Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/389

 hood (28 March 1559), in directing the issue of a new coinage (29 Oct. 1560), and in selling crown lands (May 1563). On 21 April 1566 Sir Richard Sackville, chancellor of the exchequer, died, and Mildmay was appointed in his stead. He was also made auditor of the duchy of Lancaster. Busily occupied in the duties of his offices till his death, he concerned himself little with general politics. As the brother-in-law of Walsingham and the friend of Cecil, he was, however, always heard with attention in the privy council, the Star-chamber, and in parliament. He used what influence he possessed to shield the puritans from the attacks of the bishops, and often urged the queen to intervene on behalf of the protestants in the Low Countries (cf. his discourse in Cott. MS. Calig. C. ix. 49). In his speeches in parliament he argued that a liberal grant of subsidies placed the government under an obligation to redress grievances, and thus identified himself with the popular party in the commons.

In 1572 he helped to prepare evidence against the Duke of Norfolk, who, nevertheless, after his condemnation gave him some rich jewels. The affairs of Mary Queen of Scots occasionally occupied his attention. When she arrived in England in 1567 he strongly advised her detention (cf. his opinion in Reformation, pt. ii. bk. iii. No. xii.) In October 1577 he and Cecil visited her at Chatsworth, after she had announced that she had important secrets to reveal to Elizabeth. In 1586 he went to Fotheringay and informed her of her forthcoming trial, in which he took part as one of the special commissioners. In March 1587 he urged the condemnation of William Davison [q. v.] in the Star-chamber. Although four times nominated an ambassador to Scotland, in 1565, 1580, 1582, and 1583, he was on each occasion detained at home, but when his name was suggested for the office in 1589, James VI expressed great readiness to receive him. Mildmay's illness, however, brought the suggestion to nothing. He died at Hackney on 31 May 1589, and was buried beside his wife in the church of St. Bartholomew the Great in London, where an elaborate monument still exists to his memory. ‘The marble panelling and gilded mouldings produce a gorgeous effect.’ The decorations are heraldic, but the Latin epitaph merely records names and dates. The tomb was restored in 1865 by Henry Bingham Mildmay, esq. (, The Church of St. Bartholomew the Great, pp. 41–2). Epitaphs on Mildmay and Sir John Calthrop were licensed by the Stationers' Company on 29 July 1589. They are not known to be extant.

Mildmay was a man of cultivation and of great piety, with some popular reputation as a believer in second sight. Henry Cæsar [q. v.], dean of Ely, was directed by the Star-chamber to retract a report that he had circulated to the effect that Mildmay had endeavoured to see by conjuration the person of Cardinal Pole after his death. Henry Roberts, in his ‘Fames Trumpet Soundinge,’ 4to, 1589, mentions a book by Mildmay, and describes it as ‘in print now extant.’ It was entitled ‘A Note to know a Good Man.’ Sir John Harington [q. v.], in his ‘Orlando Furioso,’ bk. xxii. p. 175, gives a stanza in Latin with an English translation; the former he says he derived from Mildmay's Latin poems, which are not otherwise known. A ‘memorial’ by Mildmay, written for his son Anthony in 1570, consisting of sensible moral precepts, was printed from a manuscript at Apethorpe by the Rev. Arundell St. John Mildmay in 1893. Many of his official letters and papers are at Hatfield or in the state paper office.

His interest in education Mildmay displayed with much effect. On 23 Nov. 1583 he purchased for 550l. the site at Cambridge of the dissolved house of the Dominicans or Black Friars, which was situated in what was then called Preachers Street, but is now known as St. Andrews Street. Upon this land, on 11 Jan. 1583–1584 he obtained the queen's license to set up Emmanuel College. The architect was Ralph Symons, and in 1588 the new building was opened with a dedication festival, which Mildmay attended. He installed in the college a master, Laurence Chaderton [q. v.], three fellows, and four scholars; but subsequent benefactions soon increased the fellowships to fourteen and the scholarships to fifty. According to Fuller, Mildmay, on coming to court, after the college was opened was addressed by the Queen with the words: ‘Sir Walter, I hear you have erected a puritan foundation,’ to which Mildmay replied: ‘No, madam; far be it from me to countenance anything contrary to your established laws; but I have set an acorn, which when it becomes an oak, God alone knows what will be the fruit thereof.’ His statutes for the government of Emmanuel College bear date 1 Oct. 1585. They are attested by his sons, Anthony and Humphrey, John Hammond, LL.D., William Lewyn, LL.D., Thomas Byng, LL.D., Timothy Bright, M.D., and Edward Downing. Mildmay deprecated perpetual fellowships, and warned the fellows against regarding the college as ‘a perpetual abode;’ they were to look forward to spreading outside the knowledge they ac-