Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 2.djvu/265

 BOURCHIER 249 25 Hen. VI to 23 May (1461) i Edw. IV. On 30 June 1461 he was cr. EARL OF ESSEX.(^) He d. 4 Apr. 1483. See fuller account under "Essex," Earldom of, cr. 1483, extinct 1540. [William Bourchier, sty/edViscovNT Bourchier, s. and h. ap. He m., before 15 Aug. 1467, Anne, sister of Elizabeth, Queen Consort of Edward IV, 3rd da. and coh. of Richard (Wydville), Earl Rivers, by Jacquette, da. of Pierre de Luxembourg, Count of St. Pol and Con- VERSANo. He d. v.p., being slain at the battle of Barnet (on the Yorkist side), 14 Apr. 1471. His widow m., 2ndly, Sir Edward Wingfield, and 3rdly, as his ist wife, in 1480, George (Grey), Earl of Kent, who d. 21 Dec. 1503. She d. 30 July 1489.] II. BARONY. VI. 6. Henry (Bourchier), Earl of Essex, Vis- _ count Bourchier and Lord Bourchier, also ^ ^' Count of Eu in Normandy, grandson and h., being posthumous s. and h. of William Bourchier, styled Viscount Bourchier, and Anne, his wife above- named. He d. s.p.m., 13 Mar. 1539/40, when the Earldom of Essex and the Viscountcy of Bourchier became extinct.(^) See fuller account under "Essex," Earldom of, cr. 1483; extinct 1 §40. VII. 1540. 7. Anne, j«oy«r^. Baroness Bourchier, da. and sole h. She m. (lie. Bp. of London), 9 Feb. 1526/7 (as the ist of his three wives), William Parr, cr. in 1539, Baron Parr of Kendal, in 1543, Earl of Essex, and both in 1547 and 1559, Marquess of Northampton. His creation as Earl of Essex, 23 Dec. 1 543, is remarkable as being " with the same place and voice in Pari, as /lis wife' s father had in his lifetime," notwithstanding that, early that year, he had repudiated his said wife and obtained an Act of Pari., 17 Apr. 1543, declaring her children bastards and incapable of inheriting. In 1552 his influenceasleader of the Protestant party enabled him to obtain another Act altogether annulling such marriage, and declaring his marriage, in his said wife's lifetime,(f) to (^) As to this title, see note sub Henry, Earl of Essex [1461]. ('') The Countship of Eu, in Normandy, should have devolved on John (Bour- chier), Earl of Bath, the h. male of the body of the grantee. These heirs male how- ever, who never assumed that foreign title, became extinct in 1 654. The style of "Earl of Eu" was (as early as 1576) used (wrongfully) by the heirs general (Devereux), Earls of Essex, till their extinction in 1646. (f) " This Act was without precedent, and was not passed without protest, for the Catholic doctrine that the bond of matrimony was insoluble was still an article of national belief, and, until the time of the Commonwealth, judgement in causes matri- monial was reserved to the Church." (The Earls of Eu, by R. E. Chester Waters, referred to on previous page, note " b"). The act of 1 5 52 was repealed next year by Queen Mary. For " the time of the Commonwealth " should [writes H. Gough] be read "the time of the Divorce act of 1858," as divorces by spec, acts of Pari, were, of course, in contravention of the general law. G.E.C^ and V.G.