Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/577

Rh ESSEX 555 aliout 823, when they were incorporated with the rising power of AVessex, which was destined to widen into England. By the peace of Wed more, Essex was recognized by Alfred as part of the Danish territory of Guthrum, but the Danes were expelled by Alfred s son, Edward the Elder. They have probably left a few traces of their presence in such names as Danbury and Dane-holes ; but there is nanlly a by to be met with among the numerous Saxon fords, w aids, hams, thorps, burys, and ings. The futile attempt of Mellitus left the Christianization of the East Saxons to Cedd, who iy said to have formed churches at Tilbury and Ithanceastre in the latter part of the 7th century. In 991 a great battle was fought at Maldon against the Danes, made memorable for ever to English men by a Saxon song which celebrates the valour of Brihtnoth and his peers ; and it was probably at Ashington on the Crouch that in 1016 Cnut and Edmund Ironside met in what the early chroni clers call the battle of Assandun. In 1045 Essex was part of the earldom of Harold. The family of Swene of Essex, who was in possession of a large part of the county at the time of the Con quest, kept its ground for nearly a century. A new earldom created by Stephen was held by the Mandevilles till 1227, passed by mar riage to the Bohuns, and went with the daughter of Humphrey de Buliun to Thomas of Woodstock, son of Edward 111. Through his daughter it passed to William Bourchicr, but the male line failed in 1540. The earldom was next assigned to Thomas Cromwell and William Parr, and from 1571 tc 1646 it was held by the family of Devereux. Two years after the death of the last earl, who had joined the Parliamentary party, the city of Colchester was besieged and captured by the Parliamentary forces ; and throughout the struggle the people of Essex were mainly or. the popular side. After the Res toration, Arthur Capel was created Earl of Essex, and that family- is still in possession of the title. Of the celebrities of Essex it is sufiiuient to mention Samuel Purchas, Joseph Head, John Ray, Joseph Strutr, Philemon Holland, Dr William Gilbert, Thomas Tusser, Francis Quarles, Thomas Gainsborough, and Dick Turpin. Literature. John Xorden, Spccidi Britannia Pars: an Hist, and Geogr. De- scrip, of the County of Essex, 1594 (edited for the Camdcn Society by Sir Henry Ellis, 1840, from the original MS. in the Marquis of Salisbury s library at Hat- field); Nicholas Tindal, Hist, of Essex, 1720; Silas Taylor, Hist, and Antic/, of Har- tcich, to which is added a lanje appendix containing the nat. hist, of the sea-coast ami country about Harwich, by Sum. Dale, 2d. eel., London, 1732; J Fanner, History of the Total and Abbey of Waltham, 1735; Nathaniel Salmon, The Hist, and Antiq of Essex, Loud. 1740, based on the collections of James Strong man of Hadleigh (v. Trans, of Essex Arch. Soc., vol. ii.); Morant, Hist, and Antiq. of the County of Essex, London 1768; Peter Muilman, Keic and Complete Hist, of Essex from a late Survey, by a Gentleman, Chelmsford. C vols., 1770- 177-2, London, 1779; Richard Gouj;h, Hist, of Pleshij, Lond. 1803-1805; Elizabeth Ocbourne, Hist, of Essex, icith liiogr Notices of the most Distimj. and Remark, ti iitires, London, part i., 1814; Excursions through Essex, illustr. icith one hundred ttifiravinys, Lond. 2 vols. 1818, Thomas Wright, Hist, and Topography of Essex, I.Sol; W. II. Black, Eastbury Illustrated, Lond. 1834 (engravings byT. II. Clarke) ; V. Berry, Pedigrees of Families in Essex, 1841 ; A. Suckling, Antiq. of the County of Essex, 1845; William White, Historical Gazetteer and Directory of Essex, 1848&quot;, find 2d ed., 18G3 ; Jarru&amp;lt;s Hadtield, Gothic Architecture of Essex, 1848 and 1856; Buckler, Ttcenly-tu-oofthe Churches of Estex architecturally described, Lond. 1856; Dale, Annals ofCogneshaU, 1863; Davids, Nonconformity in Essex in 1660-16R2, Lond. 18t!3; Chisenhall-Marsh, Translation of Domesday Hook for Essex, 1865; Murray s, Handbook for Essex, Suffolk, Ac., li!70, 2d ed. 1875, B. S. Clarke, &quot; The Labourers of Essex,&quot; in J. of Statist. Soc. of London, 1870; W. Palin, Stifford and its neighbourhood, past and present, 2 vols., 1871-2; W. J. S .