Book_ 'IK1^.?± 
 
ROMANCE 
 
 OF 
 
 ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
Romance 
 
 OF 
 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
 Castle 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES H POYNTON 
 
 (Felloiv of the Royal HistoHcal Society) 
 
 3JSirmingbam 
 CORNISH BROTHERS Ltd 
 
 1902 
 

CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 PROEM vii 
 
 INTEODUCTORY : LEICESTEESHIRE IN THE 
 
 EAELY SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY ... ix 
 
 I. THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE ... 1 
 
 n. THE AVENGER OF BLOOD ... ... 32 
 
 III. THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH ... 56 
 
 IV. THE CONSPIRATOR 85 
 
 V. THE ROYAL EARL 110 
 
 VI. THE REIGN OF ECONOMY 130 
 
 Vn. THE GOLDEN AGE 140 
 
 Vm. THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY 159 
 
 IX. THE FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD 187 
 
 X. QUEEN AND CONVOY 209 
 
 XL DISASTROUS NASEBY 228 
 
 XIL SURRENDER OF THE CASTLE 255 
 
PROEM. 
 
 THE ivy clings with sinuous tendrils to the gray- 
 old battlements of the castle of Ashby-de-la- 
 Zouch ; the green grass has carpeted the floors upon 
 which brave knights and fair ladies were wont to 
 loiter in olden days; the winter winds whistle 
 through the halls where Kings and Queens have 
 feasted, where minstrels have sung their lays, and 
 where jesters in cap and bells have made merri- 
 ment, but a halo of romance will continue to 
 envelope the noble pile so long as its crumbling 
 stones stand upon the green turf. 
 
 It is the ruined home of the Huntingdons, and 
 owes its decrepitude, not to the wasting hand of 
 time, but to the penalty of the splendid loyalty of 
 its dead lords to their sovereigns. Had its lords 
 been time-servers, their fortress home might have 
 survived the centuries and remained intact to-day, 
 a mere anachronism, a place without a history. 
 
 A more distinguished fate awaited it, after an 
 inseparable association with English history for 
 near two centuries, and a defiant resistance of the 
 Roundhead artillery its governor made an honour- 
 able capitulation. 
 
 King Charles about to become a voluntary 
 
Vm PROEM. 
 
 prisoner, the Cavaliers dispersed and their cause 
 paralysed, the supremacy of the revolutionary 
 party assured; it had been a wanton waste of 
 human life to hold out longer. 
 
 A Hastings, a warrior and a statesman, reared its 
 massive walls, and a Hastings, a Courtier and a 
 Cavalier defended them against the roaring cannon 
 of General Fairfax. 
 
 The purpose of this volume is to recall the 
 exploits of the dead and gone Earls of Huntingdon 
 and especially to linger over the romantic story of 
 Henry Hastings, the friend of Prince Rupert and 
 the liege vassal of the Second Stuart King, who 
 held the Midlands in his sovereign's interest when 
 many wavered and many deserted, standing stoutly 
 by the Royal cause. 
 
 Throughout their long proprietorship of their 
 palace fortress, the earls dispensed hospitality with 
 a princely profusion. Illustrious visitors have 
 found entertainment in their splendid halls, but no 
 earl ever welcomed a traitor through the castle's 
 portals. Prisoners have languished in its 
 chambers, but they were enemies of the King. 
 
 From the hour the first baron entered leading the 
 Lady Catherine by the hand, to the sad day when 
 Henry Hastings, with gloomy mien, delivered the 
 keys to Colonel Needham, its lords have held their 
 stronghold for the King. 
 
INTHODUCTION. 
 
 LEICESTEESHIRE IN THE EAELY 
 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 LOYAIi AREA. 
 
 When King Charles I. issued his Commission 
 of Array for Leicestershire to the Earl of Hunting- 
 don and others, in June, 1642, the district destined 
 to yield him the most active support in that county, 
 may be roughly located in the area of a triangle, 
 the apex of which would be the town of Ashby-de- 
 la-Zouch, and the extremities of the base the towns 
 of Leicester and Loughborough. 
 
 RIVAL LEADERS. 
 
 Two powerful families dominated that district, 
 the Huntingdons and the Stamfords. 
 
 Ashby and Loughborough acknowledged the 
 Earl of Huntingdon as feudal lord, obeying his 
 mandates with traditional subserviency, but the 
 sterner and more independent burgesses of 
 Leicester, adhering passionately to the parlia- 
 mentary cause, accepted the Earl of Stamford and 
 his son. Lord Grrey of Groby, as their leaders. 
 These noblemen resided about five miles from 
 Leicester at historic Bradgate, the former home of 
 that sweet and winsome maiden Lady Jane Grey, 
 of fateful memory. 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Earl of Huntingdon occupied the magnifi- 
 cent palace fortress of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, one of 
 the most formidable strongholds in England, and 
 popularly known as a maiden castle, because it had 
 never hauled down its flag at the imperious com- 
 mand of a foeman. Ashby-de-la-Zouch enjoyed 
 the distinguished honour of being thd only town in 
 the county that possessed a castle of any service- 
 able strength. The brick structure at Kirby 
 Muxloe, the original home of the Hastings family, 
 may be disregarded, since it could lay no claim to 
 be considered of any practical military value at the 
 outbreak of the Civil War ; whilst Leicester Castle 
 had long been disused. 
 
 UNWARLIKE LEICESTER. 
 
 Although Leicester since the Roman Conquest 
 had ranked as a walled town, its inhabitants no 
 longer regarded the fortifications as necessary 
 adjuncts to their prosperity, but simply as relics of 
 a ruder age. The pursuits of commerce had long 
 monopolised their attention. They had so con- 
 tinuously enjoyed the blessings of peace, that at 
 the accession of King Charles the bare mention of 
 any probability of war on English soil would have 
 been ridiculed as an anomaly. In the long 
 succession of battles and sieges that marked the 
 progress of the wars of the Roses, when the scourge 
 of war desolated many places, Leicester remained 
 unmolested and acquiesced in the authority of the 
 king de facto. A noticeable instance of this in- 
 discriminate loyalty occurred in 1485. King 
 Richard III. visited the town on his way to the 
 fateful field of Bosworth, and stayed a night at 
 the Blue Boar Inn, where the municipal authorities 
 visited their liege lord and did homage to him. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 TKe next day lie quitted tlie town at tlie head of 
 an imposing army in marshal pageant. The 
 people watched him with uncovered heads as he 
 rode clad in shining armour and with the crown 
 upon his helmet. Passing over the West Bridge 
 he kicked a buttress carelessly with his iron-clad 
 heel. An old woman murmured that on his return 
 his head should strike that buttress. Tradition 
 asserts that events fulfilled the prophesy. Several 
 days after, the new king's soldiers brought the 
 Royal Crookbank's corpse back to Leicester; 
 thrown naked over a horse's back, head downward. 
 But no citizen, high or low, waited at the entrance 
 of the town to do reverence to the dead, and accord 
 him decent burial, only a few humble Grey Friar 
 Monks, and they out of sweet charity, laid him in 
 consecrated soil; and said masses for his soul's 
 repose. As they had received Richard a few days 
 before without demonstration, so they accorded 
 Richmond a passive reception. Another man wore 
 the crown, it mattered not to them. He was the 
 King. On the eve of the terrible conflict about to 
 desolate the county, the walls and forts of Leicester 
 had fallen into a state of dilapidation, and as a 
 result neither when stormed by Charles' army a 
 few days before the Battle of Naseby, nor im- 
 mediately afterwards when summoned to surrender 
 by victorious Fairfax, could the garrison offer an 
 effective resistance. 
 
 The influence of the lord of Bradgate over 
 Leicester may be described as political rather than 
 hereditary, that of his son, Lord Grey of Groby, 
 as religious rather than political. 
 
 The Earldom of Stamford was a recent creation 
 of James I. 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 EARL OF HUNTINGDON. 
 
 The Earl of Huntingdon boasted a fifth suc- 
 cession to his earldom, and a seventh succession to 
 his barony. He traced his direct descent from 
 that strong and loyal supporter of Edward lY., Lord 
 William Hastings. Through the successive reigns 
 of Sordid E-ichmond, of Spendthrift Henry, of the 
 bigot Mary, of Brilliant Elizabeth and of Pedantic 
 James, the Earls had maintained a foremost 
 position amongst the noble families of England, 
 taking their share of legislative responsibility, and 
 manifesting a high-minded and chivalrous loyalty 
 to the person and the throne of the reigning 
 SoA^ereign. As Bardon Hill rears its granite form 
 towards the clouds, over the hillocks and the trees, 
 dwarfing them by comparison with its massive 
 stature, so the Earls of Huntingdon in chivalrous 
 honour and princely hospitality overtopped the 
 social life of Leicestershire. In Leicester town 
 for over a century they had exercised predominant 
 power. In 1606, during the lord-lieutenancy of 
 the fifth Earl, serious riots broke out in the town 
 over the enclosure of some neighbouring common 
 lands. The Earl calmly erected a gibbet in the 
 market place to overawe the rioters and restore 
 peace. The rioters were well aware that, if pushed 
 to extremity. Lord Huntingdon would not hesitate 
 to employ the dread machinery of death, but at the 
 same time they resolved not to abandon their right 
 to the use of the common land, so a mob destroyed 
 the gallows, and dispersed to their homes, con- 
 gratulating themselves on having effected their 
 purpose. On the following morning they found 
 another gallows in the place of the one they had 
 destroyed, and an armed band of Ashby retainers 
 on guard at its foot. Nay, his lordship's anger 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 did not end there, for he despatched a letter to the 
 Mayor and Town Clerk, in which he censured them 
 for not maintaining peace in the town, and ordered 
 them to remain in their own houses for several days 
 voluntary prisoners, as a punishment for their 
 offence, a penalty the culprits meekly submitted 
 to. Yet the earls enjoyed an immense personal 
 popularity in Leicester. The Council always 
 sought their approval of any civic reforms they 
 contemplated, and regarded no great function as 
 complete unless they could persuade the reigning 
 earl to grace it with his presence. 
 
 King James I. on several occasions visited the 
 town, each time accompanied by Lord Huntingdon. 
 Contemporaneous records, both municipal and 
 private, evidence the close association of the Lord 
 of Ashby with the Leicester people in weal or woe. 
 
 THE PLAGUE. 
 
 In the early years of the 17th century the plague 
 raged in Leicester. It Avas a time of suffering and 
 despair for the residents, but of unusual activity 
 (though unproductive) for the City Fathers. They 
 exerted themselves vigorously to combat the 
 epidemic. They ordered chains to be stretched 
 across the bridges in order to prevent the exit of 
 citizens from the toA^ni and the entrance of 
 strangers. They erected barricades at the ends 
 of the streets to destroy all intercourse between the 
 residents of different streets. They decreed that 
 occupants of infected houses should paint a red 
 cross on their doors as a warning to their neigh- 
 bours, and in order to ensure obedience stationed 
 patrols armed with bolts in the streets com- 
 missioned to shoot down any infected person who 
 dared to show himself abroad, but no conception 
 of sanitary science dawned upon their minds. 
 
XIV INTEODIJCTION. 
 
 In these dark and anxious days the corporation 
 found a steady adviser and a ready helper in the 
 Golden Earl, and the highway by Bradgate echoed 
 the ring of the horses' hoofs of the messengers who 
 passed to and fro daily between Leicester and 
 Ashby. 
 
 It is pleasant to note the readiness of the town 
 authorities to assist the Earl in his necessity. 
 Perhaps no member of the long line of English 
 sovereigns honoured his great lords with the costly 
 favour of his royal presence as a guest so frequently 
 as did the English Solomon. King James' re- 
 peated visits to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, accompanied 
 always by his suite, taxed even the splendid re- 
 sources of the Golden Earl, and overtaxed the 
 accommodation within the castle. In order that 
 no charge of inhospitality might be associated with 
 his name, the generous lord built the original 
 manor house within the pleasaunce, and although 
 the consequences spelt retrenchment, and even loss 
 of lands, he never faltered in the right royal wel- 
 come he accorded to his liege lord. 
 
 On a memorable royal visit in 1617 Lord 
 Huntingdon entertained His Majesty with princely 
 hospitality. The nobility and gentry of the neigh- 
 bourhood poured into the castle to greet the King, 
 and enjoy the Earl's meat and drink. Thirty 
 knights, clad in velvet and wearing golden chains 
 around their necks, waited at table. To the King's 
 great annoyance, Lord Stanhope, shrewd and 
 
 A ROYAL VISIT. 
 
 economical, failed to put in an appearance, and he 
 accordingly despatched a messenger to command 
 his attendance. On his arrival the King remon- 
 strated with him on his disloyalty, but added : " I 
 
INTEODITCTION. XV 
 
 excuse you, because people say you are mad." " I 
 may be mad, my liege lord," Stanhope retorted, 
 *' but not half so mad as my Lord Huntingdon, who 
 sujffiers himself to be worried by such a pack of 
 bloodhounds." 
 
 The Leicester Council knew by experience the 
 cost of royal favours, and a graceful sympathy 
 prompted them to despatch a present to the Earl 
 of a yoke of oxen, together with £14 in money to 
 purchase a hogshead of wine. 
 
 As the Tudor Sovereigns had done, so the Stuart 
 Kings quite understood the exalted social pre- 
 eminence, and the vast local influence of the lords 
 of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and regarded them as strong 
 bulwarks of their throne. At Queen Elizabeth's 
 decease, her successor. King James of Scotland, 
 issued orders to George, the Fourth Earl, to journey 
 to London and proclaim his accession, for Royal 
 blood flowed in his veins, as the direct descendant 
 of the Duke of Clarence, and when King Charles 
 resolved to set loose the dogs of war in the fair 
 realm of England, it was to the Golden Earl, pre- 
 maturely aged, and a recluse, that he addressed 
 his first commission of array. 
 
 OLDEN DAYS. 
 
 It is difficult to push back the finger on the clock 
 of time for three centuries, and understand the 
 social life of the early 17th century, but the works 
 of a few authors of that period survive the inroads 
 of the moth and worm, and musty records have 
 been unearthed, a study of which rewards our 
 pains. Human Nature has always remained 
 uniform and invariable, but the passing of the 
 centuries effects many changes in social order. 
 Sixteenth and seventeenth century books have a 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 quaintness all their own that fascinates the reader 
 of antiquarian instincts. They carry the mind 
 back to another age, and to another environment, 
 and point to men and women moving about to their 
 allotted tasks, as actors move upon a stage. We 
 see the homes they lived in, and the very clothes 
 they wore. Our authors are autocrats, we may not 
 ask them questions, but the interest of the story 
 they tell us never flags. An anonymous merchant of 
 Lombard Street has bequeathed to us a description 
 of a journey from the Metropolis to Leicester in 
 the reign of James I., in which he dilates upon the 
 rich red lands of the county, that produced good 
 corn of all sorts both in the fields and enclosures. 
 He notes the many little towns that dot the land- 
 scape giving pleasure to the traveller's eye, and the 
 farms that are stocked with excellent breeds of 
 sheep and cattle. The agricultural implements 
 are antiquated and primitive, for the ploughs are 
 destitute of wheels ; but he is chiefly impressed by 
 the rich, deep soil. 
 
 The red lands of Leicestershire in the first half 
 of the 17th century yielded a fine quality of wheat, 
 barley, rye, oats, and beans. The inhabitants 
 constructed their houses of wood, clay, or cement. 
 ISTone but substantial persons could build with brick 
 or stone. More than a third of the acreage of the 
 county consisted of forest, unenclosed land and 
 marshes. The farmers were generally ignorant of 
 the value of underground drainage. No coal mines 
 and few brickyards disfigured the landscape. A 
 delightful sylvan picturesqueness everywhere 
 reigned. On the marshes rushes and reeds grew 
 in profusion, furnishing a shelter for wild fowl. 
 The heaths blazed in the sunshine with blending 
 colours of the purple heather and the golden gorse. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XVll 
 
 TKe streanivS, fringed with willows, abounded in 
 trout, and the resplendent kingfisher bounded from 
 bank to bank. 
 
 Parochial authorities paid little or no attention 
 to the roads, which were seamed and scarred in dry 
 weather by ugly and dangerous ruts, and in rainy 
 seasons were like ploughed fields, and almost im- 
 passable for the few existing vehicles. The turn- 
 pikes did evidence a little attention, but they were 
 often almost overgrown with grass. The wheels 
 of coaches frequently stuck in the mud, and 
 passengers had to cower in the wet and cold, while 
 the guard hurried to the nearest farmhouse for 
 assistance. Streams crossed the roads and im- 
 peded progress. In tempestuous weather drowning 
 accidents often occurred at these fords. Our 
 ancestors seldom built bridges, except over fords 
 of an unusually dangerous character. 
 
 Its produce of corn and wool composed the chief 
 wealth of the county. Leicestershire has always 
 enjoyed a certain reputation for its wool. Markets 
 for wool and corn were held at Leicester, Ashby-de- 
 la-Zouch, Loughborough, Market Harborough, 
 Hinckley, and Melton Mowbray. We are in- 
 debted to the Hev. William Harrison, M.A., who 
 in his day held the appointments of Household 
 Chaplain to Lord Cobham, rector of Radwinter in 
 Essex, vicar of Wimbish in the same county, and 
 canon of Windsor, for a graphic description of 
 every- day life in Elizabethan times. With very 
 little improvement similar conditions prevailed in 
 the early Stuart period. A study of Harrison's 
 book enables us to understand the busy activity of 
 a market town, and how it attracted the populace 
 of a radius of a dozen miles once every week with 
 the produce of the land, and in return supplied the 
 1 
 
XVIU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 villages with articles for daily consumption. 
 
 MARKETS. 
 
 The market town kept the neighbourhood in- 
 formed of local and national news. 
 
 The stage coaches from the metropolis and the 
 large provincial towns changed horses at the prin- 
 cipal inn, consequently the host might always be 
 relied upon for the latest information. He took 
 care to provide his bar parlour with a weekly news- 
 paper as an attraction to the well-to-do tradesmen, 
 who resorted there to read and discuss current 
 affairs. Even the clergyman would sometimes 
 look in to sip his tankard of brown ale and glance 
 at the news. 
 
 The pedlar carried the news from village to 
 village, calling at the cottages of the peasantry 
 and the homesteads of the farmers to sell his wares, 
 and receive entertainment in return for the tales 
 he could tell. A pedlar's visit to a farmstead 
 caused a stir. At night after the cattle had been 
 housed and foddered, and the housemaids had done 
 their work, the members of the household would 
 gather round the wide fireplace, with its blazing 
 fire, and, after lighting the candles, listen to his 
 weird stories of murders, highway robberies, and 
 public executions. 
 
 The high street of the market town consisted of 
 irregular houses with queer gables and latticed 
 windows. The good old trades of grocer, chandler, 
 saddler, currier, tailor, flourished unchecked by the 
 fierce competition of modern life,, and the creaking 
 signs and curious emblems of the tradesmen sur- 
 mounted their shop windows. 
 
 On one day every week the district round the 
 market town became a scene of animation. Farmers 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 on horseback, with wives or daughters seated be- 
 hind them on the pillions ; squires in their cum- 
 brous coaches ; and peasant w^omen trudging on 
 foot ; all made for the town. The carriers' wagons, 
 creaking under their heavy freights of farm pro- 
 duce, often blocked the narrow roads, causing 
 ebullitions of anger. Then, as now, the rich 
 flourished, and the poor went to the wall. Harrison 
 complains of the evasion of the assize of bread, 
 expressing commiseration for the poor artificer and 
 householder which tilleth no land, but labouring 
 all the week to buy a bushel or two of grain on 
 market day, can have there no corn for his money, 
 because the bodgers have formed a ring. The 
 ^ood-hearted old parson disliked a bodger as we 
 
 BODGERS. 
 
 detest a money-lender. The bodger would buy up 
 all the corn in the market. Sometimes he bought 
 on his own account, at other times he acted as agent 
 for some wealthy landowner. Then he raised the 
 prices, despite the laws a paternal government had 
 enacted to regulate them, causing the poor artificer 
 to return home sad-hearted and empty-handed. At 
 Michaelmas the small farmers often had to sell 
 corn to pay their rents. The bodger bought it up. 
 As a consequence householders could not purchase 
 corn even in the villages where it was grown, and 
 hunger and destitution prevailed. 
 
