Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/67

Clifford was only that of promoter and fitter out; and so also in the expedition of 1595, for which he had built a large and powerful ship, then called Malice Scourge, but afterwards celebrated in the history of East Indian navigation under the name of Dragon. In 1596 he had intended to take the command himself but the Malice Scourge being dismasted and forced to put back, he contented himself with sending the smaller ships, which he had equipped, for a cruise on the coast of Portugal.

In January 1597-8 he undertook the most considerable of all his expeditions, fitting out no fewer than twenty ships, almost entirely at his own cost, and himself taking the command in the Malice Scourge. They sailed from Plymouth on 6 March, passed by the Canaries, plundering as they went, rested for a few weeks at Dominica, and then fell in their full force on Porto Rico on 6 June, and made themselves masters of San Juan, which they proposed to clear of Spaniards, and establish as an English settlement. But violent sickness broke out among the troops; and the earl having gone with some of his ships to Flores to lie in wait for the treasure fleet, Sir John Berkeley, to whom he had left the command at Porto Rico, decided to abandon the place and return. Berkeley joined the earl at Flores, and the united fleet returned to England in October. Considered as a privateering expedition on a large scale, it was certainly a failure, for no care had been taken to keep its sailing secret, and the Spaniards or Portuguese, warned of its approach, remained in their harbours; nor did the plunder of San Juan de Puerto Rico at all compensate for the loss of the galleons which might other-wise have fallen into their hands. The same want of fortune or of management had attended all Cumberland's expeditions, and it was doubted whether they had not proved more of a loss than a gain to his estate. It is certain that, having at his majority inherited a large property, he was nearly 1,000l. in debt at his death, which took place in London on 30 Oct. 1605.

He has often been spoken of as a sort of nautical Quixote, a title curiously unsuitable to the courtier, gambler, and buccaneer, in all of which guises history presents him. His love of adventure was strong, and he staked his money on the success of his cruisers in much the same spirit that he did on the speed of his horses or the turn of his dice. And he spared his body no more than his purse. His courage was unimpeachable, and the temper which he showed in times of difficulty won him both credit and popularity. At court he was in high favour with the queen, whose glove, set in diamonds, he wore as a plume in his hat. He is described as a man of great personal beauty, strong and active, accomplished in all knightly exercises, splendid in his dress, and of romantic valour. On the other hand, he was a gambler and a spendthrift, a faithless husband, and for several years before his death was separated from his wife. His portrait, by an unknown artist, dated 1588, is in the National Portrait Gallery. As this portrait shows the glove in the hat, the received story that it was given him by the queen on his return from one of his voyages is manifestly inaccurate in its minor details. An engraved portrait (by William Rogers) is in the library of the Society of Antiquaries ( Cat. p. 33).

The body was embalmed and buried in the family vault at Skipton in Craven, where a black marble altar tomb to his memory was erected by his sole surviving daughter Anne, countess of Pembroke [see ]. In 1803 Dr. Whitaker obtained permission to examine the body, which he found quite perfect, so much so that the face could be seen to resemble the portraits; only, he says, `all the painters had the complaisance to omit three large warts upon the left cheek.'

 CLIFFORD, HENRY CLIFFORD, fourteenth, tenth , first  (1455?–1523), was the eldest son of  [q. v.], baron of Westmoreland, by his wife Margaret (1462-1493), daughter and heiress of Sir John Bromflet, baron Vesci (d. 16 Jan. 1468). His father having been attainted and his estates forfeited when Henry de Clifford was seven years old, he was, according to Dugdale, brought up as a shepherd at his mother's estate of Londesborough in Yorkshire, whence by the help of Sir Lancelot Threlkeld he was conveyed to a Cumberland farm on the Scottish borders, while his hereditary manors were enjoyed by the partisans of Edward IV— Skipton going to Sir William Stanley, and the barony of Westmoreland to Richard, duke of Gloucester (. i. 343;, History of Craven, 320-7 ). On the accession of Henry VII his attainder was reversed and his estates restored by act of parliament (9 Nov. 1485). His age was then about thirty : but he had been brought up so meanly that it is said he could not read at the time. His name does not appear in Hall's list of Henry VIII