FRANCIS HASTINGS, EARL OF HUNTINGDON, WAS the second earl of this illustrious blood", to which he added new dignity, not only by marrying one of the princesses of the line of Clarence, but by his own services and accomplishments. At the coronation of Anne Boleyn he was made knight of the bath, and of the garter, by Edward the sixth, from whom he obtained license to retain an hundred gentlemen and yeomen over and above those of his family 3. He was sent the same year with considerable forces to dislodge the French, who had planted themselves between Boulogne and Calais, when in the possession of the English. He sat on the trial of the protector; and in the first of queen Mary, being lord lieutenant of Leicestershire, raised forces against the insurrection. of the duke of Suffolk, and brought him prisoner from Coventry to the Tower. At the request of cardinal Pole, his uncle-in-law, he translated [From whom, says Collins, the present family of Huntingdon are descended. Peerage, vol. v. p. 113.] 3 Dugdale, vol. i. p. 588. "Osorius de Nobilitate;" and de Gloria4." Sir Francis, fifth son of this earl, was very learned, and author of several controversial tracts:-but not coming under the description to which I have confined myself, I shall say no more of him. [As neither of this nobleman's translated productions have been seen by the present editor, he is obliged to content himself with a short specimen of his epistolary penmanship from the selection of Talbot papers, published by Mr. Lodge. "The earl of Huntingdon to the earl of Shrewsbury. "My very good lorde, "After my hartie comendaciones; I am right gladd to hear of your lordshippe's amendement. And, wher yow will me to come unto your lordshippe to kill a stagge or too, soo it is nowe that I have such busynessys for the kyng's majeste, uppon a sturre of dyverse confederators that hadd intendyd a rebellyon within [Neither of these productions appear to be recorded by Ames or Herbert. It is doubtful, therefore, whether they were printed.] • Vide Ant. Wood, vol. i. p. 363. [It appears that this sir Francis was the polemic opponent of Parsons the noted jesuit, and wrote the Watchword, Wastword, and Discourse of Predestination.] the counties of Rutland and Leycester; for wiche rebellyon ther have already dyverse in the countie of Rutland byn condempned, and have suffred for the same: and this next weke ther shall dyverse other in the countie of Leycester be arrayned befor me, and the kynges majestie's justices of assyse, accordyng to his majestie's lawes; after wiche matter doon, I intende, God willing, within four dayes after to come to your lordship, iff no other weightie matter for the kyng's majeste do not lett me. "And thus I hartely take my lieff of your good lordshipp, with my most hartie comendaciones to my good lady, prayying God to send your lordshipp as good helth as I wold unto myself. From Ashby, the 12th of September, 1549. F. HUNTINGDON. "To the right honorable my verey good lorde, th' erle of Shrowesburye's good lordshipp."] HENRY CLIFFORD, EARL OF CUMBERLAND, THE second of that title, has but little claim to a place in this list, unless any farther discoveries are made of his writings than "Some Verses which he composed on his Father's presenting a Treatise of Natural Philosophy, in old French, to the Priory of Bolton;" and which, with the book itself, were preserved in Mr. Thoresby's museum at Leeds". [Henry, the second earl of Cumberland, succeeded his father in all his honours April 22, 1543; joined lord Scroope in fortifying Carlisle against the insurgents of the north, in 1569; and died in the same year at Brougham castle in Westmoreland 3. His eldest son George was the celebrated naval volunteer in the reign of Elizabeth.] HENRY, LORD PAGET, [SON of William first lord Paget, the statesman and embassador, whom he succeeded in title and estate in • William the first lord Paget is ranked as an author in Tanner's Bibliotheca, but merely, it would seem, from his state papers and epistolary compositions. He is the nobleman whom Howell records as having quashed the proposition of king Philip, at the time he offered to give security to surrender the regency of England when he should be called upon. Lord Paget's laconic argument was, "But who shall sue the king's bond?" Familiar Letters, book i. sect. 3. He was the generous patron of Tusser, the agricultural poet, who thus gratefully inscribed to him "A Hundreth good Pointes of Husbandrie,” first printed in 1557: "To the right honorable my speciall good lorde and maister, the lorde Paget of Beudescrt. "Time trieth the truth in every thing, Men apt to judge be often blinde : "Take you, my lorde and master, than, Such homely gift of me your man, Since more in court I may not be; And let your praise wonne heretofore, Remaine abrode for evermore, &c. "T. Tusser, edit. 1570." An elegy on the death of William lord Paget was printed in Haddoni Poemata, 1567. |