 At the close of a market the farmers found it 
 necessary to button up their pockets, and examine 
 their pistols, as well as arrange to journey home- 
 wards in groups, to avoid the attentions of Will 
 jSTevision, the notorious highwayman, and others 
 of his kidney, who patrolled the turnpikes and lanes 
 of Leicestershire. The very hostlers who saddled 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the farmers' horses and held them in the inn yard 
 while they mounted, often gave the highwayman 
 information of their movements. It was woe to the 
 unlucky yeoman or tipping cattle dealer who 
 lingered too long over his tankard at the King's 
 Head. 
 
 Each market town largely monopolised its own 
 district. 
 
 In 1617 King James issued a proclamation for- 
 bidding the sale of both home and foreign wool at 
 any other than the towns of England specified in 
 the document in which the name of Leicester did 
 not appear. The jealous merchants approached 
 the Duke of Buckingham on the matter. They 
 knew by experience the potency of hogsheads of 
 canary to conciliate noble lords. At Lord 
 Buckingham's request the name of Leicester was 
 inserted on the list. The Leicester merchants 
 had been endeavouring for nearly a century to 
 draw the entire wool trade of the county ; and thus 
 create a monopoly. With this object in view they 
 had built a Wool Hall in High Cross Street; but 
 the farmers preferred to deal with old acquaint- 
 ances at their own markets, and the Wool Hall 
 proved a failure. 
 
 SOCIAL CONDITIONS. 
 
 The poor laws of the Elizabethan era still bound 
 the villagers to their own locality. The cowman, 
 wagoner, ploughman, wheelwright, blacksmith, or 
 labourer rarely migrated from his native village. 
 For many reasons he found it unwise and even 
 disastrous to do so. If he sought to improve his 
 lot by removing to another district, his new neigh- 
 bours regarded him as a characterless and master- 
 less man. In poverty or sickness the parochial 
 
INTEODUCTION. XXi 
 
 authorities could not relieve him, and he had no 
 alternative but to tramp with weary feet, and 
 pinched face, back to his birthplace. The Law 
 of Settlement ruled his destiny, ordaining that he 
 should spend his life in his native village, and die 
 there, and that the clergyman of the church where 
 he was baptised should commit his ashes to their 
 long home. In our day, the lot of a 17th century 
 labourer would not commend itself to us as an 
 ideal career. Day in day out, through the four 
 seasons of the year, he toiled from dawn to dark 
 and long after on the land and m the steaddings, 
 for a weekly dole of five or six shillings. He had 
 no thought of dignity or independence, reverencing 
 his master as a benefactor. He doffed his hat 
 to the squire, the parson, the yeomen, and their 
 wives. The ennobling thoughts and holy associa- 
 tions of the village church did not awaken any 
 echo in his soul. He had been baptised there, and 
 married there, he had dropped a tear into the open 
 grave of some dear one sleeping in its quiet 
 God's acre, but that was all. Illiterate and 
 destitute, he loved best the ale-house. There he 
 could sit beside a blazing fire and receive a hospit- 
 able welcome whenever he had a copper to spend. 
 With clothes worn and torn, and foul with the wear 
 of a life-time; with limbs shaking with ague, or 
 drawn with rheumatism ; and a face that bespoke 
 the ravages of small-pox, and gaunt and haggard 
 with privation ; he lived his little life, and passed 
 into the obscurity of the grave. 
 
 At home he rarely tasted fresh meat, and the 
 salted meat occasionally available engendered 
 scurvy, by reason of the unwholesomeness of the 
 salt. 
 
 The bread his wife laid before him for his 
 
XXll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 morning and evening meals had been kneaded from 
 rye, or pea, or bean meal, oftener than from flour. 
 
 He lived in a hut constructed of timber and mud, 
 with, a thatched roof and earthen floor. The small 
 windows were often nnlatticed and covered with 
 bagging, the ill-fitting door freely admitted the 
 cold air and the rain. Of furniture he contented 
 himself with a rough wooden bench, a table, and 
 a few footstools, with a table service of wooden 
 platters and spoons. 
 
 If his hut boasted an upper sleeping chamber, 
 he ascended to it by means of a post, with notches 
 cut in it to serve for foothold, and stretched himself 
 upon a litter of straw to sleep, drawing a rug about 
 him to keep off the cold. 
 
 Should he be fortunate enough to own pigs or 
 poultry, they made their domicile in the hut with 
 his family and himself. 
 
 It is not surprising that under such conditions 
 his children grew up in squalor and ignorance, and 
 that such epidemics as small-pox and fevers 
 ravaged his home. 
 
 From such a picture of savagedom, we turn with 
 interest to the yeoman's homestead, with its many 
 evidences of comfort and even culture. In it we 
 find the floors laid with cement, and carpeted with 
 rushes. In the kitchen by the chimney nook, an 
 oak settle provided sitting accommodation. The 
 children's hornbook hung from a nail beside the 
 chimney shelf, and on the window ledge lay a 
 Bible, Foxe's Book of Martyrs, or any other volumes 
 the family possessed. A large table, surrounded 
 with chairs, filled the centre of the room, and in 
 the homes of substantial farmers one of those 
 massive oak sideboards, so greatly admired and 
 coveted to-day, occupied one side of the apartment. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXlll 
 
 The house-proud farmer's wife would often relieve 
 the bareness of the walls by stretching picture 
 cloths over them, illustrative of sacred, or secular 
 history. 
 
 The yeoman kept a generous board. His table 
 groaned with plenty. At meal times a huge jug 
 of Michaelmas ale replenished the horn mugs of 
 the family, and the viands comprised butcher's 
 m^eat, fresh vegetables, fish from the nearest 
 stream, poultry from the farmyard, and sometimes 
 a huge pastry made from venison, presented to the 
 house-wife by the squire's steward. 
 
 The gentleman ranked immediately above the 
 yeoman. He usually enjoyed an income 
 amounting to about £200 per annum, and popular 
 custom accorded him the prefix " Master " to his 
 name. To this class the merchants of the town 
 often belonged. Higher still in the social order 
 stood the squire, the landlord, and superior of the 
 yeoman. From his rank the King raised the 
 knightage. The knight lived in great state, and 
 A number of fine old halls survive the wasting hand 
 of Time, such as Aston and Charlcote. As we gaze 
 upon them a mental picture comes to us of the 
 generous profusion of the " good old times " when 
 men drew their wealth from the land. 
 
 The nobility topped all county society, main- 
 taining in their baronial halls the pomp and magni- 
 ficence of local potentates. The tourist con- 
 templating for the first time the imposing exterior 
 of a noble Elizabethan mansion like Compton 
 Wynyates, the historic seat of the Earls of 
 Northampton, is able to form some idea of the 
 right royal state in which the Stuart peers lived. 
 
 The Earl of Huntingdon, from his palace fortress 
 at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and the Earl of Stamford, 
 
XXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 from stately Bradgate, ruled Leicestershire. If 
 they chose they could preside alternately at the 
 Quarter Sessions, and monopolise the Parlia- 
 mentary representation in their families. 
 
 At the close of the Wars of the Roses the old 
 baronage of England had become almost extinct. 
 In the succeeding Tudor and Stuart times, either 
 by reason of their wealth, or by the easier pathway 
 of Royal favour, scions of the squirearchy and the 
 knightage stepped into the high places of the land. 
 At the beginning of the 17th century there were in 
 England 12,000 gentlemen, 3,000 esquires, 600 
 knights, 800 baronets, and 160 temporal lords. 
 The recognised standard of income for the squire- 
 archy amounted to £450. 
 
 CRIMINAL LAW. 
 
 The criminal law of the ITth century punished 
 cases of felony, manslaughter, robbery, rape, and 
 murder by hanging the offender. In cases where 
 the jury returned a verdict of felo de se the corpse 
 was buried at four cross roads and a stake driven 
 through it. Perjury was visited with the penalty 
 of the pillory and the branding of the letter '' P " 
 upon the criminal's forehead. One or both the 
 ears of trespassers were cut off, sheep-stealers each 
 lost a hand, rogues were burnt through the ears, 
 whipped, and placed in the stocks, and harlots and 
 scolds strapped in ducking chairs and immersed in 
 the nearest water. Offenders convicted of wilful 
 murder, done either upon pretended malice or in 
 any notable robbery, were hanged alive in chains 
 on gibbets near the places where they committed 
 their crimes. Witches could be hanged or burnt. 
 Ignorance and superstition everywhere prevailed. 
 In the dull minds of the rustics the belief prevailed 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 that witches ruled the elements. The yeoman's 
 wife feared that the ancient hag who lived in the 
 hut on the fringe of the wood, could by her spells 
 turn the cream sour in the churn, or cause the sow 
 to bring a litter of dead pigs. She deemed it 
 prudent to conciliate the crone by presents of cheese 
 and milk and meal. Her dairymaid would steal 
 away in the twilight to the same uncanny dame, 
 and pay her silver coins for a love philtre to fix 
 the wajnvard affection of the wagoner and obtain 
 her promise to bewitch her rival. Her heart 
 fluttering with fear she would timidly lift the latch 
 of the door and furtively glance round the interior 
 of the hut, then look anxiously backward into the 
 darkening sky, half fearful of seeing the witch 
 come soaring homeward on a broomstick after an 
 aerial voyage. The dread of witchcraft had 
 roofed itself deeply in the imagination of the 
 country people, causing the days to pass wearily, 
 and the nights uncannily. People hated M'itches, 
 but all the same sought their aid in times of 
 difficulty. The witch in her turn lived in daily 
 dread of exposure. Any person whom she might 
 offend or who might conceive an imaginary 
 grievance, could go to the nearest magistrate, and 
 lay information that she practised Satannic arts. 
 Only the haunting dread of her reprisals deterred 
 accusers. Fear like a coat of mail protected her. 
 Although the courts of justice accepted the most 
 absurd statements as evidence against her, and as 
 sufficient evidence to consign her to a fiery death 
 at the stake, yet there remained always a possi- 
 bility that by nefarious means she might obtain 
 an acquittal, and nobody then would have envied 
 her accuser. In the 17th century the persecution 
 of witches became so violent that even King James, 
 
XXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the terror of the witch tribe, felt a twinge of com- 
 punction. On visiting Leicester in 1616 he 
 ascertained that nine of these unfortunate hags had 
 recently suffered at the hands of the executioner 
 for bewitching a boy at Market Husband. His 
 Majesty ordered the boy to be brought before him 
 and questioned him. He then summoned the 
 judges to his presence, scolded them roundly, and 
 ordered the high sheriff to liberate a second batch 
 lying in Leicester gaol, awaiting trial for a 
 similar offence. The rustic mind peopled the 
 whole landscape with supernatural beings. Fairies 
 danced in circles in the sylvan glades, goblins and 
 sprites hidden away in quiet nooks watched for 
 opportunities to work mischief, and ghosts walked 
 abroad at midnight hour in lonely spots where 
 crimes had been perpetrated. The educated 
 classes were not exempt from this superstitious 
 bondage, for they pinned their credulity to the 
 mysticism of the Astrologer. The squire's young 
 heir on the eve of his departure from home to 
 travel in foreign parts, his soberer father anxious 
 for the young man's safety, the wealthy merchant 
 contemplating an unusual speculation, and the 
 substantial yeoman inquisitive about his crops, 
 would dismiss the witch and consult the Astrologer, 
 paying him handsome amounts to draw their 
 horoscopes. Through the battles of the civil war 
 officer and trooper alike often carried in his pocket 
 his mystic horoscope. The bearer could not under- 
 stand why, but he had a confused idea that in the 
 fury of the battlefield, when sword rang against 
 sword — in the elation of the chase, or in the mute 
 gallop of flight, it would have some propitiative 
 effect over destiny. Soldiers of high position 
 cherished such a notion, not only in the ranks of 
 
INTRODUCTICN. XXVll 
 
 the Cavaliers, but also of tlie Parliamentary army. 
 It is recorded that on numerous occasions eminent 
 astrologers visited the Roundhead headquarters 
 and were accorded an enthusiastic welcome. But 
 the long reign of ignorance and superstition had 
 already reached its cycle. 
 
 THE BIBLE. 
 
 Tyndale's Bible had illumined the mighty brain 
 of Shakespeare, and the authorised version of 
 James' reign, published in 1611, had opened to 
 glorious Milton a realm of wondrous imagery. It 
 is not easy in our day to gauge the intellectual and 
 spiritual influence of the wide and free circulation 
 of a vernacular translation of the Bible upon the 
 thought of mediseval and modern Englishmen. As 
 the fairy tale fascinates the child mind, and as 
 Dickens and Scott appeal to maturer readers, so 
 the old world stories of the Hebrew Scriptures 
 gripped the imagination and awakened the under- 
 standing of the farmer, the mechanic, and the 
 tradesman. They read and re-read Bible pages until 
 sacred history saturated their minds, and sacred 
 phraseology dominated their every-day speech. 
 But familiarity engendered cant. It is noticeable 
 of Puritanism as a movement, that its adherents of 
 the rank and file, held to an unbalanced inter- 
 pretation of the teaching of Holy Scripture. They 
 searched its passages to find an endorsement of 
 their political objects. They sought benediction 
 rather than instruction. Such a practice often 
 landed them in illogical positions. A clergyman 
 summoned before Parliament as a Recusant, 
 refused to admit its paramount authority. " I am 
 commanded by the sacred word," he asserted, "to 
 fear God and honour the King. I find there no 
 
XXVIU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 mention of Parliament." Those stern men of 
 inflexible will whose iinflincliing faith in the 
 justice of the revolutionary movement bore them 
 on over battlefields drenched with human blood, 
 drew their inspiration from the narrow and unin- 
 formed thought of Hebrew literature accepted 
 literally. When Oliver Cromwell stood on the 
 hillside at Dunbar in September, 1650, and watched 
 his troopers charge the soldiers of Leslie, he ex- 
 claimed rapturously " jS'ow let God arise and let 
 his enemies be scattered," yet those flying enemies 
 of Cromwell would have recited the self same texts 
 as a Te Deum, had they proved victorious. 
 
 The advent of the Bible to the homes of the 
 middle classes enlarged their conception of truth, 
 but they failed to understand that broad and 
 definite principle of charity, that is destined to 
 influence men to further the Divine purpose in the 
 domestic circle and in the state. They became 
 impatient of the old lights of ritual and priest- 
 craft, and carried their preference for simplicity 
 of worship to the extreme of dulness, yet at the 
 mean of these extremes we find the strong and noble 
 element of puritanism. In the manses scattered 
 over the land many learned and cultured divines 
 watched the developments of the movement with 
 pain. They would have gladly given their aid 
 to reform the Government of England, but they 
 could not bless the irreverent hands put foii;h to 
 destroy it. 
 
 PUBLIC LECTURERS. 
 
 The growth of the religious renaissance of the 
 close of the 16th century led to the appointment 
 of Public Lecturers in the large provincial towns. 
 Some of the most cultured and most stalwart 
 
INTRODrCTIOX. XXIX 
 
 ministers of tJie period lield these appointments. 
 Leicester enjoyed the ministrations of Mr. John 
 Angel, a scholar, a fervent Puritan, and a whole- 
 hearted Christian. The appointment was made 
 by the Town Council subject to the King's approval. 
 Mr. Angel's instructions required him to preach 
 daily in both St. Martin's Church and the chapel 
 of the Newark Hospital, and to deliver lectures 
 from time to time on religious and social subjects. 
 
 JOHN ANGEL. 
 
 His intelligence and culture, combined with his 
 unwearying zeal, won for him a warm place in the 
 hearts of Leicester people, and rendered an 
 immense service to the Puritan cause. Of all 
 the brave public men of bygone Leicester few have 
 left behind an influence so sweet and pure as 
 he. jSTo sculptured monument or graven memorial 
 stone proclaims his virtues to our generation and 
 points the moral of a noble life, but the student 
 who loves the seclusion of the ancient Elizabethan 
 Guildhall lingers there, to finger the yellow pages 
 of the folios that John Angel collected and housed 
 upon the shelves, and think great thoughts. They 
 are the actual books John Angel used to read. His 
 loving care catalogued them. In 1632, the year 
 Mr. Hildersham died at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, after 
 long and continuous consultations with the 
 Council, he obtained permission to transfer 
 them to the Guildhall. He spent many toilsome 
 days superintending their removal ; he instructed 
 the carpenters about the shelves, and ranged the 
 volumes in their proper places. xVt length, with 
 a thrill of joy, he caused the doors to be flung open 
 and welcomed the public to enjoy his treasures. 
 Puritan divines, book-loving burgesses, and 
 studious youths gathered in the quaint old rooms. 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Sturdy citizens, who thirteen years later would 
 spill their blood for conscience sake at Rupert's 
 breach in Leicester wall, sat on the benches, 
 adjusted their horn-rimmed barnacles, and settled 
 down to read these very books, now musty with 
 age. The town authorities have preserved them 
 more or less carefully, and after two hundred and 
 seventy years they remain, a fitting and a noble 
 memorial of John Angel. 
 
 THE ANCIENT GUILDHALL. 
 
 We linger in the chief apartment of the ancient 
 Guildhall. It is the Council Chamber. Standing 
 under its gables and rafters and glancing at its 
 unsymmetrical proportions, the visitor's first im- 
 pulse is to remove his hat in reverence to the past. 
 
 In the tiny loft opposite the Mayoral bench 
 Queen Elizabeth once sat, surrounded by her 
 maidens, watching a company of players. From 
 the Mayoral seat canny King James scolded his 
 judges, and his son King Charles I. pleaded with 
 the stubborn burgesses on the eve of the civil war. 
 Many illustrious men have gathered in this room. 
 Henry fifth Earl of Huntingdon, infirm and 
 recluse, and Henry Earl of Stamford, sinister and 
 mercenary, have met with chilly greeting to tran- 
 sact county business. Imagination embodies 
 them out of thin air, and others of their con- 
 temporaries. Henry Hastings, Lord Lough- 
 borough as he afterwards became, brought the 
 Commission of Array here, handing it to the Town 
 Clerk to translate, and transacted business with the 
 Council during the brief fortnight he held the 
 Governorship of Leicester for the King. Oliver 
 Cromwell and Sir Thomas Fairfax came after their 
 victory at Naseby in thick riding boots and 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXI 
 
 clanking spurs, to be congratulated on the re- 
 capture of the town, Sir John Gell, course and 
 vicious. Colonel Hutchinson, reluctant regicide. 
 Lord Grey of Grobj, visionary and lovable. Sir 
 John Hartopp, devotee of the wine cup, and Colonel 
 Bagot, the brave defender of Lichfield, have all 
 visited this old Council Chamber, intent upon the 
 business of the civil war. But the tongues once 
 eloquent to plead, or potent to command, have 
 mouldered into dust. 
 
 " These our actors, as I foretold you, are all 
 spirits and are melted into thin air." 
 
 And the old rafters, black and worm-eaten, and 
 the thick walls, growing decrepit with age, alone 
 are left. 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A.D. 1460-1485. 
 
 OUR first acquaintance with the Castle intro- 
 duces to our notice a great personage of 
 the declining mediaeval age, a man who largely held 
 the fortunes of England in his mailed hand. 
 
 We recall the dark and barbarous epoch of the 
 Wars of the Roses, when the candle of the ancient 
 chivalry had almost flickered out, and the bloody 
 dynastic quarrel of the rival houses of Lancaster 
 and York convulsed the realm of England. The 
 story of the first baron dates backward to the root 
 period of that horrible dispute, reanimating such 
 old world characters as saintly Henry, vindictive 
 Margaret, heroic young Edward of Lancaster, and 
 the ambitious Duke of York. 
 
