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 knowledge. Naunton was sharply reprimanded, and threatened with dismissal. His wife was frightened by his peril into a miscarriage, and, although the storm passed away, Naunton had lost interest in his work. All the negotiations for the Spanish marriage were distasteful to him. In September 1622 he begged Buckingham to protect him from immediate removal from his post, on account of his wife's condition, but in January 1623 he voluntarily retired on a pension of 1,000l. a year. Buckingham remained his friend, and, although in April he made a vain appeal for the provostship of Eton, in July 1623 he received the lucrative office of master of the court of wards. He sent the king an effusive letter of thanks for the appointment (Harl. MS. 1581, No. 23), but practically retired from further participation in politics. Although he was still a member of the council, he was not summoned (in July 1623) when the oath was taken to the articles of the Spanish marriage, and some indiscreet expression of opinion on the subject seems to have led to his confinement in his own house in the following October. But he sent a warm letter of congratulation to Buckingham on his return from Spain in the same month (Fortescue Papers, pp. 192–3, Camden Soc.) As master of the court of wards he discharged his duties with exceptional integrity; but Charles I's advisers complained that it proved under his control less profitable to them than it might be made in less scrupulous hands. In March 1635 Naunton was very ill, but Cottington vainly persuaded him to resign. At length Charles I intervened, and, after receiving vague promises of future favours, Naunton gave up his mastership to Cottington on 16 March. A day or two later he sent a petition to the king begging for the payment of the arrears of the pension granted him by James I. But his illness took an unfavourable turn, and before his petition was considered he died at his house at Letheringham, Suffolk, on 27 March.

Naunton had inherited, through his grandmother Elizabeth Naunton, daughter of Sir Anthony Wingfield, a residence at Letheringham, which had been formerly a priory of Black canons. This Sir Robert converted into an imposing mansion, and he added to it a picture-gallery. He was buried in Letheringham Church, where in 1600 he had erected a monument to his father and other members of his family. An elaborate monument was also placed there to his own memory; it is figured in Nichols's ‘Leicestershire,’ iii. 516; but in 1789 the church was destroyed, with all its contents. Naunton built almshouses at Letheringham, but he failed to endow them, and they soon fell into neglect. His property in the parish he bequeathed to his brother William, who died 11 July 1635. William's descendants held the property till 1758, when the Leman family became its owners. The old house was pulled down in 1770. Naunton married Penelope, daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Perrot, by Dorothy, daughter of Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex, who survived him. Naunton's only son, James, died in infancy in 1624, and a long epitaph was inscribed by his father on his tomb in Letheringham Church. An only daughter, Penelope, married, first, Paul, viscount Bayning (d. 1638); and, secondly, Philip Herbert, fifth earl of Pembroke [see under, fourth ]. When Lady Naunton, Naunton's widow, was invited by the parliament in 1645–6 to compound for her estate, which was assessed at 800l., mention was made during the protracted negotiations of a son of hers, called Sir Robert Naunton, who was at the time imprisoned in the king's bench for debt. The person referred to seems to be a nephew of Sir Robert Naunton (Cal. Committee for Compounding, pp. 188, 600).

Naunton left unpublished a valuable account of the chief courtiers of Queen Elizabeth, embodying many interesting reminiscences. Although he treats Leicester with marked disdain, he made it his endeavour to avoid all scandal, and he omitted, he tells us, much information rather than ‘trample upon the graves of persons at rest.’ He mentions the death of Edward Somerset, earl of Worcester, in 1628, and Sir William Knollys, who was created Earl of Banbury on 18 Aug. 1626, and died in 1632, he describes as an earl and as still alive. These facts point to 1630 as the date of the composition. Many manuscript copies are in the British Museum (cf. Harl. MSS. 3787 and 7393; Lansdowne MSS. 238 and 254; Addit. MSS. 22591 and 28715); one belongs to the Duke of Westminster (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. p. 214, cf. 246). The work was printed for the first time with great carelessness in 1641, and bore the title, ‘Fragmenta Regalia written by Sir Robert Naunton, Master of the Court of Wards.’ An equally unsatisfactory reprint appeared in 1642. A revised edition was issued in 1653, as ‘Fragmenta Regalia; or Observations on the late Queen Elizabeth, her Times and Favourites, written by Sir Robert Naunton, Master of the Court of Wards.’ James Caulfield reprinted the 1641 edition, with biographical notes, in 1814, and Professor Arber the 1653 edition in 1870. One or other edition also reappeared in various collections of tracts, viz.: ‘Arcana Aulica,’ 1694,