Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/148

 or invaded England, who at this hour have either castle standing for themselves or house for any of their people' (Cal. State Papers, Foreign, 1570, p. 228). A week later Home Castle was stormed and re-garrisoned, and on the 29th Sussex fixed his headquarters at Berwick, with the object of strengthening the hands of Morton and Mar. He himself was suffering from a serious cold contracted during the raid, but on 12 May he sent Sir William Drury [q. v.], with a. considerable force, to strengthen the queen's party in Edinburgh, and to persuade Lethington and Grange 'to a surcease of arms' on Elizabeth's terms. Failing in his object, Drury harried the valley of the Clyde, and razed the castles of the Duke of Châtelherault and his retainers, returning to Berwick on 3 June. Leonard Dacre and a number of the rebels were still at large in the western marches, where they were openly maintained by Herries and Maxwell, and, though still far from well, Sussex was anxious to obtain the queen's permission to adopt forcible measures for their expulsion. His plan was approved, but no money was forthcoming, and it was only by pawning his own credit that he was able eventually to take the field by the middle of August. A outbreak of the plague at Newcastle, which compelled him to disperse 'his company,' added to his embarrassment, and it was not till 18 Aug. that he found himself at Carlisle. His demand for the surrender of the fugitives not having been complied with, he invaded Scotland on the 22nd, though in consequence of the extreme foulness of the weather, which delayed his march, the rebels had been able to withdraw with their goods into safety. Advancing as far as Dumfries, he raided the country for twenty miles round about, leaving not a single stone house standing 'to an ill neighbour' within that limit, though, in order 'to make the revenge appear to be for honour only,' he carefully avoided plundering the inhabitants and abstained from burning Dumfries. Early in September he returned to Newcastle, and Châtelherault, Huntly, and Argyll having shortly afterwards submitted to the queen, he advised a partial disbandment of the border forces.

In October Sussex received permission to repair to court, of which he availed himself in November, and on 30 Dec. he was sworn a member of the privy council. In the summer of the following year the queen paid him a visit at his house in Bermondsey; but later in the year his familiarity with the Duke of Norfolk caused him to be suspected of complicity in that nobleman's treasonable proceedings, and from De Spes it appears that there was some danger of his being sent to the Tower (Cal. Simancas MSS. ii. 346). He was one of the peers who sat in judgment on the Duke of Norfolk in January 1572, and the duke, in anticipation of his execution, bequeathed him his best George and Garter. In June he accompanied the queen on a two months' progress, and on 13 July he was created lord chamberlain of the household, being superseded in October as president of the council of the north by the earl of Huntingdon. On 14 April 1573 his name occurs in a commission of gaol delivery for the Marshalsea, and on the 29th of the same month in another relative to the commercial relations between England and Portugal. He accompanied the queen during a progress in Kent in August, and on 23 May following received a grant to himself and his heirs of New Hall in Essex, to which were added, on 31 Dec., the manors of Boreham, Walkfare, Oldhall, and their dependencies, commonly known as the honour of Beaulieu. He again attended the queen on one of her progresses in September and October 1574; but in the following spring he was compelled by reason of ill-health to retire for a time from court. On hearing the news of the 'fury of Antwerp,' he publicly declared that, 'if the queen would give him leave, he would go over with such a force as to drive the Spaniards out of the States.' Nevertheless, neither he nor Cecil was regarded as hostile to Spain, and De Mendez actually believed it possible, by judiciously bribing them 'with something more than jewels,' to attach them firmly to Spanish interests (ib. ii. 586).

When an alliance was first mooted between Elizabeth and the Duc d'Anjou in 1571, Sussex, for reasons similar to that which had influenced him in regard to the proposed marriage with the Archduke Charles, supported the proposal. The negotiations, broken off in consequence of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, were renewed in 1578, and again found a warm advocate in him. It was on the occasion of the visit of Anjou's messenger to England, during one of the queen's progresses, that the famous quarrel between Sussex and Roger, second lord North, occurred. According to Mendoza, it originated in a remark of Elizabeth's to the effect that the sideboard was badly furnished with plate, which North confirmed, laying the blame on Sussex. The earl thereupon 'went to Leicester and complained of the knavish behaviour of North; but Leicester told him that the words he used should not be applied to such persons as North. Sussex answered that whatever he might think of the words, North was a great knave' (ib. p. 606).