 KIUBY MUXLOE. 
 
 A curious interest centres in the ruins of the 
 ancient brick castle of Kirby Muxloe, more real 
 than the unsupported tradition that Jane Shore 
 once languished therein, a prisoner of love, and 
 pining for the society of London. The time-worn 
 walls still invite the passing interest of the traveller, 
 chiefly because their substance is of unusual bricks. 
 
 2 
 
Z ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 Ill the rude days of tlie early 15tli century a 
 fortress stood upon their site, that passed by 
 inheritance to a retainer and knight of the House 
 of York, Sir Leonard Hastings, and in which he 
 established his home. Little is known of Sir 
 Leonard but this, that nature endowed him with 
 an aspiring ambition. He boasted a lineal 
 descent from William Hastings, a steward of 
 Henry II., and through him from Norman pro- 
 genitors. By dint of hard blows and unflinching 
 fidelity to his Lord, Leonard Hastings won his 
 knighthood, but rose no higher m the social scale. 
 Fate had not ordained that he should make a great 
 name, but it had decreed that he should found an 
 illustrious family. The shrewd knight, however, 
 did for his coming heirs the greatest service open 
 to human judgment, by giving them a noble 
 ancestress. In the sunny south at Lord Camoy's 
 castle in Sussex, he wooed and won his bride, the 
 gentle Alice, the daughter of the Castle. There 
 is to-day in Trotton Church a monumental brass, 
 that brings us in touch with the grandfather of 
 the Lady Alice ; the inscription reads : — 
 
 "Pray for the souls of Thomas Camoys and 
 Elizabeth his consort, who formerly was Lord 
 of Camoys, baron and prudent counsellor of 
 the King and Kingdom of England, and a valiant 
 Knight of the Garter. He commended his soul 
 to Christ the 28th day of the month of March, 
 A.D., 1419. On whose souls may God have 
 mercy. Amen." 
 
 WILLIAM HASTINGS. 
 
 At Kirby Muxloe Castle the Lady Alice gave 
 birth in 1430 to a son, whom they christened 
 William, and who was destined to build Ashby 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 3 
 
 Castle, and found the Huntingdon family. No 
 information is preserved of the childhood and boy- 
 hood of young Hastings. Frequently his father 
 quitted the castle with his men-at-arms to render 
 feudal service to his lord ; leaving the boy to his 
 mother's sole care. In her delightful companion- 
 ship he learnt those courtly manners for which he 
 became distinguished in after days. It would be 
 the office of Sir Leonard's forester and keeper of 
 the hawks to train the boy in manly field sports, 
 and the grooms would see to it that his skill in 
 horsemanship would be sufficiently expert to win 
 a nod of approval from the war-like knight. When 
 young Hastings had attained his sixteenth year 
 Sir Leonard bade him kiss the Lady Alice and 
 accompany him on his long ride to Fotheringay, 
 w^here he presented him to his patron the Duke of 
 York. Hichard received the youth into his house- 
 hold as a page, in which capacity he soon attracted 
 attention, and received an appointment to be one 
 of his lord's body squires. After several years of 
 indomitable service the young squire obtained the 
 coveted distinction of knighthood. The Duke 
 himself bestowed the accolade with it, granting 
 him a conditional annuity. 
 
 THE HASTINGS VOW. 
 
 The condition bound Hastings on solemn oath 
 to serve his lord, before all others, and at all times, 
 his allegiance to the King only excepted. In the 
 unsettled and brutal years of the early fifteenth 
 century, men regarded fidelity as the supreme 
 virtue, a basal principle of feudalism. It be- 
 hoved the ambitious and Royal Duke, in view of 
 the rough pathway that lay before him, to bind 
 his young retainer (with his chivalrous instincts 
 
4 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 and his courtly manners) fast to liis personal 
 interest. In doing this he served the future of his- 
 dynasty. History unfolds the noble record of 
 young Hastings' faithfulness to him personally, 
 and to his heirs; in council chambers, on 
 battlefields, and at the fatal block on Tower Green. 
 He gave his master a consistent love and reverence, 
 that gold could not purchase. In the light of a 
 bond so lasting between feudal lord and retainer 
 it is easy to understand Hastings' horror, when he 
 heard of young Rutland's death and how vin- 
 dictive Margaret had ordered the Duke's decapi- 
 tated head to be crowned with a paper diadem and 
 fixed upon a pike to a gateway of York. 
 
 The deed of unwonted barbarity awakened a 
 desire for vengeance in the heart of every soldier 
 of the White Hose. Duke Edward grasped the 
 sword of his fallen father, and with the assistance 
 of the King Maker, the Duke of Buckingham, 
 Lords Howard and Stanley, and Sir William 
 Hastings, infused his own determinate will into 
 the minds of all his followers. He met the Lan- 
 castrian forces on the field of Towton. The battle 
 raged six hours, in a blinding snowstorm. Sixty 
 thousand men are said to have been engaged on 
 each side, and the slaughter to have been incredible. 
 
 TOWTON. 
 
 The Yorkest herald afterwards declared he counted 
 2,000 Lancastrian dead. Each side fought with 
 desperate bravery, and Edward's losses must have 
 equalled those of Margaret. 
 
 When the fortunes of war appeared to be setting 
 against the Yorkists, the King-maker dismounted, 
 and with his own hand slew his famous destrier, 
 declaring he would either win the victory or die 
 
THE BFILDER OF THE CASTLE. 5 
 
 upon the field. The personality of the renowned 
 leader and his theatrical deed re-animated the 
 Yorkists. Knights and squires gripped their 
 swords anew, yeomen rebent their bows, the ranks 
 closed in, and Edward won the battle. 
 
 A FILIAL DUTY. 
 
 The following day, his mind intent upon the 
 fulfilment of a filial duty long deferred, the 
 Conqueror led his army to York. Lifting his 
 tearful eyes to the summit of the groined archway, 
 he commanded his knights to remove with reverent 
 hands the mutilated remains, and give them holy 
 burial. 
 
 Eight years of unrest and intrigue for England 
 followed the victory of Towton, but years of fortune 
 building for Sir William Hastings. 
 
 King Edward, with all his faults, knew how to 
 estimate the value of the service his father's knight 
 had rendered to him. He had climbed with mailed 
 feet and bloody sword the steps of the throne of 
 England, seating himself in Henry's place; and 
 from its high altitude he reached down a gracious 
 hand to lift Sir William Hastings to a foremost 
 place in the peerage. With the barony he 
 bestowed offices and wealth. 
 
 In 1461, the year of his accession, he conferred 
 upon him the receivership of the Duchy of Corn- 
 wall, appointed him to the Mastership of the Mint, 
 exalted him to be Grand Chamberlain of England 
 (a position he retained until the day of his death), 
 and Chamberlain of Wales. 
 
 We cannot wonder at the weight of honours the 
 sovereign conferred upon his beloved servant, as 
 he was wont to describe him. Fuller tells us, 
 " the reader needeth not my dim candle to direct 
 
b ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 him, to this illustrious person whom Edward TV, 
 (or rather Edward Plantaganet, because more in 
 human than in royal capacity) so delighted in, that 
 he made him his Lord Chamberlain, and Baron 
 Hastings of Ashby-de-la-Zouch." 
 
 But clouds began to lower over the gaiety and 
 profligacy of Edward's court. The Woodville 
 marriage, followed by an unreasonable elevation 
 of the Queen's relatives, alienated numbers of his 
 subjects, and inclined others to the Lancastrian 
 interest. The haughty King-maker retired in 
 sullen anger to Middleham. Without openly 
 revolting from Edward's cause he held aloof during 
 the rebellion of Robin Redesdale, allowing that 
 leader to defeat the royal forces at ISTorthampton 
 and execute the Queen's father and brother, Earl 
 Rivers and Sir John Woodville. Contemporary 
 writers describe him as a consummate intriguer, an 
 able commander, but wanting in personal bravery. 
 His towering ambition moved him to aspire to be 
 the ancestor of a dynasty. In furtherance of that 
 end he accomplished the marriage of Clarence to 
 his daughter Isabel in defiance of the King's veto. 
 The defeat at Northampton left Edward without a 
 following, led to his capture by Clarence and 
 Warwick, and his committal to the custody of the 
 Archbishop of York, who entertained him with 
 
 MIDDLEHAM CASTLE. 
 
 splendid hospitality at Middleham. The records 
 of this period are uncertain and conflicting, but 
 it appears that while the King alternately fumed 
 and played the gallant, Gloucester and Hastings 
 worked upon the fears of the Archbishop, stirred 
 up the army to demand his release, and procured 
 his liberation. 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 7 
 
 During tlie King's imprisonment disaffection 
 increased. Everywhere the memory of the deposed 
 dynasty revived. People contrasted the saintly 
 character of Henry, the pathetic prisoner of the 
 Tower, with Edward's voluptuous licentiousness, 
 and the high-born Margaret with his commoner 
 Queen. 
 
 The position of affairs all over the country 
 became sufficiently perilous to awaken him; he 
 saw the crown slipping from his brow, and dis- 
 content and rebellion undermining the foundations 
 of his throne. Gloucester and Hastings, his 
 loyalist lieutenants, urged him to activity. Besides, 
 his imprisonment had roused his lion spirit, and 
 the ablest military commander in England set 
 himself the task of reconquering his Kingdom. By 
 a series of rapid marches he scoured the counties, 
 everywhere defeating his enemies, and inflicting 
 vindictive vengeance until for a brief period he re- 
 gained something of his old ascendency, then 
 practically disbanded his army, and relapsed into 
 his sensuous pleasures. 
 
 But he had only scotched the snake, not slain 
 it. Warwick, with Clarence driven from the 
 country by his recent campaign, fled to France, 
 where a great amity existed between Louis XI. and 
 the King-maker. 
 
 At the French King's Court Warwick met 
 Margaret, and by the mediation of the King, 
 became reconciled to her, at the same time 
 negotiating a marriage between his youngest 
 daughter, Gloucester's sweetheart, and the young 
 Prince Edward of Wales, thus lifting a second 
 daughter upon the steps of the English throne. 
 
 It was the darkest hour of King Edward's 
 fortunes, yet he knew it not. Courtiers who had 
 
8 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 basked in the sunshine of his court; nobles who 
 had shared his wanton amusements; and states- 
 men who had taken part in the deliberations of 
 his Council Chamber, intrigued with his enemies. 
 Gloucester, Hastings, Dorset, and others noted 
 what was passing, but Edward would not heed 
 them. He had experienced the consummation of 
 his rough and ambitious father's wildest dreams; 
 he had grown accustomed to think of Henry as a 
 prisoner in the Tower, and of Margaret and Prince 
 Edward as exiles. It remained for the Grand 
 Chamberlain, his beloved servant, to tell him the 
 stern truth, and tender to him advice repugnant to 
 a warrior King who had won his crown by 
 conquest. 
 
 In France the spirit of invasion filled the minds 
 of Margaret and her exiled followers, while the 
 wary King-maker laid his plans and prepared his 
 armaments. The intelligence of his successful 
 debarkment at Portsmouth on September 17th, 
 1470, aroused Edward from his unholy indolence. 
 Whilst the King-maker advanced northwards 
 through London everywhere proclaiming King 
 Henry towards Nottingham, he moved from 
 Doncaster to meet him. On the banks of the 
 Welland he found himself surrounded by foes. 
 The King-maker had approached within a day's 
 march, and Lord Montacute, his brother, had 
 hurried from York with 6,000 men wearing red 
 roses in their caps, and shouting *' God save King 
 Henry." His great lords sent a minstrel into 
 Edward's tent to awaken him, and warn him of 
 his danger. Sitting up in bed he called for his 
 nobles and commanded them to set his troops in 
 
 HASTINGS' ADVICE. 
 
 battle array. Then it was while the lords looked 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 9 
 
 askance at eacli other, that the Grand Chamberlain 
 told him the truth, how not a single regiment of 
 his army could be relied upon, and that to insure 
 his personal safety he must on the instant flee to 
 the court of his brother-in-law, the Duke of 
 Burgundy. The King assented, and accompanied 
 by the Duke of Gloucester, Earl Rivers, Lord 
 Hastings and six other nobles, and escorted by a 
 select company of faithful soldiers, rode over the 
 bridge where he had set a guard to arrest 
 Warwick's advance, and made his way at full 
 gallop to King's Lynn. Hastings accompanied 
 his sovereign in the first vessel available to 
 Holland. Their flight had been so precipitate that 
 on boarding they discovered that they possessed no 
 money or valuables. The captain, however, 
 received them kindly, accepting in payment for 
 their passage the King's fur-lined cloak and 
 promises of future reward. On quitting his army 
 Edward advised his soldiers to join Warwick until 
 his return, a recommendation that expressed the 
 treacherous character of baronnial warfare. Land- 
 ing in Holland at the end of September, the exiles 
 made their way to the Duke of Burgundy's capital, 
 and flung themselves upon his unwilling hos- 
 pitality. While Warwick ruled in England in 
 King Henry's name, coaxing Clarence's fickle 
 alliance with unsubstantial titles, and seeking to 
 win the confidence of suspicious Margaret, Edward 
 waited impatiently his opportunity through the 
 winter months, his queen a prisoner in the 
 sanctuary at Westminster, in that lone condition 
 when a wife most needs her husband's sympathy. 
 In February he could no longer restrain his im- 
 patience, and resolved to put his fortunes to the 
 hazard. " Upon the morn Wednesday and Thurs- 
 
10 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 day, the 13tli day of Marcli, fell great storms, winds 
 and tempests upon the sea ; so that on the 13th day 
 in great torment he came to Humberhede, where 
 the other ships were dissevered from him. The 
 King, with his ship alone, wherein was the Lord 
 Hastings, his Chamberlain, and others to the 
 number of 500 well-chosen men, landed within 
 Humber, on the Holderness side, at a place called 
 Ravenspoure. The King's brother Eichard, Duke 
 of Gloucester, and in his company 200 men, landed 
 at another place three miles from thence." 
 
 Advancing southward Hastings left the King to 
 raise the Yorkish banner amongst his own tenantry 
 in Leicestershire. 
 
 In response to his call men of all social ranks 
 gathered around him, some volunteering out of love 
 of adventure, but chiefly those who owed him feudal 
 service. 
 
 Burgesses from Leicester provided with pikes 
 of home manufacture, knights and esquires from 
 halls and granges armed cap a pie, his own re- 
 tainers, trained men of war, and yeomen from the 
 farms with long bows, answered his summons. The 
 task of equipping such a force set the forges in the 
 villages all aglow, and awakened the music of 
 armourer's hammers ; while foraging parties 
 scoured the county. The Lord Chamberlain's com- 
 mand stirred Leicestershire to an unwonted 
 activity, and speedily he found himself in a posi- 
 tion to join his master with a force of 3,000 men. 
 
 BARNET. 
 
 On Easter Sunday, April 14th, 1470, the famed 
 King-maker met his fate at Barnet. His ambitious 
 course of scheming and treachery had reached its 
 period. He might have secured his personal safety 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 11 
 
 by responding to Edward's advances, as his weak 
 son-in-law Clarence did, but sncb a step would 
 have left him without a rag of honour to clothe his 
 nakedness, and exposed his wife and child to 
 Margaret's vengeance. Besides, he had no hope 
 he could regain Edward's hearty confidence, he 
 had made the breach too wide. So in the damp 
 fog he prepared to engage in his last battle. Each 
 side fought not merely for supremacy, but for 
 existence. The combat may be fittingly described 
 as the Battle of Blunders. 
 
 King Edward rode from London to Bamet the 
 previous evening in the fog, to find on his arrival, 
 Warwick's army well-arranged in battle array. 
 Friar Bungay, the astrologer of Jacquetta, the 
 Queen's mother, was credited at the time with 
 having caused the fog by magic arts. The atmos- 
 phere on the eve of the battle was so dense that the 
 Yorkists found themselves unable to effect a skilful 
 deposition of their forces, because they could not 
 reconnoitre the Lancastrian position. By a 
 strange blunder they massed their men, so as to 
 cover the King-maker's centre with their right 
 wing, leaving their left wing stretched beyond the 
 battlefield. Had the day dawned clear such a 
 mistake would have caused the annihilation of 
 Edward's army. But at four o'clock in the morning 
 when the battle commenced the fog had not lifted. 
 The left wing of each army, advancing in the fog, 
 found no resistance, and in consequence moved for 
 their centre. By this manoeuvre Warwick's left 
 wing overpowered Edward's right, dispersing it, 
 and pursuing the fugitives along the London Eoad. 
 Meanwhile, the King-maker, suspecting the fidelity 
 of his brother Montacute, persuaded him to dis- 
 mount and fight on foot beside himself. The Yorkist 
 
12 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 left, encountering no opposition, also moved to- 
 wards its centre, so strengthening the pressure 
 round the King-maker. Edward and his soldiers, 
 wearing a device of the sun with rays, pressed like 
 an overwhelming avalanche upon Warwick. 
 Everywhere in the dim morning twilight the eyes 
 of the sorely-beset Lancastrians encountered suns 
 and rays. Unfortunately for them, the Earl of 
 Oxford (who had succeeded in dispersing and pur- 
 suing the Yorkist right) at this juncture returned 
 to re-inforce Warwick, but his men carried badges 
 of stars and rays. The Lancastrians, mistaking 
 them for Yorkists, attacked them fiercely, giving 
 King Edward an opportunity he was too expect a 
 general to neglect, of delivering a final assault that 
 completely scattered them. 
 
 The King-maker, perceiving the hopelessness of 
 his rout, turned with his brother and a few faith- 
 ful followers, and fled for the shelter of a neigh- 
 bouring plantation ; but his armour both checked 
 his pace, and by its familiarit}'- attracted the pur- 
 suit of the Yorkist men-at-arms ; who speedily 
 overtook and despatched him. With his back to 
 the foe the great King-maker, the last of the barons, 
 died. Four hours of fighting had destroyed his 
 power. 
 
 At ten o'clock that Easter morning, whilst over 
 the fields of England and in the towns the merry 
 bells chimed out their invitation to the house of 
 prayer, a group of illustrious personages gathered 
 round the cor])se of the head of the house of Neville, 
 who had filled England and the Continent with his 
 commanding influence. 
 
 His son-in-law Clarence, his cousin King 
 Edward, his relative by marriage the Lord Cham- 
 berlain (who had commanded a division in the 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 13 
 
 battle), and tlie Duke of Gloucester (his cousin, 
 who aspired to a nearer relationship), gathered 
 around his body lying like carrion on the ground. 
 They had shared with him the dangers of former 
 battlefields, his duplicity had roused their indig- 
 nation, and no man shed a tear. 
 
 But Gloucester (a youth of eighteen) remembered 
 past days, when as a boy he had shared the affluent 
 hospitality of lordly Middleham, and played with 
 Anne Neville, the sweetheart whom the dead man 
 had affianced to a rival prince ; but whom he 
 would some day make his wife, the mother of his 
 children, and seat upon the throne of England. 
 
 Margaret's landing. 
 
