Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/56

 tent, 15 Hen. VII, p. 2, m. 11); and afterwards, on 12 July 1503, receiver-general of the lordships, castles, and manors of Sheriffhutton, Middleham, and Richmond in Yorkshire (Patent, 18 Hen. VII, p. 2, m. 10). On 6 June 1505 we first find him named Lord Darcy in a patent by which he was made steward of the lands of Raby and other possessions of the young Earl of Westmorland, then a minor (Patent, 20 Hen. VII, p. 2, m. 23). These offices, together with his new peerage, must have given him an influence in the north of England second only to that of the Earl of Northumberland, when on 1 Sept. 1505 he was appointed warden of the east marches (Patent, 21 Hen. VII, p. 1, m. 4), a higher office in dignity than he had yet held, though he had discharged its duties before as deputy to another.

In 1508 he was one of fifteen lords bound by the treaty for the marriage of the king's daughter Mary with Charles of Castile (afterwards the Emperor Charles V) that that marriage should be completed when the bride came to marriageable age (, xiii. 177). He was also one of the witnesses of the celebration of the match by proxy at Richmond on 17 Dec. following (ib. 238). Just after the accession of Henry VIII in the following spring he was made a knight of the Garter. He was installed on 21 May (, Hist. of the Garter, ii. 272). Some changes were then made in his appointments—at least, he gave up the constableship and stewardship of Sheriffhutton, which were given to Sir Richard Cholmeley in his place. But most of the others were renewed, especially his commission as warden-general of the east marches, and also as captain of Berwick. For these and a number of other offices new patents were granted to him on 18 June, 1509, on which day he was also appointed warden, chief justice, and justice-in-eyre of forests beyond Trent (Cal. Hen. VIII, vol. i. Nos. 188–93). He was also named of the king's council, and when in London he took part in its deliberations, and signed warrants as a privy councillor (ib. Nos. 679, 1008, 1538). His name stood first in the commission of array for Northumberland (No. 187); and when the bridge at Newcastle had to be repaired it was to be done under the supervision of Darcy and the prior of Durham (No. 742).

In 1511 he was sent to Spain at his own request to aid Ferdinand in his war against the Moors, the Spanish king having solicited the aid of fifteen hundred English archers. On 8 March, or rather apparently on the 28th, he received his commission from Henry VIII to serve as Ferdinand's admiral, and on the 29th Lord Willoughby de Broke and others were commissioned to muster men for him (ib. Nos. 1531, 1562, 1566). The expedition sailed from Plymouth in May and arrived at Cadiz on 1 June. But no sooner had the troops landed than misunderstandings arose between them and the natives, and Ferdinand politely intimated that their services would not be required, as he had made a truce with the Moors in expectation of a war with France. Darcy, much disgusted, re-embarked on 17 June and returned home. On 3 Aug. he had only reached St. Vincent, where he was obliged to give out of his own money 20l. to each of his captains for the victualling of his men (ib. No. 5744); but apparently this was repaid a year after his return home by the Spanish ambassador, who in a letter of Wolsey's dated 30 Sept. is said to have ‘dealt liberally with Lord Darcy in the matter of his soldiers’ (No. 3443).

Soon after his return, on 20 Oct. 1511, he was appointed warden both of the east and middle marches against Scotland, which office, however, he resigned in or before December, when Lord Dacre was appointed warden in his place (ib. Nos. 1907, 2035, 5090). In 1512 and 1513 he wrote to the king and Wolsey important information of what was doing in Scotland and upon the borders (ib. Nos. 3259, 4105). In the summer of 1513 he accompanied the king in the invasion of France, and was at the siege of Terouenne. In January following he writes from his own house at Templehurst an interesting letter to Wolsey, in which he speaks of having recovered from recent sickness, says that his expeditions to Spain and France had cost him 4,000l. in three years and a half, but declares his willingness to serve the king beyond sea in the following summer. He reminds Wolsey (whose growing influence at this time was marked by every one) how they had been bedfellows at court and had freely spoken to each other about their own private affairs, and how Wolsey when abroad with the king in the preceding year regretted that Darcy had not been appointed marshal of the army at the beginning of the campaign (ib. No. 4652).

In the sixth year of Henry VIII his son and heir apparent, Sir George Darcy, was included with him in some of the appointments he then held (Cal. vol. ii. No. 355). In 1515 he gave up the captaincy of Berwick, and was succeeded by Sir Anthony Ughtred (ib. Nos. 549, 572). He appears to have attended parliament in that year, and to have been present in London at the reception of Wolsey's cardinal's hat in November (ib. Nos. 1131, 1153). In May 1516 he witnessed a