Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/293

 ‘Charges to the Clergy of Bermuda,’ 1845, 1849, 1853, 1858, 1866, 5 vols.; three ‘Charges to the Clergy of Newfoundland,’ 1844, 1847, 1866, 3 vols.; and ‘Journals of Visitations to Missions on the Coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador,’ in ‘The Church in the Colonies,’ Nos. 10, 15, 19, 21, 25 (1846–50).



FEILD, JOHN (1525–1587), proto-Copernican. [See ]

FEILDING. [See also ]

FEILDING, BASIL, second (d. 1674), eldest son of, first earl of Denbigh [q. v.], was born before 1608, educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, created a knight of the Bath, 1 Feb. 1626, and summoned to the House of Lords as Baron Feilding of Newnham Paddox, Warwickshire, 21 March 1628 (, Official Baronage, i. 539). At first he attached himself to the fortunes of his uncle the Duke of Buckingham. Wotton relates that when Buckingham was in danger of assassination after his return from the Isle of Ré, Feilding offered to adopt his uncle's dress in order to preserve him at the risk of his own life (Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, ed. 1685, p. 229). Through Buckingham's influence Feilding was promised the mastership of the rolls, and though the duke's death prevented him from obtaining that office, he was granted a pension of a thousand marks (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–1, p. 459). He served a campaign in the Low Countries as a volunteer under Lord Wimbledon, and was present at the siege of Bois-le-Duc in 1629 (, Life of Sir E. Cecil, ii. 293). He then travelled in Germany, studied at Strasburg, and was offered by the Emperor Ferdinand II the post of gentleman of his bedchamber (Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. p. 262). On his return he married Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Weston, earl of Portland, and in defence of the honour of his father-in-law challenged George Goring for words spoken against Portland's courage. For this offence he was obliged to make his submission before the council board on 13 April 1633 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1633–4, p. 15). On 14 Sept. 1634 he was appointed ambassador extraordinary to the republic of Venice, and spent the next five years partly at Venice, partly at Turin. He appears from his correspondence to have been occupied quite as much in the collection of works of art for the king and others as in diplomacy, and with more success (Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. pp. 257, 258).

When he returned to England in 1639 he seems to have been out of favour at court. The queen's favour he lost as supporting a Spanish rather than a French alliance, and though the king promised that he should be sent back to Venice, a successor was appointed early in 1642.

While his family adhered to the king, Feilding took up arms for the parliament. He was appointed lord-lieutenant of the counties of Denbigh and Flint (Commons' Journals, 28 Feb. 1642). He raised a troop and commanded a regiment of horse in the parliamentary army, and fought at its head on the right wing at Edgehill (, Army Lists, pp. 47, 49;, v. 36). The exact nature of the motives which led him to adopt the cause of the parliament it is difficult to discover. His mother, in the touching letters of remonstrance which she wrote to him, seems to hint that personal ambition was the cause (Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. pp. 259, 260). After the Earl of Denbigh's death she redoubled her appeals to her son ‘to leave that merciless company which was the death of his father. Now is the time that God and nature claim it from you. Before you were carried away by error, but now it is hideous and monstrous’ (ib. p. 260). His succession to his father's title increased Denbigh's importance to the parliament, and he was given the post left vacant by the death of Lord Brooke [see ]. On 12 June 1643 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the parliamentary forces in the associated counties of Warwick, Worcester, Stafford, and Salop, and the cities of Coventry and Lichfield, and lord-lieutenant of Warwickshire. Two days later he received his commission from Essex, and was ordered 6,000l. for the equipment of his troops (Commons' Journals, iii. 123; Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. p. 262;, Ordinances, folio, p. 221). His command began with a dispute with the committee of safety, ending by a declaration of that body on 2 Sept. 1643 that ‘nothing appears to them that doth in any way diminish their opinion of his innocency and faithfulness’ (, Ordinances, folio, p. 305). Nevertheless, Denbigh did not commence active operations till the spring of 1644. He then captured Rushall Hall in Staffordshire (29 May), defeated the royalists near Dudley (10 June), and took Oswestry (22 June 1644). A few days later he personally led the assault of Cholmondeley House in Cheshire (, God's Ark, pp. 239, 252,