 In the same fog that caused confusion on the 
 battlefield of Barnet, Queen Margaret landed on 
 the southern coast. But the light of hope dimmed 
 in her eyes and her proud head drooped in despair 
 when she heard the news of Warwick's fate. Long 
 years of privation, of desertion, and of defeat had 
 tamed the spirit of the lioness. She had sailed to 
 England buoyed up by the thought, that the King- 
 maker s marvellous influence would liberate her 
 pious husband from the Tower and re-seat him on 
 the throne. xVt Cerne Abbey she heard of his death 
 and sank into a deadly swoon. Sir John Fortescue, 
 her faithful counsellor, with her son Prince 
 Edward and his youthful affianced bride, had 
 accompanied her from France. The new widowed 
 Countess of Warwick, who also had crossed the 
 Channel with the Queen, landed at Portsmouth, 
 and hearing of her loss, in mute despair sought 
 refuge in the Beaulieu Sanctuary. On recovering 
 consciousness the Queen bewailed her misfortunes, 
 declaring she would rather die than live; but 
 
14 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCII CASTLE. 
 
 her son comforted her, and persuaded her to go to 
 Beaulieu, where she met the Countess. The news 
 of her arrival at Beaulieu reached the ears of the 
 Lancastrian lords. The Duke of Somerset, Lords 
 Devonshire, Oxford, Wenlock, and many knights 
 and gentlemen hurried to her, bidding her hope 
 for better fortune. They informed her that 
 fugitives from Barnet, and volunteers from the 
 southern counties were daily joining her standard, 
 that the Earl of Pembroke had raised an army in 
 Wales, and if her Majesty and the Prince would 
 lead them into the Principality they pleaded, her 
 combined army would be sufficient to resist 
 any force that Edward could bring against it. 
 Margaret expressed her willingness to accompany 
 them, on condition they first despatched the Prince 
 to France. Her maternal heart shrunk from the 
 thought of exposing her noble boy to the dangers 
 of the battlefield. To such an exception, however, 
 the Prince himself would not agree. His chival- 
 rous spirit could not brook the thought of others 
 fighting for his father's liberty and crown, while 
 he remained a craven in easeful security abroad. 
 Where the Queen and her army marched he would 
 accompany them. His protests bore down Mar- 
 garet's opposition and wrung from her a reluctant 
 consent. " Well be it so," she said, and to her 
 dying day she cursed the hour she spoke the words. 
 She appointed the Duke of Somerset commander 
 of her forces. That nobleman proposed an ex- 
 pedition into Wales, to effect a junction with Lord 
 Pembroke, and proceed to Chester. But the Yorkist 
 King, by one of his accustomed rapid movements, 
 blocked their way. On April 19th he left London, 
 on May 3rd he reached Tewkesbury at earlv morn 
 and encamped his army. When the Lancastrians 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 15 
 
 arrived at Gloucester, they found to their con- 
 sternation that the citizens had fortified the bridge, 
 and refused them a passage over the river. The 
 alternative was a forced march to Tewkesbury, 
 over rough and dirty roads, with an insufficient 
 commissariat. The army was dispirited by reason 
 of the privations it had already encountered, and 
 Margaret, shrewder than her general, would have 
 postponed the journey, but Somerset insisted. The 
 army reached Tewkesbury in a bedraggled con- 
 dition, the soldiers weary, hungry, and dispirited, 
 to find the Yorkist King's army comfortably 
 bivouaced, well fed, and rested, and drawn up in 
 battle array upon the low lands beside the river. 
 At the sight of her rival's well-ordered appoint- 
 ments Margaret and her experienced officers again 
 desired to retire, but Somerset refused. He drew 
 his forces up in the park, declaring he w^ould take 
 upon the morrow such fortunes as Grod should grant 
 him. The battle that ensued destroyed for 
 
 TEWKESBURY. 
 
 ever the weary Queen's hopes. The fight at 
 Barnet had been a knightly duel, the conflict at 
 Tewkesbury proved a disastrous rout. When the 
 Queen watched her regiments fly before the vic- 
 torious Yorkists she endeavoured to rush to them, 
 that she might implore them to renew their efforts, 
 but her attendants hurried her with her daughter- 
 in-law away from the scene of carnage to a neigh- 
 bouring monastery. King Edward, in his early 
 years so chivalrous and merciful, had steeled his 
 heart when he entered upon his final campaign, 
 and on the field of Tewkesbury allowed his soldiery 
 a license that resulted in a carnage that has left 
 a stain upon his memory. Thousands of Lan- 
 
16 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 castriaus were murdered on the field in cold blood. 
 Even the rights of sanctuary honoured by belli- 
 gerents for centuries were ignored. Edward and 
 his Queen had each in past days availed themselves 
 of the safety it afforded. But when the Duke of 
 Somerset, the prior of St. John, and a body of 
 knights sought refuge in the grand old church, he 
 pursued them sword in hand. A brave priest 
 (holding the sacred elements in his hand) inter- 
 posed, nor would he allow him to pass until the 
 King had vowed to respect the solemnity of God's 
 house. He promised, yet a day or tAvo later ordered 
 the refugees to be dragged from the church, and 
 put to death. But the pathos of that bloody battle 
 day at Tewkesbury centres in the person of the 
 gallant Prince Edward. The version of the incident 
 long accepted by historians tells us that at the 
 head of a division he fought amongst the bravest, 
 even after all was lost. Sir Richard Crofts led him 
 a captive into Edward's tent. The King demanded 
 of him, " How dare you enter my realm with 
 banners displayed." 
 
 The Prince stood before his ancestral foe alone, 
 unsupported by a solitary friend, but undaunted ; 
 and looking calmly into his eyes replied, " To 
 recover my father's kingdom, and heritage from 
 his grandfather and father to him, and from him 
 to me lineally descended." 
 
 The King turned his head aside, with his hand 
 pushing the knightly youth from him, and then, 
 as by an involuntary impulse, struck the captive 
 with his iron gauntlet. History in its long annals 
 records no deed more unchivalrous ; it appealed 
 to passions already pulsating with the fever throb 
 of war ; it recalled the memory of the boy Earl of 
 Rutland kneeling upon the field of Wakefield to 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 17 
 
 fiendish. Clifford, begging for life, and receiving 
 in reply a stab of bis dagger ; it reminded tbem of 
 that other scene at Wakefield when the Lancas- 
 trians seated the captnred Duke of York upon an 
 ant hill and mocked him, crying, " Hail, King 
 without a kingdom," " Hail, Prince without a 
 people," and then beheaded him; the bitterness 
 of ancient and cherished vows of vengeance filled 
 the hearts of the knights and squires grouped 
 arovmd the King, at the opportunity to bring home 
 to Margaret in the person of her beloved son her 
 vindictive cruelty at Wakefield. No man inter- 
 posed ; no man uttered a generous word of mercy ; 
 but several knights, unsheathing their daggers (foi 
 the hideous work was too close for swords), stepped 
 towards the Prince and plunged them into his 
 heart. No reliable authority records their names ; 
 it was well for the Lord Chamberlain in bis deatb 
 hour and at the day of judgment, if he could say 
 kis hands were clean of the defenceless victim's 
 blood. It was a foul price to pay for a royal crown ; 
 even though it purchased for the Yorkist King 
 immunity from opposition for all his future life. 
 For full four hundred years gentle hearts have 
 shed tears of pity for the Eoyal Martyr. But his 
 death gave England peace, quenching with his 
 blood the smouldering flames of war. 
 
 BUILDING THE CASTLE. 
 
 And now Lord Hastings having in modem par- 
 lance made his fortune, addressed himself to the 
 task of building a house in keeping with his 
 greatness, worthy to serve as a home for his suc- 
 ceeding heirs. He had won the hand of the young 
 and wealthy widow of Lord Bonville in marriage, 
 the daughter of Eichard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, 
 3 
 
18 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 and obtained tlirougli the Neville interest the 
 castle and manor of Belvoir. King Edward had 
 already conferred upon him the manor of Ashby- 
 de-la-Zonch and the Stewardship of Leicester 
 Castle, making him lord of a wide area round his 
 birthplace. 
 
 Men everywhere cling to the neighbourhood of 
 their nativity; and in consonance with this in- 
 stinct invariable in human life, Lord Hastings 
 selected a site at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Living as 
 he did in the period of declining feudalism, when 
 authority centred in the person of the King, and 
 the last of the barons who had dared to oppose the 
 royal will had perished on Barnet field, he deemed 
 it no longer necessary or wise to attempt the con- 
 struction of a stronghold of Norman architecture. 
 Indeed, had he cherished such an idea the King 
 would have forbidden its accomplishment. He 
 therefore submitted to Edward the plan of a modern 
 fifteenth century mansion, of graceful proportions, 
 but massive strength, in which he retained that 
 essential and supreme refuge of a defence a 
 Norman keep, alike the architectural glory and 
 the protection of the building. The architect's 
 design included state rooms, banqueting hall, 
 sleeping apartments, garrison quarters, armoury, 
 buttery, kitchens, and stables, built into substantial 
 walls, ornamented with battlements, and flanked 
 with towers and turrets. The parapets were con- 
 trived to enable a beleaguered household to pour 
 boiling water and molten lead upon the heads of 
 assailants. The shrewd baron retained the essential 
 principles of feudal defence, disguised by the orna- 
 mental display of the later palatial style. The 
 spacious dimensions of the kitchens manifest his 
 design to maintain a princely household. The task 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 19 
 
 of providing the materials of the fabric must have 
 taxed his ingenuity and resources. He demolished 
 the late residence of the attainted Earl of Ormond 
 that had passed into his possession, and drew 
 supplies from the quarries at Bardon Hill. The 
 royal license empowered him not only to erect the 
 Castle, but to empark 3,000 acres of land at Ashby, 
 2,000 at Bagworth, and 2,000 at Kirby Muxloe, 
 thereby extending the boundaries of his estate to 
 the walls of Leicester. The preliminary royal 
 sanction obtained, Lord Hastings set the gigantic 
 building operations in motion, bringing an army of 
 artificers in wood and stone and iron to Ashby. 
 While the walls rose slowly to the music of the 
 trowel, he occupied himself v-ith the stupendous 
 and costly preparation for furnishing. The Grand 
 Chamberlain's new palace became a topic of con- 
 versation at Court, as well as in continental palaces, 
 and interested the King himself. His agents 
 wandered from city to city on the continent. From 
 the looms of Flanders, the factories of France, the 
 studios of Italy, and the armouries of Spain, they 
 collected carpets, tapestries, glass, plate, statuary, 
 arms, and armour; the stately oaks of Leicester- 
 shire, Derbyshire, ^Nottinghamshire, and Yorkshire 
 fell before his woodmen's axes ; and convoys of 
 wagons carted the timber to Ashby, where skilled 
 artisans planed and turned it into furniture ; 
 artists arrived from London to carve and gild on 
 walls and chattels ; and enormous quantities of 
 lead from the Derbyshire mines, brought on mules 
 and pack horses, supplied material for roofs and 
 windows. Presents, too, came from many sources. 
 Comines asserts that on the occasion of Lord 
 Hastings' ambassadorial mission to the Court of 
 France, the French King presented him with a 
 
20 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 service of plate valued at 10,000 marks. It con- 
 sisted of twelve dozen articles of gilt silver, and 
 twelve dozen of ungilt silver. The baron's acknow- 
 ledgment of th.e gift was preserved in the Paris 
 archives until the Revolution. 
 
 Step by step the work of building and furnishing 
 advanced to completion, until the palace stood 
 proudly in the sunshine surrounded by its flowery 
 pleasaunce and grassy park, then the steward 
 hoisted the Hastings' flag upon the keep, and the 
 Grand Chamberlain, richly clad and heralded by a 
 fanfare, led his high-born lady through the gate- 
 way and a lane of obsequious servitors to her 
 apartments, installing her as the first mistress of 
 the Castle, and ancestress of a long line of illus- 
 trious lords. 
 
 A king's FRIEND. 
 
 But Lord Hastings was destined to enjoy only at 
 intermittent periods the splendours of his palace 
 home. The duties of his high ofiices of State, and 
 even more the claims of the strong friendship that 
 existed between the King and himself fixed his 
 residence in London. On account of his well-tested 
 fidelity and of the saner views of life he held 
 Edward leaned on his counsel, and could not spare 
 him from his Court. 
 
 Comines knew him personally ; had met him in 
 affairs of State ; and has left on record his estimate 
 of him. He describes him as " a person of singular 
 wisdom and virtue; in great authority with his 
 master." 
 
 In Edward's reign corruption and avarice swayed 
 the conduct of diplomacy. The King venial the 
 great nobles pensioners of a foreign court, public 
 men found it difficult to maintain their personal 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 21 
 
 honour untarnislied. The Grand Chamberlain, like 
 his royal master, gave a willing ear, though a 
 reluctant consent, to the French King's advances, 
 but on receiving his bribe manifested a sense of 
 shame at the indignity of his conduct. Coleret, the 
 paymaster of Louis, on handing him one day his 
 pension, ventured timidly to suggest that a receipt 
 would be acceptable, but Hastings declined. 
 
 "Sir," he replied, "this present is from the 
 liberal pleasure of the King your master, not from 
 my request, if it be his determinate will that I 
 should have it, put it into my sleeve, if not return 
 it, for neither he nor you shall have it to brag that 
 the Lord Chamberlain of England has been his 
 pensioner." 
 
 In such an atmosphere of dishonour the un- 
 disciplined ambition of the Woodvilles found scope, 
 and sought to remove all who dared to oppose its 
 supremacy. It immured the Duke of Clarence in 
 the Tower and compassed his violent death. Lord 
 Hastings shared for a season his captivity, but the 
 arts of Jacquetta failed to induce Edward to listen 
 to any designs against the safety of his Chamber- 
 lain, whose liberation he commanded. His im- 
 prisonment, however, served to widen the breach 
 that already existed between the Queen's family 
 and himself. 
 
 THE king's DEATH. 
 
 In April, 148^3, the King sickened. He had be- 
 come at the age of 41 an old and broken man. A 
 life of debauchery had run its course, and had 
 reduced the once brave and chivalrous warrior to 
 a human wreckage. His bloated face, his un- 
 healthy corpulence, foreboded the near approach 
 of death, the muffled footfall of which quickened 
 
22 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 into action his noblest instincts. On that Golgotha, 
 to which his wayward course had led him, he 
 expressed an earnest solicitude for the future 
 welfare of his wife and children. He did not 
 under-estimate the bitter animosity the Queen and 
 her relatives had provoked ; he could not ; for he 
 himself had used their unscrupulous ambition as a 
 weapon to break the feudal power of his barons. 
 But Elizabeth Woodville had outstepped all 
 reasonable bounds ; had promoted the murder of 
 Clarence ; the humiliation of Gloucester ; the im- 
 prisonment of Hastings ; and had brought her 
 fortunes to this pass, that in the acute stage of her 
 bereavement she was likely, nay, certain, to find 
 the two most powerful men in the realm her 
 enemies. 
 
 Edward had never received cause to doubt his 
 brother's love ; on the battlefield and in exile he 
 had proved his fidelity; when Clarence rebelled 
 against him Gloucester clung to him ; and in his 
 extremity he called him to his bedside and com- 
 mended his children to his care. 
 
 There remained that other leal friend of long- 
 standing, the beloved servant Hastings. He made 
 him promise fidelity to Elizabeth and her children 
 and take the hands of Eivers and Dorset in amity, 
 then bade him, as he believed, a long farewell. In 
 the softening environment of death the monarch 
 failed to realise that in deed and in truth there 
 could be no mutual reconciliation between Eliza- 
 beth and Hastings ; that their thought and purpose 
 could advance along no common pathway. 
 
 To the interest of the young princes the Lord 
 Chamberlain readily pledged himself ; for fidelity 
 to them came as he deemed within the compass of 
 his knightly vow to Richard Duke of York. 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 23 
 
 GLOITCESTER AND HASTINGS. 
 
 Between the Diike of Gloucester and tlie Lord 
 Chamberlain a friendship existed that had ripened 
 from a long acquaintance. For a dozen years and 
 more a close companionship had inspired a mutual 
 respect and regard. They had shared the King's 
 exile, and fought side by side at Barnet and at 
 Tewkesbury. On the tented battlefield, at the 
 evening carousal, and in the Royal Council 
 Chamber Hastings had learned to admire Richard's 
 cautious bravery, his ready generosity, and his 
 shrewd sagacity. They had mutual tastes ; had 
 stood side by side at the cradle of printing and 
 literature. The rough occupation of war had failed 
 to engross their entire interest, and a common 
 culture had led them to enjoy and patronise the 
 gentler arts of music, painting, and poetry. 
 
 At Edward's funeral Hastings followed him with 
 mute sorrow to his grave, and saw him laid in the 
 choir of St. George's Chapel. He did not dream 
 that ere three months had elapsed he too would be 
 buried beside him. 
 
 He had failed to realise, even in the familiar and 
 unrestricted intercourse of a warlike camp, that an 
 ambition to possess the Crown secretly dominated 
 Richard's life ; that at the root of all his affability, 
 his. ^generosity, and his bravery, in his brother's 
 service, the worm of coveteousness gnawed in- 
 cessantly. He had associated for long years with 
 the apparent, and not the real man. Shakespeare 
 has put such a confession in his mouth : — 
 
 ' ' I think there's never a man in Christendom, 
 ' ' That can less hide his love or hate than he ; 
 " For by his face, straight shall you know his heart." 
 
 He returned from the graveside of the departed 
 
24 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 King anticipating no obstacle to the happy succes- 
 sion of the young Prince of Wales ; but suspicious 
 circumstances speedily disallusionised his mind. 
 At the Council meeting called on May 4th to 
 arrange the programme for the Coronation cere- 
 monies, it became apparent to all that Elizabeth 
 had no intention of laying aside the robes of 
 authority. The leopard cannot change his spots, 
 neither could she divest herself of her ambitious 
 projects. The effort of Dorset, Rivers, and Lisle 
 to place themselves in nearest proximity to the 
 royal person convinced Gloucester, Hastings, 
 Morton, and Stanley of the intention of the Wood- 
 villes to monopolise power. Such a monopoly would 
 have reduced Gloucester to a mere courtier, and 
 placed him and his associates, with their fortunes, 
 and their lives, at the mercy of their enemies. They 
 could not tolerate the thought that the men who 
 had resisted them in arms in the establishment of 
 the Yorkist supremacy, should by a woman's favour 
 step into the enjoyment of all the honours of hard 
 won victory. As the " Croydon Chronicle " states, 
 Hastings himself feared that if the supreme power 
 fell into the hands of those of the Queen's blood, 
 they would avenge the (imaginary) injuries which 
 they had received. The immediate desire of the 
 Woodvilles was to hurry on the young King's 
 Coronation, and retain his person under their 
 guardianship. The Coronation would have exalted 
 young Edward to sovereign and independent power, 
 abridging that interregnum in which Richard pro- 
 posed to exercise the prerogatives of Royalty. Such 
 a scheme Hastings could not further. He desired, 
 in accordance with his knightly vow, to see the 
 young King invested with the emblems of royalty, 
 but surrounded and influenced by the strong and 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 25 
 
 tried supporters of the Yorkist interest of whom 
 Gloucester, by nature as well as by ability, would 
 be tke leader. 
 
 That the Duke desired to usurp the throne, or 
 molest the person of the young King, he did not, 
 and, in spite of numerous warning, would not 
 believe. Loyal in heart, generous in disposition, 
 confiding in spirit, he attributed to his illustrious 
 friend those noble and knightly instincts that all 
 his life swayed his own conduct. 
 
 In such a spirit he seconded the Protector's deter- 
 mination to withdraw the King from the influence 
 of his uncles at Ludlow, and to instal him in the 
 Tower. When Elizabeth appealed to the Council 
 to despatch an army to escort her son to London 
 he, believing the King's safety to be assured under 
 Richard's protection, answered her impatiently, 
 " Did she wish to protect the Princes from their 
 own people or from their good uncle the Duke of 
 Gloucester P" 
 
 Undoubted evidence of a Woodville conspiracy to 
 overthrow the Protector communicated to him at 
 York by no less reliable a correspondent than the 
 Lord Chamberlain himself, recalled Richard from 
 York. 
 
 According to More, '" The Lord Hastings, whose 
 truth towards the King no man doubted, or needed 
 to doubt, persuaded the lords to believe that the 
 Duke of Gloucester was sure." His advice un- 
 doubtedly strengthened Gloucester's decision to 
 immediately remove Edward Y. from his uncles' 
 influence; indeed, such a step had become im- 
 perative if Richard proposed to retain any vestige of 
 authority, for Dorset had already seized the late 
 King's treasure, and had equipped a fleet without 
 consulting him. If we are to believe Polydore 
 
26 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOITCH CASTLE. 
 
