Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/91

 of the surrender of Deventer, Elizabeth had it in contemplation to reward Stanley's services by honours and titles, and by appointing him viceroy of Ireland (cf. Acts P. C. 1586–7, p. 62).

Soon after leaving Deventer, Stanley, upon whose head the States-General had put a price of three thousand florins, proceeded to Spain to advise on the proposed invasion of England. He recommended that Ireland should be made the basis of operations, and that the troops should disembark at Milford Haven rather than at Portsmouth. Sir William was disappointed at his reception and entertainment, ‘which was far colder than he expected;’ but the Spanish government awarded him a pension (Cal. Hatfield MSS. ii. 335). Returning to the Netherlands, he was at Nieuwpoort in July 1588, at the head of seven hundred men, called the English legion, ready to join the armada. But on the overthrow of that expedition he withdrew to Antwerp. In 1590 he was again at Madrid, urging a design for the invasion of England, inspecting the seaports, and perhaps taking part in the preparations to resist Drake. He was now thoroughly identified with the jesuits and their adherents (cf. Sadler Papers, ii. 509), and eager to embark in any scheme against Elizabeth. He paid a visit to Rome in 1591 to consult with Allen and other enemies of the queen. In the event of her death he urged that the Lady Arabella Stuart or Lord Strange [see, fifth ] should be recognised as her successor. While keeping his regiment in the Netherlands, Stanley made almost yearly journeys to Spain. In 1595 he was described as half desperate, and was reproved by a Spanish governor for his violent language against the queen. In 1596 he took part in the invasion of France by the Spaniards, and appears to have been in Amiens at its recapture by the French in 1597. In 1598 he engaged in the attempt to raise the siege of Geldern, besieged by Maurice of Nassau, and in 1600 he was with the Spaniards when that prince defeated them at Nieuwpoort.

On Elizabeth's death Stanley, who had previously sent Thomas Wright to Madrid, now despatched his subaltern officer, Guy Fawkes, with an emissary of Catesby, to warn Philip against James, and again to recommend Milford Haven for disembarkation of a Spanish army. Soon afterwards Sir William appears to have been negotiating with the English government for his own pardon. There is no evidence to connect him with complicity in the gunpowder plot, though he, together with Hugh Owen and Baldwin, was placed under arrest at Brussels on suspicion of having been concerned in it. Cecil, however (30 Jan. 1606), altogether exonerated him from the charge.

The remainder of Stanley's life was spent in comparative obscurity. He took a great interest in the establishment of a jesuit novitiate at Liège in 1614, and contributed largely to it. He appears to have been appointed governor of Mechlin. James Wadsworth, the author of ‘The English Spanish Pilgrim,’ met him at Madrid in 1624, when he complained of being compelled at his advanced age to go to seek the pension which had not been paid him for six years. He quarrelled with the jesuits, and spent much of his time latterly with the English Carthusians near Ostend, having sought in vain for permission to return to England. He died at Ghent on 3 March 1630, and was honoured with a magnificent public funeral in the church of Our Lady over the Dyle at Mechlin. By his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John Egerton of Egerton, who was buried in Mechlin Cathedral in 1614, Stanley left two sons and three daughters. His grandson William succeeded to the family estates, and his son, of the same name, was created a baronet in 1661. The male line of the Stanleys of Hooton became extinct by the death of the twelfth baronet, Sir John Stanley-Errington, in 1893.

[Ormerod's Cheshire; Meteren's Historia Belgica; Strada's De Bello Belgico; Cal. Papers preserved at Simancas, vol. iii.; Whitney's Choice of Emblems; Murdin's Burghley Papers; Acts of the Privy Council, ed. Dasent, vols. xii–xiv.; Cal. Hatfield MSS. vols. i–vi.; Motley's United Netherlands, vol. ii.; Leycester Correspondence (Camden Soc.); Irish State Papers; Hardwick State Papers; Cabala; Stow's Chronicle; Allen's Defence of Stanley, ed. Heywood; Tierney's Dodd; Strype's Annals; Winwood's Memorials; information supplied by W. H. J. Weale and by the Rev. Ethelred L. Taunton.]  STANLEY, WILLIAM, D.D. (1647–1731), dean of St. Asaph, son of William Stanley, gentleman, of Hinckley, Leicestershire, by his wife Lucy, daughter of William Beveridge, D.D., vicar of Barrow-upon-Soar, and sister to Bishop William Beveridge [q. v.], was born at Hinckley in 1647, and baptised there on 22 Aug. the same year. He was educated in a school kept at Ashley, Lancashire, by Jeremy Crompton, and was on 4 July 1663 admitted a sizar of St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1666 (, Admissions to St. John's College, i. 160). He was elected a fellow of Corpus Christi College in 1669, and commenced M.A. in 1670. After being ordained priest in 1672, he became a uni-