-ott, Dunmow J .irish Antiquities, 1873; J. G. Watson, The Tendriny Hundrec&quot; in the olden time, 18.7; and the Transactions of the Essex Arch Soc. from the ye.)r 1858. An ac count of various MS. collections connected with the county is given by II. W. King in vol. ii. of t!:e Transactions, 1863. (C. P. W ) ESSEX, WALTER DEVEREUX, FIRST EARL OF (1540- 1576), in the Devcreux line, the eldest son of Sir Richard Devereux, was born in 1540. lie succeeded his grand father as Viscount Hereford in 1558, and in 1561 or 1562 he married Lettice, daughter of Sir Francis Knollys. In 1 569 he served as high marshal! of the field under the earl of Warwick and Lord Clinton, and materially assisted them in suppressing the northern insurrection. For his zeal in the service of the queen on this and other occasions, he in 1572 received the garter and was created Earl of Essex, a title which formerly belonged to his family through marriage with, the Mandevilles. His honours had been merited more by good intentions than by actual achievements; and e.vger to give proof of &quot; his good devotion to employ himself in the service of her Majesty,&quot; he offered on certain condi tions to subdue and colonize, at his own expense, a portion of the Irish province of Ulster, at that time completely under the dominion of rebel chiefs. His offer, with certain modi fications, was accepted, and he set sail for Ireland in August 1573, accompanied by a number of earls, knights, and gentlemen, and with a force of about 1200 men. The beginning of his enterprise was inauspicious, for on account of a storm which dispersed his fleet and drove some of hi J vessels as far as Cork and the Isle of Man, his forces did not all reach the place of rendezvous till late in the autumn, and he was compelled to entrench himself at Belfast for the winter. Here, by sickness, famine, and desertions, his troops were diminished to little more than 200 men, and he almost determined to abandon his undertaking : but receiving in the spring a reinforcement, he compelled the submission of Sir Brian MacPhelim, massacred by stratagem 200 of the O Neils, taking Sir Brian O Neal prisoner, and induced the earl of Desmond to surrender himself to the deputy Fitzwilliam. Elizabeth, however, instigated most probably by Leicester, after encouraging Essex to prepare to invade Trilogh Lenogh, suddenly commanded him to &quot;break off his enterprise ;&quot; but as she left him a certain discretionary power, he took advantage of it to defeat Trilogh Lenogh, chastise Antrim, and massacre several hundreds of persons, chiefly women and children, discovered hiding in the caves of Rathlin. He returned to England in the end of 1575, resolved &quot;to live henceforth an untroubled life ; &quot; but he was ultimately persuaded to accept the offer of the queen to make him earl marshal of Ireland. He arrived in Dublin in September 1576, and three weeks afterwards died of dysentery. There were suspicious that lie had been poisoned by Leicester, who shortly after his death married his widow, but these were not confirmed by the post mortem examination The endeavours of Essex to better (he condition of Ireland were, it must be admitted, a dismal failure; and the massacres of the O Neals and of the Scots of Rathlin leave a somewhat dark stain on his reputation. But in judging of his achievements, it must be remembered that the problem which he had under taken t3 solve was exceptionally difficult, that his own energetic efforts were constantly thwarted by the jealousy of Fitzwilliam and the vacillations of Elizabeth, and that he died before his abilities cjuld be sufficiently tested ; and in estimating his character we must set over against his acts of cruelty, which the opinion of the time approved, his honesty and uprightness, and the noble generosity with which he devoted his life and fortune to the performance of a thankless task. See Lives of the Devereux Earls of Easex, l&amp;gt;y the Honourable Walter Bouchier Devereux (1853), and Fronde s History of Eng- hind, vol. x. ESSEX, ROBERT DEVEREUX, SECOND EARL OF (1567- 1601), son of the preceding, was born at Netherwood, Herefordshire, November 10, 1567- He entered the university of Cambridge in 1577, and graduated in 1581. He appeared at court in 1584. In 1585 he accompanied the earl of Leicester on an expedition to Holland, and greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Zutphen. In 1587 he was appointed master of the horse, and in the following year was made general of the horse, and installed knight of the garter On the death of Leicester he suc ceeded him as chief favourite of the queen, a position which injuriously affected his whole subsequent life, and ultimately resulted in his ruin. While Elizabeth was approaching the mature age of sixty, Essex was scarcely twenty-one. Though well aware of the advantages of his position, and somewhat vain of the queen s favour, his constant attendance on her at court was irksome to him beyond all endurance ; and when he could not make his escape to the scenes of foreign adventure after which he longed, he varied the monotony of his life at court by intrigues with the maids of honour. In 1589, without the queen s consent, he joined the expedition of Drake and Norreys against Portugal, but on the 4th June was com pelled to obey a letter enjoining him at his &quot; uttermost peril &quot; to return immediately. Soon after his return occurred his famous duel with Sir Charles Blount, a rival favourite of the queen, in which the earl was disarmed and