 Yirgil, King Edward's will actually had appointed 
 Bichard the young King's guardian, but for some 
 mysterious reason the executors refused to act, and 
 in consequence the provisions of the will never be- 
 came public. 
 
 Arriving at Northampton, where he had arranged 
 to meet his nephews, the Protector learned to his 
 surprise that they had been hurried a day's march 
 forward, and that their maternal uncles alone re- 
 mained to submit " all things that had been done 
 to his decision." 
 
 The Protector appears not to have acted hastily, 
 but to have carefully considered the position, to 
 have waited for the arrival of Buckingham, and 
 after consulting with him and learning from him 
 the latest news from the capital, to have issued 
 orders for the arrest of Rivers and Grey. The 
 following day he journeyed to Stoney Stratford, 
 dismissed the King's servants, and replaced them 
 by members of his own suite. 
 
 E/Cturning to Northampton, he despatched a 
 messenger to Hastings with intelligence of his 
 action, requesting him to communicate the purport 
 of his letter to the lords of the counsel resident in 
 the metropolis. Hastings approved, for More tells 
 us, " Now there came one not long after midnight 
 from the Lord Chamberlain unto the Archbishop 
 of York, then Chancellor, and after communi- 
 cating to his Grace the arrest of the King and his 
 attendant lords, adds, ' Notwithstanding, Sir,' 
 quoth he, ' my lord sendeth your lordship word that 
 there is no fear ; for he assureth you that all shall 
 be well.'" 
 
 The news of her relative's arrest decided the 
 Queen to immediately seek sanctuary at West- 
 minster. Arriving in the metropolis, Gloucester 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 27 
 
 treated his nephew with consideration and respect, 
 riding uncovered before him and calling out to the 
 spectators in the streets, " Behold your Prince and 
 sovereign," and on their reaching the Bishop of 
 London's palace, summoning the lords spiritual 
 and temporal, together with the Lord Mayor and 
 Aldermen, to take the oath of allegiance. 
 
 No restriction seems to have been placed on free 
 access to the King, but the counsel met daily at the 
 episcopal palace. The Protector submitted his 
 action at Stoney Stratford to the counsel, who 
 approved it, and sanctioned the committal of Rivers 
 and Grey to Pomfret Castle. 
 
 And now the question of the young monarch's 
 future place of abode came before the considera- 
 tion of the Council. It was felt that the limited 
 accommodation of the palace imposed upon the 
 Prince an unnecessary restraint. Several suitable 
 places were mentioned. The Duke of Buckingham 
 proposed the Tower, a suggestion that at the first 
 mention evoked considerable opposition, but 
 eventually received unanimous support. To this 
 stage Gloucester and Hastings worked cordially 
 together. The Yorkist party had by this time 
 realised the latters' scheme ; they had obtained 
 possession of the King's person ; they alone could 
 in future control the government of England ; and 
 the Woodville influence had been overthrown. The 
 Lord Chancellor now desired to hasten the 
 Coronation, and place full regal powers in Richard's 
 hands until the King attained his majority. Such 
 a consummation would have fulfilled his knightly 
 vow and his late master's wishes. 
 
 CATESBY. 
 
 At this juncture a member of his household, a 
 
28 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 lawyer by training, emerged from obscurity into 
 notorious prominence, to play lago to bis master's 
 Otbelo. Catesby, a man well-learned in tbe law 
 of tbe land and of good authority, baving been 
 many years in Hastings' service, bad advanced to 
 a state of close intimacy and brotberly affection 
 witb bim, until bis master bad come to admit bim 
 to bis near and secret counsel. Hastings, open 
 and confiding, bad grown to use bim familiarly, 
 until in tbe most secret matters be put no man in 
 so special trust. Sir Tbomas More declares tbat 
 no man was so mucb bebolden to tbe Lord 
 Cbamberlain as Catesby. 
 
 Tbis Catesby made advances to E-icbard, and 
 became bis intermediary and spy. 
 
 Tbe Protector bad by tbis time decided to retain 
 tbe sovereign power. His ambitious spirit could 
 brook no retirement. Tbrougb Catesby be sub- 
 mitted a proposal to " take upon bim tbe crown 
 till tbe Prince came to tbe age of 24, and in tbat 
 interval to govern tbe realm as an able and suffi- 
 cient King." Catesby was instructed to " prove 
 witb some words cast out afar off " Hastings' mind. 
 In sucb a subtle temptation tbe transcendent 
 fidelity of tbe Lord Cbamberlain commands our 
 wondering admiration. He distrusted tbe Queen, 
 be bated ber relatives, and be loved Gloucester; 
 but be refused to break bis knigbtly oatb. 
 
 AVben otbers could be directly approacbed, even 
 tbe men be trusted dare only to cast out some words 
 afar off. He straightway without a semblance of 
 prevarication spoke out bis mind : — 
 
 ' ' That I'll give my voice on Richard's side 
 " To bar my master's heirs in true descent, 
 " God knows I will not do it— to the death." 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 29 
 
 His noble answer fixed his doom. The spy 
 reported to Eichard that ''he had spoken snch 
 terrible words that he durst no further break, and 
 fearing lest their motions might with the Lord 
 Hastings minish his credence, procured the Pro- 
 tector to hastily rid him." 
 
 Richard moved to the accomplishment of his 
 foul purpose witii hestitating steps. He loved his 
 victim well, and was loath to lose him, fearing lest 
 his life shoiild have quailed his purpose ; but he 
 plainly saw the impossibility of grasping the crown, 
 save over Hastings' corpse. Yet he determined to 
 give him another opportunity. More's account of 
 the final scene of the tragedy that ended Hastings' 
 life is dramatic ; Bishop Morton, who was present, 
 a determined foe of the Protector, furnished his 
 information : — 
 
 A Council meeting had been called for June 13th. 
 Stanley reiterated his warning to his friend to 
 absent himself; but in vain. The members had 
 been cunningly summoned, part to Westminster, 
 the remainder to the Tower, to Hastings' party the 
 summons announced the Tower as meeting place. 
 E-ichard entered the apartment gay and smiling 
 with pleasant greeting to the assembled lords. 
 Accosting Morton he complimented him upon the 
 strawberries his garden yielded, requesting the 
 favour of a basketful for breakfast, and retired. 
 
 In his absence the councillors commented on the 
 incident, some predicted evil, others declared their 
 inability to gauge the situation; but Hastings 
 remained unmoved. 
 
 " On my life, never doubt you " (quod the Lord 
 Hastings) when again warned to be circumspect, 
 " so surely thought he there could be none harm 
 
30 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOrCH CASTLE. 
 
 toward him in that counsel intended where Catesby 
 was." 
 
 " Marry that with no man he is oflFended, 
 
 " For were he, he had shown it in his looks." 
 
 Stanley had warned him to absent himself, the 
 pursuivant who met him on his journey to conduct 
 him to the Tower in state received him regretfully. 
 Dreams and omens had warned him away, and his 
 very horse had stumbled under him. Dark clouds 
 had gathered round him, and he knew it not ; for 
 to the blind man darkness and light are uniform 
 phases of a familiar environment. But what 
 meant these strawberry leaves, were they a bait 
 designed by Gloucester to tempt him with the 
 prospect of a ducal coronet. Who can say? 
 
 Richard returned in half-an-hour, but his 
 humour had changed. He knit his eyebrows, he 
 gnawed his under lip, and stretching out a werish 
 withered arm (a fiction), inquired of the 
 President : — 
 
 " Of what are they worthy who have compassed 
 the death of me, the King's Protector by nature as 
 well as by law?" 
 
 Hastings did not prevaricate, but answered : " To 
 be punished as heinous traitors, my gracious lord." 
 
 E/ichard moved assent, but with a chilling 
 reserve, and in further inquiry continued: — 
 
 " That is, that sorceress my brother's wife, and 
 her kindred," and waited. 
 
 Perhaps then the Lord Chamberlain realised the 
 force of vStanley's repeated warnings, and saw his 
 danger. Would his habitual love of truth and 
 justice triumph in so fierce a furnace of temptation, 
 would his deep-seated distrust of the Queen make 
 smooth the pathway of dishonour, but the only way 
 of safety. 
 
THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 31 
 
 His life depended on a cast. In a dense atmos- 
 pliere of anxiety his colleagues listened, Richard 
 himself shared their suspense, he woiild have wel- 
 comed an answer that would have bound a powerful 
 adherent to his interest by the unbreakable 
 traditional bond. It would have rendered his 
 usurpation easy of attainment ; but he had thrown 
 the dice — and lost. 
 
 Hastings replied in the frank and fearless 
 manner of old days : — 
 
 " Heinous, indeed, my gracious lord — if true." 
 
 The words sealed his doom. Richard struck the 
 table with his fist, and the chamber filled with 
 armed men. 
 
 " Comest thou to me with ' ifs,' traitor," he cried. 
 I will make good thine answer on thine own body. 
 I arrest thee, shrive th3^self a pace, for by Saint 
 Paul I will not dine until I see thine head off." 
 
 " What, me, my lord !" Hastings exclaimed. 
 
 One short hour in which to prepare for eternity. 
 
 No kiss of farewell for wife or son, no last hand- 
 shake with any friend (for in the scuffle Stanley, 
 wounded on the cheek, had slipped under the table 
 and vanished after Morton), but to be hustled by 
 rough soldiers to his doom, to such a pass the Lord 
 Chamberlain of England, the beloved servant of 
 the late King, had come. 
 
 A priest, who happened to be in the Tower, heard 
 his confession and absolved him, then " he was 
 brought forth to the green beside the Chapel, within 
 the Tower, and his head laid upon a log of timber 
 (recently felled), and there stricken off ; and after- 
 wards his corpse, with his head was interred at 
 Windsor beside the body of King Edward lY." 
 
THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 
 
 CHAP TEE II. 
 
 A.D. 1483-1506. 
 
 A REQUIEM MASS. 
 
 THE horror of the tragedy in the Tower haunted 
 the Palace of Ashby-de-la-Zonch, like a 
 hideous nightmare. Members of the household, 
 and tenants on the estate alike, mourned the loss 
 of a gracious lord. Ashby-de-la-Zouch imme- 
 diately, and Leicester county generally, owed much 
 to his considerate patronage. He had obtained a 
 royal licence to hold annual fares at Ashby on St. 
 Simon's Day and at Whitsuntide ; a privilege that 
 contributed to the material prosperity of the towns- 
 mien. Since the erection of the castle the town's 
 population had considerably increased. The baron 
 had established a household that resembled a 
 petty sovereign's court. Young scions of the 
 noblest families of Leicestershire and the neigh- 
 bouring counties deemed it no indignity, but a 
 distinction, to take service under the Grand 
 Chamberlain of England — the King's adviser and 
 companion. Such time-honoured families as the 
 Harcourts, Chaworth, Danvers, Sacheverells, 
 Babingtons, and Turvilles sought admission for 
 
THE AVEXGER OF BLOOD. 33 
 
 their sons to tlie Castle lioiisehold as pages and 
 esquires. The Baron's benefactions had hitherto 
 maintained the service and fabric of St. Helen's 
 Chnrch ; his generosity had restored and beautified 
 the sacred edifice. The influence of its ministry 
 contributed to the maintenance of religion and 
 morality in the household and the town. Its 
 fifteenth century buttresses recall the Baron's in- 
 terest in religion. It nestles under the Castle's 
 battlements. Its priests exercised spiritual over- 
 sight in his family and household. In his last 
 will Lord Hastings bequeathed a suit of vestments 
 and £50 in money to support a holy father to say 
 daily Masses for his soul's repose in the life be- 
 yond. The Protector offered no hindrance to the 
 quiet observance of the Grand Chamberlain's 
 obsequies. Erom the grim Tower loving friends 
 and faithful servitors carried his decapitated body 
 to the stately seclusion of St. George's Chapel at 
 Windsor, laying it with holy rites beside the new 
 covered grave of his master, King Edward IV. At 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch the flag drooped to half-mast 
 upon the Castle keep ; from all the sacred houses 
 of the neighbourhood cowled monks gathered in 
 the stalls of St. Helen's Church; the members of 
 the household came in sad procession from the 
 Castle ; favoured townsmen crowded into the 
 vacant spaces ; the organ's deep notes swelled 
 through chancel, and chapels and aisles ; and the 
 solemn Memorial and Requiem Mass commenced. 
 All eyes rested on a chair of state, upon which the 
 widowed Baroness sat calm and solitary, except 
 for the young heir and children clustered beside 
 her, striving in her woman's heart to banish the 
 mocking presence of Jane Shore, and think only 
 of her husband's greatness, and his goodness. 
 
 4 
 
34 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 Tlie Lady Catherine secluded lierself in her own 
 apartments, granting admittance only to her 
 children, her waiting ladies, and her confessor. 
 Sorrows came to her not singh^, but in battalions. 
 Under the law of attainder her husband's estates 
 had become forfeit to the crown; the law of 
 treason branded his very name as anathema ; even 
 her own private fortunes were endangered. In 
 the interest of her children it behoved her to appeal 
 to the Protector, her husband's murderer, but his 
 former friend, for grace. 
 
 The blow that inflicted her bereavement caused 
 her acuter pain, because of the hand that struck 
 it. In her immediate sorrow she could not 
 repudiate family ties of long duration. The 
 associations of kinship die slowly. She had for 
 years admired and honoured Gloucester as a royal 
 relative. King Edward, by his marriage with 
 Lady Woodville, and by surrounding his throne 
 with commoners, had narrowed the historic gulf 
 between royalty and the nobility. She herself had 
 sprung from one of England's most noble families, 
 and in consequence of existing matrimonial 
 alliances between members of the York and the 
 Neville houses, had been accustomed to meet 
 princes in the easy familiarity of domestic inter- 
 course, a sphere from which pomp and state are 
 relegated to outer society. Richard had spent 
 many months of his boyhood under the King- 
 maker's guardianship at Middleham Castle, where 
 she as an elder cousin of Anne Neville had become 
 acquainted with him. After her second marriage, 
 she had frequently entertained him in her hus- 
 band's London mansion ; probably she had extended 
 a welcome hospitality to him in Ashby Castle, 
 where he had come to discuss matters of importance 
 
THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 35 
 
 to tlie State, with the Lord Chamberlain. As his 
 hostess she had seen his finest parts. A long and 
 intimate acquaintance had ripened into affec- 
 tionate regard, quickened by Gloucester's 
 marriage with Anne JN^eville. The brutal wars had 
 robbed her of all her natural protectors, the King- 
 maker, Clarence, Montecute, King Edward, and 
 last of all her husband, and left Richard her only 
 guardian, therefore in her supreme sorrow and 
 loneliness, within a month of her bereavement, she 
 appealed to him to stay the tide of ruin. 
 
 richard'vS protection. 
 
 ISTor did the Protector turn a deaf ear to her 
 petition. The murder of Hastings, probably the 
 sole crime of his brief life, sat uneasily upon his 
 conscience. It had gained for him a crown, but 
 it had bequeathed to him a legacy of haunting 
 regrets, to be purged, as he sadly told his soldiers 
 at Bosworth Field it had been, by salt tears and 
 strict penance. 
 
 An Harl MSS informs us that at Reading, July 
 23rd, 1483, he bound himself to protect her, and 
 to secure to her and her children all their rights 
 and possessions, granting her the wardship of her 
 son and heir, and the keeping of his castle and lord- 
 ships, forbidding any of his subjects to do them 
 wrong ; but admonishing his said subjects to assist 
 them on all occasions. Her circumstances renewed 
 by such a covenant, the Lady Catherine settled 
 down to a conventual seclusion in the castle, mani- 
 festing no interest in the affairs of the outside 
 world, and receiving any advances from Court with 
 a pathetic and an apathetic reticence. With the 
 passing of the days her loneliness increased. The 
 activities of the Castle had hitherto radiated from 
 
36 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 the commanding will of the Lord Chamberlain; 
 his fiat had silenced dissensions; his commands 
 had been the foundation stone of discipline; and 
 his approval the fonntain head of promotions and 
 honours. Every department of the Castle became 
 disadjusted by his absence. Such a state of affairs 
 promoted an uneasy restlessness amongst his 
 metropolitan retainers (who had followed him 
 through his adventurous career), and led many of 
 them to seek service in the Protector's household, 
 the only employment open to them; while the 
 Ashby servitors moved about their routine duties 
 with the spiritless indecision of masterless men. 
 But the personal loss of the widowed Baroness out- 
 measured theirs. It burdened her with the entire 
 management of the estates, and with the training 
 of the young heir. It deprived her of those in- 
 numerable and unnoticed attentions, that an 
 indulgent husband lavishes upon the honoured 
 mistress of his household. The sagacious states- 
 man, the intrepid soldier, whose renown had 
 created an atmosphere, in which her high-born 
 womanhood had found a full satisfaction, had 
 passed into the world of shadows, and she began to 
 realise that no propitiative kindness of her remorse- 
 ful kinsman, could fill the void. In the con- 
 templation of her sorrow she grew to hate its author 
 and dream of vengeance. 
 
 THE BOY BARON. 
 
 To the mind of the boy heir the same thought of 
 vengeance was becoming familiar. It had found 
 its inception at the immediate moment when he 
 heard the gloomy intelligence of his bereavement. 
 He had been named Edward, in compliment to the 
 late King; he had shared the games of the young 
 
THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 37 
 
 Prince of Wales ; and liad rejoiced in his f atlier's 
 popularity. He was just merging- out of boyhood 
 into manhood, having attained his sixteenth year ; 
 the age at which his father entered the Duke of 
 York's household to commence his career. Dreams 
 of knighthood were already floating through his 
 mind, the guerdon of military service. He was 
 no stranger at the late King's Court, and had 
 anticipated playing a part in the immediate future 
 in its activities. Such an ambition accorded with 
 his rank and training. His tutors had arranged 
 his educational curriculum to further such an end, 
 yet at the moment he was about to lift the crystal 
 cup of ambition to his lips, the Protector's cruel 
 hand had dashed it to the ground. But, above 
 all, filial love burned the word " vengeance " with 
 red fingers of fire upon his heart. 
 
 His mother's retirement left him frequently free 
 to wander about the Castle at will, familiarising 
 himself with its every nook and corner, and making 
 the acquaintance of old servitors who had followed 
 his father to the wars. Lingering in the guard 
 room, or stables, he would listen to them as they 
 related stories of their dead leader's prowess and 
 greatness. 
 
 The heirs of the house of Huntingdon invariably 
 followed the leading of their fathers. No noble 
 family can boast a choicer succession of virtuous 
 mothers, who poured into the main stream of 
 paternal blood their rivulets of gentle instincts, to 
 modulate the passions, and to exalt the ambitions 
 of succeeding earls, as they passed from the barbaric 
 warfare of Plantaganet times to the ethereal 
 idealism of the seventeenth century. Each baron 
 and earl chose his bride so wisely, that from the 
 erection of the Castle to its depletion, no heir ever 
 
38 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 had cause to blush at the mention of his mother's 
 name. 
 
 And so it came about that each successive heir, 
 laden with the gracious bendiction of his mother's 
 influence, stepped in early manhood into his 
 father's footsteps, and at his journey's end left 
 tracks ahead. 
 
 A GLAD MEMORY. 
 
 The bereaved affection of Edward Hastings con- 
 templating his father's character discovered a 
 chivalrous nobility that intensified his admiration. 
 The gladdest moments of his young life had been, 
 when the Baron had managed to evade the claims 
 of office, and had arrived from London, for the 
 fulfilment of the higher duties of domestic life, and 
 the enjoyment of his wife and children's society. 
 It had been his practice to mount the steps of the 
 keep tower, that under the watchman's guidance he 
 might peer into the distant horizon until his 
 father's form, clad in glittering armour and open 
 morion, emerged from the grey mists, and when 
 the gallant cavalcade approached Ashby to bound 
 down the steps and over the court-yard to the great 
 gateway, eager to give the first welcome home, and 
 be lifted on the pommel of his father's saddle. 
 
