Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/324

 of Bradenham, Buckinghamshire. In 1581 he became one of her chaplains in ordinary. Whitgift recommended him unsuccessfully for the deanery of Windsor. On 15 Nov. 1583 he was appointed to the deanery of Peterborough, and on 23 Jan. 1585–6 he was installed prebendary of Stow Longa in Lincoln Cathedral, and in the same year became rector of Barnack, Northamptonshire, on the presentation of Sir Thomas Cecil. He also held the rich living of Algarkirk in South Lincolnshire, which, together with his stall, on his becoming bishop of Bristol, he was allowed to retain in commendam (Calendar of State Papers, Dom. p. 663). He was also chaplain to Archbishop Whitgift, and in that capacity is stated to have helped to draw up the original of the present 55th canon, ordaining the form of bidding prayer to be used by preachers before sermons. He is said, however, the canon notwithstanding, to have used a form of his own composing. He held the deanery of Peterborough for six years. He preached before the commissioners for the trial of Mary Queen of Scots, in the chapel of Fotheringay Castle, 12 Oct. 1586, drew up a detailed report of the examination of the queen, and officiated as chaplain at her execution, 8 Feb. 1586–7. He obtruded his ‘unwelcome ministrations’ upon Mary with the insolence of unfeeling bigotry, and the ‘stern Amen’ with which his solitary voice echoed the Earl of Kent's imprecation, ‘So perish all the queen's enemies,’ was an evident bidding for high preferment, followed up without delay by a sermon (preserved in manuscript in the library of St. John's College, Cambridge) delivered before Elizabeth immediately after the execution of her rival. Two years later Elizabeth resolved to confer upon her ‘well-spoken’ chaplain the see of Bristol, which her father founded in 1542 and she had kept vacant thirty years. He was consecrated by Whitgift in Lambeth Chapel 14 Dec. 1589 (, Whitgift, i. 616). According to Sir John Harington, his elevation was helped forward by some of the queen's court, who were on the look-out for compliant candidates, and obtained the bishopric for him on terms by which he almost secularised the see (, Church Hist. vii. 222;, Whitgift, ii. 112). He took part in the consecration of Bishop Coldwell of Salisbury, 16 Dec. 1591. Fletcher had a house of his own at Chelsea, where he chiefly resided, spending much more of his time at court than in his diocese. Here his first wife, Elizabeth, died, December 1592, shortly after the birth of her daughter Mary (baptised 14 Oct.), and was buried in Chelsea Church beneath the altar. After three years' stay at Bristol he was translated to the much richer see of Worcester, his election taking place 24 Jan. 1592–3.

In June 1594 the see of London became vacant by the death of John Aylmer [q. v.] Fletcher wrote (29 June) to Lord Burghley, giving reasons for his translation thither. He ‘delighted in’ London, had been educated there, was beloved by many of the citizens to whom he could be useful, and would be near the court, ‘where his presence had become habitual and looked for’ (, Whitgift, ii. 214–15). The queen signified her assent to his translation, and as bishop-elect of London he took part with Whitgift and others in drawing up the so-called ‘Lambeth Articles,’ happily never accepted by the church, in which some of the most offensive of the peculiar doctrines of Calvinism were dogmatically laid down. The queen condemned both the articles and their authors very severely. Fletcher soon offended her still more by an ill-advised second marriage. She objected to the marriage of all bishops, and thought it specially indecorous in one two years a widower to contract a second marriage, and that with a widow. The new wife was the widow of Sir Richard Baker of Sissinghurst in Kent, and sister of Sir George Gifford, one of the gentlemen pensioners attached to the court. She was a very handsome woman, probably wealthy, ‘a fine lady,’ but with a tarnished reputation. A very coarse satirical ballad preserved by Cole (MS. xxxi. 205) says of the bishop, ‘He of a Lais doth a Lucrece make.’ Fletcher was forbidden the court, and the queen demanded from the primate his suspension from the exercise of all episcopal functions. The inhibition was issued on 23 Feb. 1594–5, hardly more than a month after his confirmation as bishop of London. The next day he entreated Burghley's good offices for his restitution to the royal favour in a letter of the most degrading adulation and self-abasement (, Whitgift, ii. 216). Through Burghley's mediation the suspension was relaxed at the end of six months, and the queen became partially reconciled to him. He continued piteous appeals to Burghley for re-admission to the court. ‘His greatest comfort seculor’ (sic, Fletcher's spelling in his autograph letters is not only irregular but ignorant) ‘for twenty years past had been to live in her Highness' gratious aspect and favour. Now it was a year all but a week or two since he had seen her’ (ib. p. 218). This letter was written on 7 Jan. 1595–6. Elizabeth is said to have visited him at Chelsea, but he appears to have been still excluded from court. He had so far resumed his offi-