Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/202

 specially instructed to put the fortress into a condition of defence and to be prepared for an attack. He had some time in which to put the defences into good repair, for it was not until 1779 that the Spaniards turned their land blockade of the fortress into a regular siege by sea and land. Drinkwater's history of this famous siege, which lasted for three years, has become an English classic, and in it will be found abundant proofs of the energy and ability of Eliott. All the efforts of the greatest engineers of the time, even D'Arzon's invention of firing red-hot shot, failed to make an impression on the defences, and the assaults on the land side were easily repulsed. Far more formidable to the garrison than the bombardment was the close blockade by sea and land, and in the second year of the siege Eliott's little force was reduced to the utmost extremity of famine. He could not have held out much longer, in spite of all his firmness, had not Rear-admiral Lord Howe by breaking the blockade brought a convoy to the beleaguered garrison after one of the most brilliant naval actions of the war. On the conclusion of peace and the cessation of the siege Eliott returned to England, where he received the rewards which he deserved. He was made a knight of the Bath, and on 14 June 1787 was raised to the peerage as Lord Heathfield, baron of Gibraltar. He died at Aix-la-Chapelle of palsy, two days before he had intended to start for Gibraltar, on 6 July 1790, and was buried in Heathfield Church. He married, on 8 June 1748, Anne Pollexfen, daughter and heiress of Sir Francis Henry Drake, last baronet, of Buckland Abbey, Devonshire. By her he left a daughter Anne and a son, Francis Augustus Eliott, second lord Heathfield, who was colonel successively of the 25th light dragoons, the 20th light dragoons, and the 1st or king's dragoon guards, and rose to the rank of general. On the death of the second Lord Heathfield on 26 Jan. 1813 the peerage became extinct. The first lord's daughter, Anne, married John Trayton Fuller of Ashdown Park, Sussex, whose third son, Thomas, assumed the surnames of Eliott-Drake in 1813 on succeeding to the estates of the Eliotts and Drakes on the second lord's death, and was created a baronet in 1821. The features of the defender of Gibraltar are well known from the magnificent portrait of him by Sir Joshua Reynolds now in the National Gallery.

 ELIZABETH, queen of Edward IV (1437?–1492), was the daughter of Sir Richard Woodville or Wydeville, afterwards Earl Rivers, by his marriage with Jaquetta, duchess of Bedford, widow of that duke of Bedford who was regent of France during Henry VI's minority. Almost all the Woodville family seem to have combined ambition with a love of chivalry, and the first considerable step in their rise was this marriage of Sir Richard with a dowager duchess who was daughter of Peter de Luxembourg, late count of St. Pol. It took place, or at least was discovered, very early in 1437, having been effected without license from the king of England, and greatly to the disgust of the bride's brother, Louis, then count of St. Pol, and of her uncle, the bishop of Terouenne (, Annals, p. 376, ed. 1615). The consequence was that Sir Richard had to pay the king 1,000l. for his transgression and for liberty to enjoy the lands of his wife's dowry; but he did valuable service in the French wars, in reward for which he was created Baron Rivers by Henry VI in 1448, long before Edward IV was attracted by the charms of his daughter.

Sir Richard was regarded as the handsomest man in England. His bride, too, was remarkable for her beauty. They had a family of seven sons and six daughters, of whom Elizabeth was the eldest, born probably in 1437, within a year after her parents' marriage (the date 1431 hitherto given is absurd, being four years before the Duke of Bedford's death). Nothing is known of her early life except that we find two letters addressed to her before her first marriage, the one by Richard, duke of York, and the other by the grreat Earl of Warwick, both in favour of a certain Sir Hugh John, who wished to be her husband (Archæologia, xxix. 132). She, however, actually married Sir John Grey, son and heir of Edward Grey, lord Ferrers of Groby, who should have succeeded to his father's title in 1457, but is spoken of by all historians simply as Sir John Grey. After this marriage it appears that she became one of the four ladies of the bedchamber to Margaret of Anjou, in whose wardrobe-book she is mentioned as 'Lady Isabella Grey' (the name Isabella was in those days a mere variation of Elizabeth). Her husband was killed at the second battle of St. Albans in 1461, fighting on the Lancastrian side. She was thus left a widow with two sons. Sir Thomas and Sir Richard Grey, in the very year that Edward IV became king, and the lands which she should have had as her dower appear to have been forfeited or withheld. In her poverty she made personal suit to the king