 And after the stately banquet, in the pleasant 
 privacy of Lady Catherine's boudoir, he would 
 climb upon his father's knee and listen with rapt 
 attention to the stories of battlefields and tourna- 
 ments, of the great personages at Court, and 
 especially of his playmate the little Prince of 
 Wales. 
 
 It was no wonder that the thought of the bloody 
 scene on the Tower Green inflamed his passions and 
 incited him to cherish a craving for revenge. The 
 
THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 39 
 
 desire for vengeance filled his mind to the ex- 
 clusion of all other interests, as a fixed resolution 
 to exact retribution had dominated the late King 
 at Towton. His father's blood called to him from 
 the ground ; he could not shut his ears to its 
 peremptory voice; he did not wish to do so; for 
 the blood feud had changed the timid boy into a 
 resolute man, resolved at any cost to be the 
 Avenger of Blood. As a child his father had 
 betrothed him to the Lady Mary Hungerford, an 
 heiress of great wealth and proud family. As in 
 his age people regarded a betrothal as a virtual 
 marriage, young Hastings had received his fiancee's 
 name as an appendage, in consequence, after his 
 fathers death, he became known as Edward Lord 
 Hastings of Hungerford, and by that designation 
 King Richard summoned him, according to Hug- 
 dale, to attend his Parliament, convened at West- 
 minster on January 23rd, 1484. There he met the 
 Stanleys and Lord Stanley's son. Lord Strange (who 
 narrowly escaped beheadal on Bosworth Field), 
 joining issue with them in a determined conspiracy 
 to dethrone the King. The meeting of Parliament 
 furnished excellent opportunity for the disaffected 
 to propagate their schemes. If he attended all the 
 sessions of Parliament, Edvv^ard Hastings, in 
 common with other peers, approved Richard's 
 titles ; voted for the attainder of the Countess of 
 Richmond and a long list of influential men ; but 
 regarded his action as tentative, and under 
 pressure ; hoping and longing for the time when 
 every vote would be reversed. 
 
 He returned to Ashby from his Parliamentary 
 duties to talk over with his mother Richmond's 
 prospects. The Countess listened with interest to 
 the London news; questioned him about the 
 
40 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 position of the young princes and their motlier; 
 how her cousin Anne Xeville carried the honours 
 of royalty ; enquired with eagerness how the con- 
 spiracy fared, and what plans were laid for its 
 furtherance ; for she, too, longed for the overthrow 
 of the hated regime. 
 
 EXFORCED IDLENESS. 
 
 Through the two years of Richard's reign, 
 Edward Hastings loitered at the Castle. Occasion- 
 ally scraps of intelligence reached him from the 
 Pretender over the water, intelligence of plans 
 abandoned and of hopes deferred; but still of 
 Richmond's fixed determination to accomplish his 
 object. Everywhere circumstances pointed to the 
 consolidation of the King's power. By royal pro- 
 gresses he conciliated the large towns ; by con- 
 stitutional methods of government he sought to 
 atone for his late brother's tyranny; by a merciful 
 administration of justice he won the common 
 people's loyalty; and by open-handed generosity 
 he endeavoured to bind his nobles to his interest. 
 Xo English monarch ever had nobler conceptions 
 of kingly duty; or a more sincere desire to heal 
 the distractions of a kingdom oppressed by the 
 rapacity of a long and bloody war. He was am- 
 bitious to reform the laws ; to promote religion ; 
 and to lift England to a foremost place amongst 
 the nations. But the ghost of the murdered Lord 
 Chamberlain followed him like a Nemesis. On 
 account of that crime people associated others with 
 his name (although even to-day historical research 
 fails to substantiate such accusations). The Lan- 
 castrians charged him with the murder of his 
 nephews in the Tower, and of his beloved wife on 
 the domestic hearth; they described him in 
 
THE AVEIS^GER OF BLOOD. 41 
 
 chronicles and in ballads as an unnatural monster, 
 a human ghoul. Misrepresentation and slander 
 dogged his footsteps, and when he would have done 
 well, evi] designs were associated with his actions. 
 But at length the rumour spread through England 
 that he had poisoned his Queen, to enable him to 
 marry his niece. This rumour reached Richmond 
 in France, and served as an incentive to immediate 
 action. His contemplated marriage with the 
 Princess Elizabeth was necessary to the establish- 
 ment of his sovereignty, even in the event of 
 Richard's overthrow; he dared not hesitate, for 
 procrastination would have meant failure, accord- 
 ingly he resolved to put his fortunes to the venture, 
 and set sail with his unpromising armaments for 
 England. On August 6th he landed at Milford 
 Haven, with about 2,000 mercenaries. 
 
 REBELLION. 
 
 Emissaries were despatched to all parts of 
 England with letters of appeal to all known sup- 
 porters, and amongst the rest to Edward Hastings. 
 He did not lose a moment, but with his father's 
 frankness and fearlessness embraced Henry's cause. 
 It is questionable whether he troubled to count the 
 cost, yet the failure of the invasion would have 
 spelt loss to all his estates and of life itself. Many 
 in his social rank prevaricated ; some until the 
 critical phase of the Battle of Bosworth, while 
 numbers who had promised assistance sat cravenly 
 at home in safet^^; but Edward Hastings im- 
 mediately set himself the task of raising reinforce- 
 ments for the invader. He appealed to his 
 tenantry in Leicestershire, as his father had done 
 fourteen years previously, to rally to his standard. 
 The Lord Chamberlain had commanded with the 
 
42 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOrCH CASTLE. 
 
 authoritative voice of a liigli-placed State official 
 the allegiance of vassals who had automatically 
 obeyed his will for half a generation ; his son 
 pleaded for voluntary service from neighbours who 
 had shared his great sorrow, and who loved his 
 mother. He welcomed all comers ; but his coun- 
 tenance beamed with pleasure as he greeted the 
 sturdy bowmen from his farms and villages with 
 their long bows cut from the branches of the church- 
 yard yew trees, and their sheaths of arrows winged 
 with grey goose feathers. He formed them into 
 a resolute company that he knew would render 
 faithful service in the coming conflict. They were 
 the 
 
 ATHERSTONE. 
 
 representatives of an invincible order, who had 
 proved its valour on the fields of France, and 
 under his father's eye in the Wars of the Roses. 
 Compared with the formidable rally of the former 
 reign his numbers were insignificant, nevertheless, 
 his body of 200 or 300 men would prove a valuable 
 contribution to Richmond's little army; and would 
 be especially welcome because of their intimate 
 knowledge of the lanes of Leicestershire. The 
 invading force consisted of foreign mercenaries and 
 Welsh recruits, and Hastings' contingent would 
 help to give an English complexion to the rising-, 
 so necessary to an adventurer who aspired to wear 
 the English crown; as well as check licence and 
 pillage, during the occupation of the district from 
 which they were drawn. For the first time in its 
 history of a dozen years troops poured out of the 
 Castle, bent upon a warlike expedition of a treason- 
 able nature. Lord Hastings, with his knights and 
 men-at-arms, rode in the van, with bannerets and 
 streamers gaily fluttering in the August sunshine. 
 
THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 43 
 
 They joined Eiclimond at Atherstone, wliere lie 
 liad establislied his headquarters at the " Three 
 Tons Inn." At that village Lord Hastings pro- 
 bably met the two Stanleys; heard of his friend 
 Lord Strange' s perilous position; and received an 
 introduction to his future sovereign. 
 
 The Adventurer's army consisted of 2,000 
 foreigners, 2,000 T^elsh, and about 3,000 English 
 Volunteers. Destitute of a common racial bond, 
 it found itself threatened by an imposing army of 
 about 14,000 Englishmen, encamped less than a 
 score miles distant, composed of veteran survivors 
 of the late wars, and northerners, commanded by 
 the King himself. The invaders were strangers in 
 the locality in which the impending battle must be 
 fought, and to the manners and customs of the 
 country people, upon whose compassion they would 
 be cast in case of defeat. 
 
 A continuance of their march along Watling 
 Street would bring them in sight of Richard's tents, 
 and enable that shrewd commander to attack them 
 upon his own ground near Hinckley ; while, on 
 the other hand, if they loitered at Atherstone the 
 King would be likely to assume the offensive before 
 an arrangement could be arrived at with the 
 Stanleys. The anxiety he experienced at Ather- 
 stone never faded from the memory of Richmond, 
 even in his palmy days (when he had to beg for 
 support, and the Stanleys prevaricated), neither 
 did a generous recollection of Edward Hastings' 
 spontaneous loyalty. But in his dilemma two 
 causes at least contributed to his hopefulness. 
 Numbers of deserters from the E-oyal army con- 
 tinued to join him daily with certain information 
 of the King's unpopularity; and the undoubted 
 cordiality of his reception by the Leicestershire 
 
44 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 people, so agreeable a contrast to the veiled sym- 
 pathy of StaSordshire. The Leicestershire knights 
 and yeomen joined his standard unhesitatingly ; 
 they were prepared to incur hazardous risks to 
 ensure his success; they were familiar with the 
 topography of the county, and formed a natural 
 intelligence department of his army. 
 
 THE OLD BANNER. 
 
 The Ashby-de-la-Zouch contingent recalled great 
 and bitter memories, appealing to the deep-sealed 
 prejudice of all Midlanders, reviving the atrocious 
 and fabulous charges that rumour had levelled 
 against the King, and recalling the great sorrow of 
 two years past. Its presence served to promote an 
 esprit de corps of hatred and revenge that com- 
 pensated for numerical weakness. A throb of 
 gratification filled Richmond's heart as he gazed 
 upon the illustrious Lord Chamberlain's banner, 
 that had floated at Barnet and at Tewkesbury, but 
 now was about to move forward with his forces 
 against the Cause it had so long upheld, and as he 
 watched the boyish face of the young lord who had 
 come to him to fulfil the settled purpose of his 
 youthful desire by avenging his father's death, he 
 took courage. 
 
 JOHN HARD WICK. 
 
 All agreed as to the King's whereabouts, that 
 he had pitched his tents at Stapleton, four miles 
 from Hinckley, and about equally distant from 
 Bos worth. To E-ichmond's intense relief and 
 comfort a certain John Hardwick, of Lindley„ near 
 Bosworth, a man of very short stature, but active 
 and courageous, came to his headquarters and 
 tendered his services, with some troops of horse to 
 
THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 45 
 
 guide liim to the field, and advise him in the 
 attack, how to profit by the sun and wind. 
 
 Our information of the time the rival armies 
 encamped upon the battlefield is uncertain and 
 conflicting. Richard arrived first, and had 
 stationed his forces before the invaders appeared, 
 massing his centre at Stapleton, Lord Stanley's 
 contingent half a niiie in his rear, and Sir William 
 Stanley's regiments to the west of Amy on Hill. 
 Richmond probably left Atherstone on Sunday 
 evening, August 21st. Vnder John Hardwick's 
 guidance he was enabled to make his movements 
 with the precision of an expert chess player. On 
 the same night Sir Simon Digby entered the royal 
 encampment, staying there some hours, and after 
 pinning the famous couplet, 
 
 ''Jock of Narfolk be not too bokl, 
 
 For Dickson thy master is bought and sold. " 
 
 upon the Duke of K'orf oik's tent, returned safely 
 to the Earl, about 4 a.m. on the 22nd, the day of 
 battle, with information of the utmost importance. 
 
 Hutton states that the Lancastrian forces 
 marched across Wetherby Bridge, and along Fen 
 Lane, crossing the little rivulet The Tweed, which 
 divides Bosworth Eield from the meadows, and 
 encamped in the first close on the left, on the White 
 Moors, one mile from the top of Amyon Hill, and 
 half a mile behind Sir William Stanley's camp. 
 'No absolutely complete account of the proceedings 
 of the 20th and 21st remains, but fragmentary 
 records of information afterwards gathered by 
 contemporary writers from soldiers who took part 
 in the conflict, when chronologically arranged, 
 supply a narrative of interest. 
 
46 EOMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOX'CH CASTLE. 
 THE KING. 
 
 In tlie great Lost of over 20,000 combatants, one 
 man alone commands our admiration, yes, and our 
 sympatliy ; a fearless knighl^ of generous instincts 
 and cultured mind, Ricliard tlie King of England, 
 and the last monarch of the long Plantaganet 
 line. In the light of all the infamy with which 
 the immediate century has besmeared his name 
 we note his conduct through the last day of his 
 life to learn what he will say, and how he will act : 
 for at the tribunal of History it is just that a man 
 should bear witness of himself. The immortal 
 Shakespeare has stricken his memory sorely. 
 Gathering his information from prejudiced and 
 inaccurate sources, and for that reason forming an 
 unreal estimate of his character, he has burnt upon 
 his royal brow an infamous brand, that patient 
 research may eventually remove. In life he 
 aspired to knightly honour, in death he sought im- 
 mortal glory, and from the blood-stained field of 
 Bos worth he appeals to History to grant him 
 honourable mention. On the eve of his last battle 
 he did not under-estimate the gravity of his 
 position. His shrewd judgment, matured at an 
 early age by association with brilliant commanders, 
 and able statesmen, did not mislead him. He 
 knew by experience what unreliable elements com- 
 posed the armies of the fifteenth century. He had 
 seen treachery alternately unseat King Henry and 
 his brother Edward. He quite realised the weight 
 of misrepresentation and malice that burdened his 
 efforts, the disloyalty that had for the past weeks 
 thinned his ranks, and numbed the fidelity of the 
 soldiers even then present in his ranks, and be- 
 cause of that knowledge, when he retired to his 
 tent he could not sleep. True to that religious 
 
THE AVEXGER OF BLOOD. 47 
 
 instinct tliat had characterised his whole life, he 
 had ordered Masses to be said at repeated intervals 
 through the day, and attended private Mass 
 in his own tent. He believed in religion as an 
 implement of government, and as a discipline to 
 conduct. Before he sought sleep he had visited 
 every post and out-post; and yet he could not 
 sleep. Not ghosts of the past haunted his pillow, 
 but the distracted thought of present conditions, 
 the anxiety to defend the crown, it had been his 
 life's object to gam. Two men, not dead but living, 
 haunted his thoughts, avenging Hastings' death. 
 They were the Stanleys. 
 
 A MIDNIGHT PROWL. 
 
 He sprang from his couch, and rousing Catesby 
 Lovell and Ratcliffe, bade them attend him, and 
 started on a visit to his various posts. He would 
 see for himself how his soldiers were spending the 
 midnight hour. He came to a sleeping sentinel 
 and plunged his dagger in his breast, saying grimly 
 to his companions, " I found him sleeping, I have 
 left him sleeping." Passing into the darkness 
 another sentinel challenged him, but he made no 
 reply. The sentinel recognising him craved his 
 pardon, and still received no answer. It was not 
 to reward duty, but to detect treachery that he 
 prowled through the camps. Standing ever and 
 anon in the darkness beside the tents, listening to 
 any conversation going on within, and passing on, 
 he made his round ; and weary and silent returned 
 at length to his own tent. It was now too late to 
 sleep, even if kindly nature would have closed his 
 eyes ; for in the east the clouds that touched the 
 horizon were growing grey. Weary and agitated, 
 the sleepless warrior recalled an old astrologer's 
 
48 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 A PREDICTION. 
 
 prediction, that if ever lie came to fight a decisive 
 battle on a field surrounded by towns ending in 
 " ton/' the result would be calamitous to bim. He 
 had come to such a field ; would the prophesy be 
 fulfilled? In his tent the priest was unprepared 
 to say his morning mass; and the breakfast was 
 not yet laid. Eichard bit his nether lip, knitted 
 his brow, and no man dared to speak. But he 
 would pluck victory from the hand of fate. It 
 was no time to meditate; the moment of action 
 had come ; and after a hasty breakfast he stepped 
 out of his tent to the summit of Amyon Hill, 
 arrayed in shining armour, with the Crown of Eng- 
 land circling his helmet, proud, fearless, indomit- 
 able, prepared to enter into a death struggle with 
 his rival cousin. He moved his troops to the crown 
 of the hill, with the military precision born of long 
 experience, instructing the manoeuvres. This 
 done, he gazed long and anxiously at the blue and 
 white striped tents of his enemies, noting their 
 depositions. The Lancastrians lay up the low 
 ground, creeping upward towards Amyon Hill, the 
 left rear protected by the narrow Tweed, the right 
 rear by the morass. His foes were drawn up in 
 two lines, the archers first, the billmen behind, and 
 the cavalry forming wings on either side. Sir 
 William Stanley occupied a position between the 
 two armies. 
 
 The King placed his archers under Norfolk's 
 command in his van, fianked by Surrey's horse- 
 men ; his artillery, under himself, immediately 
 behind them ; and in the rear his horsemen, under 
 Northumberland. This done, on his great destrier 
 
THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 49 
 
 " White Surrey," he rode along his ranks, review- 
 ing his troops for the last time ; after which he took 
 up a position in front of his centre, lifted his 
 morion, and in resonant sentences addressed his 
 soldiers. In his extreme hour of peril he mani- 
 fested his habitual courage and presence of mind ; 
 his words assist us to estimate his moral standard, 
 and his religious thought; hiding nothing, 
 extenuating nothing. They refer to the open 
 crime by which he obtained the Crown, but speak 
 of remorse and repentance. They are the final 
 pronouncement of a man who knew that he might 
 soon have to lay down the emblems of Royalty, 
 and appear before the Almighty's Judgment Bar. 
 
 "Although in obtaining this garland," he said, 
 " I being seduced by sinister counsel and diabolical 
 temptation, did commit a wicked and detestable 
 act, yet I have with strict penance and salt tears I 
 trust expiated and clearly purged the same 
 offence; which I desire you out of friendship as 
 clearly to forget, as I daily do remember and 
 lament the same." 
 
 Having cleared the way by a frank confession 
 and an avowal of hidden repentance, he proceeded 
 with royal dignity to appeal to his soldiers as 
 subjects, to remember their oath of allegiance to 
 him the King. He was their King by nature, 
 and by law, his title had received Parliamentary 
 endorsement. At the sight of the royal banners 
 the traitors of the opposite army would remember 
 their oath of allegiance, and would desert the 
 foeman's banners. The French br aggers, 
 drunkards, and cowards, most effeminate and 
 lascivious people, would fly at the first assault. 
 Therefore let them expel out of their thoughts all 
 doubt, and avoid out of their minds all fear, and 
 
50 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 like valiant champions advance fortli their stan- 
 dards. Let every soldier give one sure stroke, and 
 surely the day would be theirs. He the King 
 would fight in their van ; he would carry the Crown 
 before them into the battle. As for me, I assure 
 you I will triumph by glorious victory, or suffer 
 death by immortal fame. Now, by Saint George, 
 let us set forward. 
 
