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 THE EXETER LINE 123

tained King James at York. After this we hear of him occasionally as taking part in functions at Court, and serving on various commissions, but he did not distinguish himself in any way. A thick- and-thin adherent of Buckingham, his judgment is shown by the fact that he wrote to the Duke after the fiasco of the expedition to Rhe congratu- lating him on his "miraculous success." 1 He succeeded his father as Lord Burghley in 1605, and as Earl of Exeter in 1623. He was Lord Lieutenant of Northampton, a member of the Privy Council, and a Knight of the Garter ; and he died in July, 1640, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

By his second wife, Elizabeth Drury, daughter of Sir William Drury, of Halstead, the Earl had three daughters only : Elizabeth, who married Thomas Howard, Earl of Berkshire : z Diana, a noted beauty, who married Henry Vere, eighteenth Earl of Oxford, 3 and afterwards Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin : and Anne, who married Henry, Lord Grey of Groby, afterwards Earl of Stamford. Lord Exeter's only son having predeceased him, his daughters conveyed considerable portions of the family estates to their husbands, and the manor

1 Cal. S. P. Dom., November 3rd, 1627.

2 Their eldest daughter married John Dryden.

8 See p. no, note. " The Earl of Oxford after 20 months' imprison- ment was released out of the tower and conveyed to the Earl of Exeter's, and on New Year's Day married the Lady Diana Cecil, with a portion of 30,000." Chamberlain to Carleton, January 3rd, 1624 (Court and Times of James I., II. 445). She took part in a masque at Court on one occasion, and the popular cry was : " Great is Diana of the Cecilians " (ibid., II. 351).

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