. He was buried in Westminster Abbey on 12 Aug. at the queen's expense. His wife and heir erected above his tomb an elaborate monument to his memory.

Although Hunsdon's achievements are few, and his office in the north did not allow him to reside regularly at court, he contrived to be present at most of the state ceremonies of the time, and his position as chamberlain and his intimacy with the queen gave him much influence when in attendance on his sovereign. Straightforward and rough in speech and conduct, he held himself aloof from the factions which divided the noblemen and statesmen of the day; professional courtiers feared him, but soldiers respected and loved him. He lacked most of the literary culture of his class,