 The trumpets sounded the advance, and from the 
 ranks the soldiers cried, " St. George forward." 
 The archers bent their bows, and a flight of arrows 
 galled the advancing foemen, who responded with 
 an even deadlier shower. The air became thick 
 with arrows ; they flitted overhead like snow flakes 
 in a wintry storm ; each bowman aiming at a 
 human mark. Then Lord Oxford delivered his 
 first attack. With a corps armed with battle axes 
 he fell upon the royal billmen, crying " the day is 
 ours " ; but the King's men held their own, each 
 man giving one sure stroke, until Oxford's 
 stricken troops reeled backward over the prostrate 
 bodies of their dead and wounded. They had 
 advanced too far from their supports. Norfolk 
 noting this prepared to move round their rear and 
 envelop them with the King's forces ; but the stout 
 Earl, discovering his mistake, commanded his men 
 to retire within ten feet of their standard. His 
 manoeuvre successfully completed, a lull in the 
 fighting ensued for a few minutes. No sooner had 
 the indomitable Earl, however, closed his ranks, 
 than a second time he assailed the Duke, with 
 furious shock. This time he had the advantage of 
 the sun behind him. The solar orb had risen in 
 the heavens, and his bright rays dazzled the eyes 
 of Richard's bowmen. The King called out for 
 his rear to advance to their support, but Northum- 
 
THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 51 
 
 l)erlancl refused to move, and stood aloof. The 
 couplet pinned on jN^orfolk's tent was a true 
 prophesy, "the King had been bought and sold." 
 The result of his last battle had been settled before 
 a blow had been struck, and Northumberland, for 
 whose interest he had bearded the King-maker in 
 the zenith of his power, had betrayed him to his 
 
 TREACHERY. 
 
 enemy. As Stanley had predicted at Atherstone, 
 the treacherous Percy had forgotten all his master's 
 generosity. It was the unkindest cut of all. But 
 ere he had time to counteract Percy's treason, the 
 King, glancing at his struggling squadrons, saw 
 his leal and trusted Norfolk fall, and his valiant son 
 the Earl of Surrey taken prisoner. Just then a 
 messenger rode up to him with the intelligence 
 that Richmond was at the foot of the hill with a 
 few attendants. It was enough. His nerves 
 strung to their utmost tension from want of sleep, 
 and a knowledge of treachery in his ranks, he 
 decided on a sudden impulse to bring the battle to 
 an immediate issue. Calling Lovell, Ferrars, 
 Clifton, Brackenbury, Ratcliife, Catesby, to his 
 side, and bidding all true and gallant knights to 
 follow him, he dug his spurs into " White 
 Surrey's " flanks, and rode " out of the side of the 
 range of his battle, leaving the avaunt guard 
 fighting," to his last charge. Soldier of fortune as 
 he was, and had been, his heart sickened at the 
 sight of all the bloodshed around him, and at the 
 thought of the dire calamity it would bring upon 
 his realm; for he was the King. He would seek 
 his rival and force him to mortal combat. Better 
 that one of them should die than that thousands of 
 his subjects should fall upon the field. He reined 
 " White Surrey " at a little spring and drank a 
 
62 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOrCH CASTLE. 
 
 deep draught. Then closing his helmet he dashed 
 into Richmond's guard. Sir Eichard Brandon, the 
 Earl's standard bearer, rode forward to oppose, and 
 fell from his horse with a cloven skull; Sir John 
 Cheney, one of the stoutest soldiers in the Lancas- 
 trian army, advanced to check him, and received 
 his death blow. Like a living thing his sword 
 spoke words of death. He challenged his rival to 
 personal combat, and Richmond heard but dared 
 not move ; he was no match for his foeman. The 
 fire of the Plantagenets flashed in the Monarch's 
 eyes, he struggled to reach the Earl, but that 
 nobleman's knights moved round him. All over 
 the field combatants paused to watch the sight. 
 Ever Richard's sword flashed in the sunlight, and 
 its every movement slew a man. Had the Yorkists 
 rallied round him, he would have won the victory, 
 but at the critical moment Sir William Stanley, 
 with his 3,000 fresh men, advanced to the Pre- 
 tender's assistance. Catesby noted the movement, 
 and hurrying to the King with a horse, begged him 
 to retire. " Then to King Richard came a knight 
 and said, ^ I hold it time for ye to fly, yonder 
 Stanley dynts be so sore, 'gainst them may no man 
 stand. Here is thy horse, another day ye may 
 worship again.' " But Richard would not listen. 
 *' Not one foot will I fly," he answered, " so long as 
 breath bides in my breast ; for by Him that shaped 
 both sea and land, this day shall end my battles or 
 my life. I will die King of England." 
 
 But while Catesby pleaded, Stanley's troops en- 
 closed them round, as the incoming tide surrounds a 
 sand hill. One after another Richard's companions 
 dropped by his side ; the very ground became 
 clotted with human blood, and slippery to their 
 feet; but the wall of steel that hemmed them 
 
THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 53 
 
 round contracted closer and closer. His standard 
 bearer fell, his legs hacked off, still grasping his 
 banner with a death grip, but Richard fought on, 
 breathless, indomitable, his sword dripping with 
 blood. ISo such sight had been witnessed in Eng- 
 land for four centuries and more, since Harold 
 fought the Norman invader at Hastings. Splashes 
 of blood besmeared his armour; his helmet was 
 riddled like a cullendar; wifeless, childless, aye, 
 and almost friendless, the Royalist warrior on Bos- 
 worth Field fought his last fight. At length, from 
 sheer exhaustion his arm dropped to his side, and 
 with a cry of treason, he too, fell. 
 
 " He was a King that challengeth respect." 
 
 GRATIFIED REVENGE. 
 
 Whatever part Lord Hastings played in the battle, 
 we may be sure he pushed his way through the 
 crowds of elated victors to the spot where the King 
 lay among the slain, and gazed with satisfaction 
 upon his rigid face. The fight had lasted two 
 hours at most. It commenced at ten o'clock; by 
 noon the victorious invaders were scouring all the 
 nearest villages in pursuit of fugitives. Mean- 
 while a soldier found the Crown, hidden in a haw- 
 thorn bush, and at Stanley's suggestion a heaving 
 mass of soldiers of all ranks surged to Crown Hill, 
 where Richmond took his stand, while his step- 
 father placed the Crown upon his head, according 
 to the unwarlike warrior, the most triumphant 
 coronation ever English King received. Then a 
 priest stepped forward, and, amid the groans of 
 dying men, raised the Te Deum to the Prince of 
 Peace. 
 
 With a beating heart and throbbing brow, the 
 young baron quitted the crowd, and wandered over 
 
54 ROMANCE OF ASHBT-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 the battlefield in search of his Ashby men. Some 
 of them would not return with him. But he had 
 accomplished his revenge ; he had seen the ruin of 
 his father's murderer, and now he turned to living 
 interests. 
 
 AN ANXIOUS HOUSEHOLD. 
 
 Since his departure an indescribable suspense 
 had reigned in Ashby Castle. Through the long 
 Sabbath and the succeeding night, the widow had 
 kept her lonely vigil, thinking of her boy. A dis- 
 tance of about ten miles separates the Castle from 
 the battlefield. The thunder of Richard's artillery 
 had faintly reached the ears of watchmen crowded 
 on the Keep Tower, and at length had ceased ; but 
 soon after noon they discerned messengers gallop- 
 ing towards Ashby. They were Lord Edward's 
 men with the news of victoiy. 
 
 The same evening Edward returned with his 
 crippled company; he had marched away in gay 
 pageant, Avith flying colours, to the music of 
 sounding trumpets and beating drums ; he 
 returned with a bruised following, and as he rode 
 through Ashby streets women and children looked 
 anxiously for loved ones they would never see 
 again. 
 
 No rejoicings had celebrated his succession to 
 his Lordship, only a solemn requiem Mass had 
 fixed its period in his people's memories ; but now 
 the cup passed freely in the Castle from lip to lip, 
 and a semblance of former gaiety returned. In 
 silent respect the household drank to the brave 
 memory of their companions who had fallen at 
 Bosworth ; with rapturous exclamations toasted 
 the baron and his young bride ; for his vow ful- 
 filled, he now in all probability brought her to 
 Ashby. 
 
THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 55 
 
 A YOUNG BRIDE. 
 
 Lord Edward's marriage with the Lady Mary 
 Hungerford marks an epoch in the history of the 
 family. The heiress of great wealth, the daughter 
 of an illustrious family of ancient descent, and an 
 enthusiastic Lancastrian withal, whose relatives 
 had rendered Henry excellent service, her influ- 
 ence inspired the family policy as well as enhanced 
 the new Monarch's interest in her husband's for- 
 tunes. To a family exhausted by sorrow, and sur- 
 feited with revenge she came, a fresh young life, 
 ready to unfold her treasure store of virtues to an 
 appreciative husband. But her merry laughter 
 and her buoyant spirits failed to awaken in him a 
 responsive gladness. A long thirst for revenge had 
 dried up the fountains of youth. The Cup of 
 Vengeance he had drained at Bosworth had parched 
 his palate like a noxious poison, and left him a 
 guest at the sumptuous banquet of material plea- 
 sure without an appetite. A divine law, inflexible, 
 eternal, has forbidden murderous recriminations ; 
 declaring " Vengeance is Mine," saith the Lord, 
 and he who drinks of the forbidden cup must taste 
 the curse. One course lay open to him, and he 
 took it. With his young wife, leaving the Castle 
 to his mother's care, he moved to London to spend 
 his days in slavish attendance at the Court and 
 inglorious obscurity. One child God sent the 
 unconsorted couple, the little George, to bind their 
 love. The new Monarch treated the baron with 
 considerate regard. His unostentatious fidelity 
 won Henry's confidence, and promoted his child to 
 be the playmate of Prince Henry. In 1506 Lord 
 Hastings died in London, and found a secluded 
 resting place in Blackfriar's Church. 
 
THE SPOILER OF THE CHXJUCH. 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A.D. 1506-1545. 
 
 LADY MARY. 
 
 GEORGE, the third baron, succeeded to the title 
 at 18 years of age. His father's death laid 
 upon the Lady Mary the responsibility of advising 
 him in one of the most perilous periods of English 
 history, a task her shrewd common-sense, her 
 generous instincts, and her motherly disposition, 
 pre-eminently equipped her to discharge. Her late 
 husband had fully appreciated her capacity; 
 leaving her executrix of his will and sole guardian 
 of her son. Her portrait hangs in the picture 
 gallery at Donnington Park, depicting a matron 
 of middle age, wearing the white coif of the early 
 Tudor period. It is the representation of a com- 
 petent lady, gifted with the capacity of making 
 domestic life homely. A kindly fortune had 
 favoured her birth and upbringing, surrounding 
 her maidenhood with the propitious guardianship 
 of wealth. From her father she had inherited an 
 abundant fortune, which by her husband's approval 
 she had retained under her own control. 
 
 Five years of widowhood she cheerfully devoted 
 to her son's interest; establishing his footing at 
 Court, and marrying him to Lady Anne Stafford. 
 
THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 57 
 
 Then slie quietly settled down at Ashby, to spend 
 lier last days in peace, and manage the estates 
 during the young baron's absence at Court. Her 
 marriage with the second baron had failed to 
 nourish the romantic anticipations of her maiden 
 days. Although an indulgent husband, as all the 
 Hastings were, the Avenger had a good-natured 
 friendship only to offer to her, in place of the 
 chivalrous and enthusiastic participation in her 
 endeavours to attain her maiden ideals, that she 
 had expected ; and after living with him in mutual 
 respect for almost a generation, sharing his routine 
 occupations, and bearing him a welcome heir, she 
 yet discovered after his decease that her widow's 
 heart with its wondrous capacity to love remained 
 untouched by a gladdening reciprocity. In her 
 bower at the Castle she waited unconsciously for 
 the knight to come to her, at the touch of whose 
 hand, and the sound of whose voice, the unfamiliar 
 emotions of love would awaken new interests, and 
 strew the common path of daily duty with the 
 flowers of spring. The choicest gifts of life lie 
 always near our hand, if we but knew it, and so 
 it was with Lady Mary, for the gentle knight who 
 was to win her maiden heart became known to 
 her in the person of the Comptroller of her house- 
 hold. In her wedded days she had scarcely known 
 him, meeting him occasionally during her visits 
 to Ashby. But the strangers met in the fulfilment 
 of a common duty, the administration of the Castle 
 revenues. 
 
 SIR RICHARD SACHEVERELL. 
 
 On Lady Mary assuming the direct management 
 it became necessary to accord Sir Richard 
 Sacheverell frequent interviews, and the lone Lady 
 with the dreary past came to admire his noble 
 
58 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 parts, his business aptitude, and unsparing- 
 devotion to her interests. A mutual sympathy 
 bound them together in a mutual regard. The 
 Countess marked the first stage of her interest in 
 Sir Richard, by conferring upon him for her life 
 term several manors at a yearly rental of a red 
 rose. Not a Avhite rose of York, the historic badge 
 of the House that had raised the Hastings to 
 greatness; for itsi petals had withered in Richard's 
 reign and dropped at Bosworth Field, never to 
 bloom again ; but a Lancastrian red rose. Three 
 times about. Sir Eichard paid his courtly tribute 
 to his blushing mistress, and then, with faltering 
 accents, he poured into her ears the sweet story 
 of his great love, and won the choicest gift within 
 her power to bestow, her fair white hand in 
 marriage. The story of their love is idyllic, for 
 they did not quit the Castle ; but loved to ramble 
 in the great park under the green trees, in ripened 
 middle life, and silvered age ; no discords of the 
 outer world disturbing their serenity; maturing 
 philanthropic schemes to make glad the poor. 
 
 FILIAL LOVE. 
 
 Lord George accorded to his step-father a filial 
 reverence, entering cordially into his benevolent 
 enterprises, and serving with him as a co-trustee 
 of St. Mary's Church at Leicester. The charity of 
 the noble pair became a household word in the 
 county ; for the Lady Mary had at length found her 
 ideal companion ; amid the blessings of the grate- 
 ful poor they lived to a hallowed old age ; and after 
 they had passed into a larger ministry, and a 
 completer union, the country people cherished the 
 memory of them for many succeeding years, as 
 the Lady Bountiful and the good Sir Richard. 
 
THE SPOILER OF THE CHUECH. 59 
 
 A YOUXG COURTIER. 
 
 Meanwhile Lord George pushed his way at 
 Court, where his father had introduced him in his 
 boyhood to the King, on that monarch's intimation 
 that he desired him to share the games of young 
 Prince Henry. His grandfather's great name, and 
 his father's loyal services, prepossessed the 
 sovereign in his favour. To a young nobleman 
 desirous to carry forward a family policy of 
 aggrandisement, such an introduction proved an 
 unqualified privilege. Prince Henry and George 
 Hastings, in the free intercourse of boyhood and 
 the equalising influence of sport, were drawn to- 
 gether in a mutual respect, that by reason of their 
 common tastes and similar dispositions, ripened 
 into a lifelong friendship, enabling the budding 
 statesman in future troublous years, when illus- 
 trious person rose by quick steps to royal favour, 
 and fell with disastrous suddenness, to walk 
 safely along a dangerous path because he knew 
 his man, and could accommodate his actions to 
 Henry's wishes. So fully did he possess the young 
 King's confidence that immediately after his 
 accession he appointed him to the coveted command 
 of his Archer's Guard, a corps established by 
 Henry YII. on his settlement in London. An 
 old chronicle thus describes it: — 
 
 " Notwithstanding all the precautions which 
 Henry took to strengthen his title in a Parlia- 
 mentary way, jet his reign was not without some 
 violent concussions ; which greatly shook his new- 
 acquired diadem. The partisans and favourers of 
 the House of York were still powerful and 
 numerous; and omitted no opportunity to exert 
 themselves in that cause. This he seemed well to 
 foresee, and his jealousy on that occasion made him 
 
60 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 institute a guard of 60 archers, under the command 
 of a captain, to be always near his person in case 
 of any sudden attempt. This was a new^ thing in 
 England ; the Kings before were only guarded by 
 the laws, and their subjects' affections. But to 
 take away all jealousy of a standing army he 
 declared the institution to be perpetual; and that 
 it was no more than he had observed in his exile 
 to be done by foreign princes." 
 
 Only men of good family, of expert skill in 
 archery, and of proved loyalty, were admitted to 
 its ranks. The guards wore a rich livery; were 
 quartered in or about the palace ; and attended the 
 sovereign on public functions and in private life. 
 To them was committed the solemn responsibility 
 of protecting his sacred person. While private 
 membership carried with it social distinction, the 
 position of Captain became the covetous desire of 
 men of high rank. Its duties gave its holder 
 familiar access to the privacy of the palace ; and 
 demanded unquestioning obedience to the single 
 will of the sovereign. It was essential that the 
 Captain should be at once observant and reticent. 
 The fact of Lord George's appointment to this post, 
 although a young man who had barely attained his 
 majority, speaks eloquently of the strong and 
 abiding confidence of the King. 
 
 In his capacity as Captain of the Gruard he amply 
 fulfilled Henry's expectations, by devoting him- 
 self absolutely to his service. He did not reach 
 the high social pre-eminence his grandfather 
 attained in Edward's reign. That statesman had 
 been accustomed to formulate the royal policy. 
 The grandson exercised his abilities on an alto- 
 gether lower plane. He merely obeyed his master's 
 will, looking with the King's eyes upon the unfold- 
 
THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 61 
 
 ment of the political drama of the early sixteenth 
 century, with the result that, however the personse 
 dramatse of the Court varied, he remained 
 familiarly near the throne, taking part in all royal 
 ceremonies and pageants. 
 
 TOLTRXAY. 
 
 He accompanied Henry in his grotesque cam- 
 paign in France in 1513, drawing his sword, but 
 scarcely fleshing it at the Battle of Spurs; and 
 assisting in the capture of the important town of 
 Tournay, when a populace of 80,000 surrendered 
 and took the oath of allegiance to the English 
 Crown. 
 
 LORD George's marriage. 
 
 His influence at Court paved the way to his 
 marriage with Anne Staiford, the daughter of the 
 Duke of Buckingham. In acknowledgment of his 
 services in the Bosworth campaign, the new King 
 had restored the forfeited estates of Henry Duke of 
 Buckingham, whose father was executed in the pre- 
 vious reign for treason. But the times were dangerous 
 for scions of the royal stock, and Buckingham 
 could trace his descent from Edward III., there- 
 fore to consolidate his newly-recovered fortunes, 
 he welcomed an alliance with the heir of the great 
 Lord Chamberlain, whom his father had assisted 
 Richard to destroy. The ancient blood feud had 
 
 A FORGOTTEN FEUD. 
 
 died at Bosworth, and George Hastings, encouraged 
 by the Lady Mary, manifested no reluctance to 
 unite his courth^ influence to the Stafford wealth. 
 The Lady Anne Stafford had already quafled the 
 delightful wine of love, but the premature death 
 
62 EOMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 of lier first husband, Sir Walter Herbert, had left 
 her in the dolour of widowhood, and when Hastings 
 came to her in his resolute way, to ask her hand, 
 her parents seconded his wooing, and influenced 
 her decision in his favour. 
 
 A king's HENCHMAIN^. 
 
 But it was not by courtly dalliance in royal 
 palaces that Lord George was fated to further the 
 aggrandisement of his house. The King had 
 rougher work in view for him in the turbulent 
 arena of politics ; a work that would make large 
 demands upon his caution, his fidelity, and his 
 patience, and that would carry him into dangers 
 deadlier than the perils of battlefields. 
 
 A YOUNG KING. 
 
 On the roll of thirty-five peers summoned to 
 attend the young King's first Parliament, June 25, 
 1509, his name ranks eleventh. No English Parlia- 
 ment ever met under happier auspices. The sordid 
 reign of the victor of Bosworth had closed, and a 
 young prince of chivalrous sentiments had seated 
 himself upon the throne. Men welcomed his free- 
 handed extravagance, as a pleasant contrast to his 
 father's grinding parsimony. As it became known 
 that the vast hordes of the late King amounted to 
 close upon two millions, an impression gained the 
 popular mind that Royal exactions would be dis- 
 continued. The new King elevated to sovereign 
 dignit}' by the premature death of his elder brother 
 was universally accredited with a desire to enjoy 
 his good fortune to the full, and promote the 
 happiest conditions in the Commonwealth. Such 
 a belief undoubtedly rested upon a foundation of 
 probability, for the good-tempered young Sovereign 
 
THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 63 
 
 •entered upon tlie duties of his high, offices, animated 
 by an earnest desire to maintain in the serene 
 seclusion of his Court, an atmosphere of peace and 
 quietness ; if his Parliaments M^ould conform to 
 such a consummation. To his mind ideal King- 
 ship was a calm haven, around which the turbulent 
 waves of Parliamentary passions might dash and 
 spend their force, but into which they ought never 
 to enter. The key-note of his reply to the Commons 
 in 1532, when they presented a Remonstrance to 
 him against the clergy; and of his address when 
 dissolving the Parliament at Christmas, 1546, 
 urges the desirability of charity, as a basis of peace. 
 He held uniformly as a principle of government, 
 that all subjects should willingly contribute to the 
 sustentation of the Royal dignity and comfort, and 
 that in return the Sovereign from his lofty social 
 altitude above all law should condescend to interest 
 himself in the growth of legislative reform; 
 approving and reproving, the conduct of the Legis- 
 lature as it conformed to, or deviated from, his 
 superior view of utility. He could be indulgent 
 as when he sent for Bishop Fisher in response to 
 the complaints of the Commons, and quietly advised 
 him to use free speech more discreetly in Parlia- 
 ment in future ; he could threaten, as he did when 
 
 CANDID ADVICE. 
 
 Edward Montague, an influential member, opposed 
 the passage of a Vote of Supply ; sending for him 
 to Westminster Palace, and quietly saying to him, 
 " Ho man will they not suffer my bill to pass,^' and 
 laying his hand on Mr. Montague's head, who was 
 then on his knees before him, " Get my bill passed 
 by to-morrow, or else this head of yours shall be 
 off " ; and he could expostulate with his Parlia- 
 
64 IlOMA^XE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 mentarians, treating tKem like a wise parent does 
 spoiled children, as he did in 1532, when they 
 petitioned him of his benignity to dissolve Parlia- 
 ment and let them return to their homes, throwing 
 upon them the odium of neglected duty, " You 
 desire to have the Parliament dissolved," he said, 
 " and yet you would have a Reformation of your 
 grievances with all diligence, which latter desire is 
 contrary to your petition." He regarded Parlia- 
 ment as a convenient institution to arrange the 
 details of plans devised by himself to further the 
 well-being of his realm. He listened to ambitious 
 subjects who had original views to lay before him, 
 if such projects harmonised with his general policy, 
 he accorded their authors freedom to formulate 
 them into Bills ; but he threw the responsibility of 
 their action upon their own shoulders, and however 
 brilliant a statesman's past services may have been, 
 whenever he ventured to assume an attitude dis- 
 tasteful to himself, he crushed the olfender remorse- 
 lessly. Cardinal Wolsey, Bishop Fisher, Thomas 
 Cromwell, and Sir Thomas More, pre-eminent 
 subjects of his reign, men illumined with creative 
 ideas stepped beyond the radius of his silent, but 
 vatchful observation, and fell, but George 
 Hastings, who for many years had shared the 
 silence, and conversation, of his master ; who had 
 studied the very changes of expression on his 
 countenance in periods of anger and disappoint- 
 ment, as well as satisfaction and exultation, under- 
 stood how to adapt his conduct to the King's con- 
 ception of dutiful service. Neither was the King 
 
 A ROYAL FATEON. 
 
 ignorant of the ambitious desire of Hastings to 
 restore the social prestige of his house. In the 
 
THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 65 
 
 close companionsliip of early years, when Henry 
 had no thonglit of enjoying regal power, bnt was 
 pursuing his theological studies, the two youths 
 had laid each his heart bare to the other's friendly 
 view, discoursing on their several futures, and the 
 young Prince had learned Hastings's dominating 
 resolution, when he had no prospect of becoming 
 able to further it. On his accession he remem- 
 bered the old day dreams, and bound his former 
 playmate to him, with bonds of gratitude, bonds 
 that no Hastings had ever been known to break. 
 He encouraged him to extend his territorial posses- 
 sions frequently lending him sums of money to 
 complete advantageous investments. On his Lord 
 High Chamberlain submitting to his approval the 
 names of peers whom he proposed to employ on 
 Committees in the Parliament of 1509 he took care 
 to insert his favourite's name on the list of Tryers of 
 Petitions for England, Ireland, Wales, and Scot- 
 land, giving him an honourable standing and a 
 lucrative post in the new Parliament. This select 
 Board consisted of the Lord High Chamberlain 
 himself, William Warham Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, the Duke of Buckingham George's father-in- 
 law, the Bishops of Winchester, Exeter, and 
 Rochester, the Earls of Shrewsbury and Surrey, 
 the Abbots of Westminster, St. Edmundsbury, and 
 Abingdon, and Lord Hastings and Herbert, at that 
 time the most influential subjects in the realm. 
 
 All these together, or a number of these Bishops 
 and Lords, had a power to call to them the Lord 
 Chancellor, or two other of the King's Officers when 
 there was occasion. They were to sit in the 
 Chamber of the King's Chamberlain. 
 
 But it was the Parliaments of 1529 and 1540 that 
 most materially affected George Hasting' s personal 
 
 6 
 
66 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 interests. In 1529 the King had long ago squan- 
 dered his late father's savings; he had exhausted 
 every conceivable method in the endeavour to 
 govern England independently of Parliamentary 
 intervention; he had spent £100,000 in obtaining 
 an expression of opinion from the Continental uni- 
 versities favourable to his effort to divorce the 
 Queen; he had banished the illustrious Cardinal 
 from his Council, and his Court ; and had reduced 
 his personal circumstances to a state of impecuni- 
 osity bordering on bankruptcy. The Great 
 
 CARDINAL WOLSEY. 
 
 Cardinal had been tried by the Court of the King's 
 Bench, and had received sentence of outlawry ; but 
 the King had hesitated to confirm the legal finding, 
 and now possibly prompted by merciful considera- 
 tions, and partly by a sagacious desire to please 
 Parliament, from which he proposed to extract a 
 large subsidy, had referred the matter to that body, 
 putting the fate of their arch enemy in their own 
 hands. Indeed, the King's mind was too seriously 
 distracted by the interminable processes of the 
 Great Divorce Case to give special attention to any 
 other matter. Hope deferred made his heart sick, 
 worry and continued opposition irritated his 
 temper, and Anne Boleyn's importunities rendered 
 him impatient to bring the business to an issue. 
 He appears to have honestly persuaded himself 
 that any carnal knowledge of his wife was 
 incestuous. There is an undoubted ring of truth- 
 fulness in his impassioned protest to the Speaker 
 of the House of Commons, when he heard that a 
 member named Temse, had been bold enough to 
 propose that Parliament should endeavour to quiet 
 the national unrest by petitioning him to take his 
 Queen back again. 
 
TPIE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 67 
 
 " Tlie King declared liis wonder that any 
 amongst tliem should meddle in businesses which 
 could not properly be determined in their House. 
 But for this particular it concerned his soul so 
 much, that he many times wished the marriage had 
 been good ; yet since the doctors of the universities 
 had generally declared it unlawful, he could do no 
 less than abstain from her company. He, there- 
 fore desired them to take this as the true reason, 
 without imputing it to any wanton appetite ; since 
 being in the forty-first year of his age, it might 
 justly be presumed such motions were not so strong 
 in him as formerly." 
 
 In his determination to enlist the aid of Parlia- 
 ment in his eit'ort to overcome the Pope's reluctance, 
 he had packed the House of Commons with his own 
 servants. But while the Lower House elected their 
 Speaker and waited for the King to approve their 
 choice, the Lords proceeded to an immediate attack 
 on the Cardinal. Misinterpreting Henry's pre- 
 varication for relenting, and determined to prevent 
 his reconciliation with his fallen Minister, they 
 drew up a series of forty-four articles condemna- 
 tory of Wolsey's Administration, as unpopular in 
 the realm, and prejudicial to the Royal dignity, 
 and forwarded them to the Lower House for perusal 
 and approbation, before submitting them to the 
 King's Majesty. This incident aiforded Thomas 
 Cromwell, the Cardinal's late Secretary, who had 
 taken his seat as a new and unknown member, the 
 opportunity to defend his late master, with such a 
 passionate eloquence, as to obtain his acquittal, 
 and at the same time to attract the King's attention 
 to himself. 
 
68 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 HASTINGS MADE AN EARL. 
 
 Whatever part Hastings took in the affair it is 
 certain that he moved according to Henry's instruc- 
 tions ; for at the adjournment of the Sessions he 
 proceeded immediately to Westminster Palace, and 
 received a Royal patent as Earl of Huntingdon, 
 together with an annuity of twenty pounds. This 
 promotion had been pre-arranged, for in anticipa- 
 tion of it his son Francis, a boy of fifteen, had been 
 previously summoned to the House of Commons 
 under the title of Lord Hastings. 
 
 Wolsey's overthrow accomplished, Parliament 
 took its first determined step towards reformation 
 of religion, by assenting to the circulation of 
 Luther's writings in various parts of the Kingdom. 
 
 CHURCH REFORM. 
 
 The dissemination of Protestant literature 
 awakened a great controversy in the nation, as to 
 whether the errors therein denounced, did belong 
 to the doctrine and government of the Roman 
 Church. The burning light of public criticism 
 turned upon the general conduct of the clergy, and 
 denunciations found loud expression in the House 
 of Commons ; which resulted in the introduction of 
 a bill into Parliament against the Exactions of 
 Probate, Testimonies, and Mortuaries, Pluralities, 
 Non-residence, and the conduct of secular occupa- 
 tions by priests. 
 
 In the ranks of the ecclesiastic body one man only 
 dared to defend the Church, John Fisher, the 
 stately Bishop of Rochester, who assailed the bill 
 with indomitable courage. 
 
 A FIGHTING BISHOP. 
 
 " My Lords," he said, *' here are certain bills 
 exhibited against the clergy, wherein are complaints 
 
THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 69 
 
 made against the viciousness, idleness, rapacity, 
 and cruelty of bishops, abbots, priests, and their offi- 
 cials. But, my Lords, are all vicious, all idle, all 
 ravenous and cruel bishops and priests, and for 
 such as we are, are there not laws provided already 
 against such. Is there any abuse that we do not 
 seek to rectify ? 
 
 '' Or can there be such a rectification as that 
 there shall be no abuse ? I hear there is a motion 
 made that the small monasteries should be given up 
 into the King's hands, which makes me fear that it 
 is not so much the good as the goods of the Church 
 that is looked after. Beware of yourselves and 
 your countrj^; beware of your holy mother, the 
 Catholic Church ; the people are subjects to novel- 
 ties, and Lutheranism spreads itself amongst us. 
 E-emember Germany and Bohemia, what miseries 
 are befallen them alread}^, and let our neighbours' 
 houses that are now on lire teach us to beware of 
 our own disasters. Wherefore, my Lords, I will 
 tell you plainh^ what I think ; that except ye resist 
 manfully this violent heap of mischiefs offered by 
 the Commons, you shall see all obedience with- 
 drawn from the clergy and from yourselves ; and if 
 you search into the true causes of all these mischiefs 
 which reign amongst us you shall find that they 
 all arise through want of Faith." 
 
 Fisher's speech appealed to the conservative 
 instincts of the Peers, who received it in silence. 
 The Duke of Norfolk only, ventured to make a 
 comment, observing, '' My Lord of Rochester, many 
 of these words might have been well spared ; but I 
 wist it is often seen that the greatest clerks are not 
 always the wisest men." "My Lord," retorted 
 Fisher, " I do not remember any fools in my time 
 that ever proved great clerks." 
 
70 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 A ROYAL REBUKE. 
 
 The Commons bitterly resented the Bishop's 
 interference, complaining of it to the King, who, to 
 pacify them, commanded Fisher to appear before 
 him, and " demanded of him why he had spoken in 
 such a manner." The Prelate answered, '* that 
 being in Parliament, he spake his mind freely in 
 defence of the Church." The King himself could 
 not disguise his sympathy and respect, for had 
 Prince Arthur lived, and he himself entered the 
 Church, according to his father's original intention, 
 he would then have acted in similar circumstances 
 as Fisher had done. 
 
 "Well, my Lord," he advised, "you would be 
 wise to use words more temperately another time." 
 
 But by throwing his influence into the scale the 
 King secured the passage of the bill, and another 
 saddling his debt of £100,000 upon the clergy's 
 shoulders. Parliament having started the Eeforma- 
 tion, a movement coming within the jurisdiction 
 of their own Court, turned to the King's assistance 
 in the matter of the Divorce, a question distinctly 
 for the Ecclesiastical Courts. 
 
 AN APPEAL TO THE POPE. 
 
 At Henry's suggestion. Parliament drew up a 
 letter to Pope Clement YII., urging him to grant 
 the Divorce. This letter Hastings signed as George 
 of Huntingdon. With a sigh of relief Parliament 
 returned to the consideration of Church reform, the 
 sole subject of interest. No incidents of passing 
 moment could divert their attention; to the lone 
 Queen's pathetic appeal the Houses listened 
 callously ; they adjourned for Anne Boleyn's pom- 
 pous Coronation, and subserviently took the oath of 
 allegiance to her ; but always resumed their attack 
 
THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 71 
 
 upon the Cliurcli. They found by enquiries that 
 since the second year of the late King's reign no 
 less a sum than £160,000, in the form of annates 
 had been despatched to the Vatican, and passed a 
 law forbidding the collection of annates; they 
 voted appeals to Home illegal in consequence of 
 Clement's adverse reply to their letter about the 
 Divorce ; they stopped the golden stream of Peter's 
 Pence from flowing Homeward ; and renounced all 
 Papal authority, declaring the King to be Supreme 
 Head of the Church Supremum Caput Ecclesioe 
 Anglicanoe. 
 
 THE LESSER MONASTERIES. 
 
 But the closing Session of this resolute Parlia- 
 ment (assembled after a prorogation of fourteen 
 months), dissolved the lesser monasteries, as a cul- 
 mination of six years' incessant labour in the cause 
 of Reform. Those years of destructive legislation 
 had prepared men's minds to accept the inevitable. 
 The preamble of the Statute runs as follows : — 
 " That small religious houses, under the number 
 of twelve persons, had been long and notoriously 
 given to vicious and abominable practices ; and did 
 much consume and waste the Church's lands, and 
 other things belonging to them. That for about 
 two hundred years there had been many visitations 
 for reforming these abuses, but wdth no success; 
 their vicious living daily increasing ; so that unless 
 small houses were dissolved and the religious put 
 into greater monasteries, there could be no reform 
 expected in that matter. Whereupon the King, 
 having received a full information of these abuses, 
 both by his visitors and other credible ways, and 
 considering that there were divers great monas- 
 teries, in which religion was well kept and observed. 
 
72 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 which had not the full number that they might and 
 ought to receive, had made a full declaration of the 
 premises in Parliament. Whereupon it was 
 enacted that all such houses which might spend 
 yearly £200 or within it, should be suppressed, their 
 revenues converted to better uses, and they com- 
 pelled to reform their lives." 
 
 The Bishop of London supported the bill, declar- 
 ing, " That the lesser houses were as thorns soon 
 plucked up, but the great abbeys were like putrified 
 oaks ; yet they must needs follow, as others would 
 do in Christendom, before many years had passed." 
 
 fisher's last fight. 
 
 But Bishop Fisher nailed his colours to the mast. 
 He had already reached that stage of his life's 
 journey where the cross of his fidelity had thrown 
 its shadow across his pathway. An Act to attaint 
 him had been passed in Parliament for holding 
 correspondence with the Holy Maid of Kent, and 
 the King's friendly interposition alone had saved 
 him from calamity. Yet whatever course other 
 Churchmen would take, he would not eat the 
 Church's bread and betray her. At the preliminary 
 consideration of the proposed bill in convocation 
 he again spoke his mind, enforcing his argument 
 with a parable. 
 
 " An axe," he said, '' which wanted a handle, 
 came upon a time unto the wood, making his moan 
 to the great trees, that he wanted a handle to work 
 withal, and for that cause he was constrained to be 
 idle ; therefore, he made it his request to them, that 
 they would be pleased to grant him one of their 
 small saplings within the wood to make him a 
 handle; who, mistrusting no guile, granted him 
 one of their smaller trees to make him a handle. 
 
THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 73 
 
 But now becoming a complete axe, lie fell so to 
 work within the same wood, that in process of time 
 there was neither great nor small tree to be found 
 in the place where the wood stood. And so, my 
 Lords, if you grant the King these smaller monas- 
 teries, you do but make him a handle, whereby, at 
 his own pleasure, he may cut down all the cedars 
 within your libanus. And then ye may thank 
 yourselves, after you have increased the heavy dis- 
 pleasure of Almighty God." 
 
 THE CLOSURE. 
 
 The speech greatly influenced the minds of the 
 assembled Churchmen ; its outspoken sentiments 
 dumbfounded those who had already decided to 
 support the King ; and all of them passed into their 
 places in Parliament and voted for the bill, so 
 greatly did they fear a Royal frown, except Bishop 
 Fisher. He was irreconcilable, and the Oath of 
 vSupremacy was put to him. Together with Sir 
 Thomas More he laid his head upon the block, the 
 only pillow for a weary man in the dark days of 
 Henry, who dared to maintain an independent 
 judgment. 
 
 COURT AND AUGMENTATIONS. 
 
 Another bill immediately created a Court of Aug- 
 mentations of the King's revenue, which consisted 
 of a chancellor, an attorney, and solicitor, ten audi- 
 tors, seventeen receivers, a clerk, an usher, and a 
 messenger. '' The Court was to bring in the 
 revenues of such houses as were now dissolved, 
 excepting only such as the King, by his Letters 
 Patent, continued in their former state, appointing 
 a Seal for this Court, with full power and authority 
 to dispose of these lands, so as might be most for 
 the King's service. 
 
74 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOIICH CASTLE. 
 
 The King was pleased to approve of the appoint- 
 ment of the Earl of Huntingdon to a seat on the 
 Board of Augmentations, with the great facilities 
 for personal enrichment that the post conferred. 
 The dissolution of the lesser monasteries, 376 in 
 number, enriched Henry to the extent of an annual 
 revenue of £32,000, besides conferring upon him 
 goods and chattels valued by the corrupt authori- 
 ties of the period, at .£100,000. But it spread the 
 black pall of destitution over the English towns and 
 villages, for 10,000 monks and nuns were driven 
 from their homes, and flung upon the charity of the 
 poor, who had hitherto been the objects of their own 
 compassionate alms. 
 
 And now the long Parliament dragged to its 
 close. For its members its sessions had been 
 fraught with toil and change and danger. It had 
 influenced Huntingdon's present and future ; it 
 had raised his social prestige; augmented his 
 wealth, and estranged him from the Church of his 
 forefathers; but had established him firmer than 
 ever in the King's favour. About this time he 
 resigned the captaincy of the Archer's Guard, 
 receiving in place of it the more pretentious title of 
 Protector of the North. 
 
 A GREAT MARRIAGE. 
 
 During the progress of the late Parliament, in 
 the year 1532, he negotiated for his son Francis the 
 great marriage of the Huntingdon family, a union 
 with the Lady Catherine Pole, granddaughter of 
 the Countess of Salisbury, and great granddaughter 
 of the Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward lY. ; 
 it afforded him no little joy to connect his house 
 with that of the Great Chamberlain's Royal 
 Master; and his far-seeing mind in the unsettled 
 
THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 75 
 
 state of the succession, undoiibteclly anticipated 
 great possibilities as a result of the union of his 
 heir with the direct heiress of the Yorkist stock. 
 The subjoined genealogical table explains such a 
 hope : — 
 
 George, Duke of Clarence, married Isabel Neville. 
 
 Edward Neville Margaret, Countess of Salisbury 
 
 (beheaded 1499). (beheaded in 1541), married 
 
 / Sir Richard Pole. 
 
 ^ / 
 
 Henry Pole Lord Montague Reginald Pole, Archbishop of 
 (beheaded in 1538). Canterbury, and Cardinal, 
 
 / d. 1558. 
 
 Catherine Pole, married 
 Francis Hastings in 1532. 
 
 The youthful groom fully shared his father's 
 reverential admiration of the bride, entertaining 
 for her throughout his adventurous life a chivalrous 
 respect, and an unfaltering devotion ; surroimding 
 her with every possible indication of her rank, and 
 speaking of her with a loyal deference. It was a 
 marriage that raised the social status of the Hunt- 
 ingdons, placing the future heir upon the very steps 
 of the throne, but drawing upon him and his lady 
 the snubs of jealous Elizabeth ; while outside the 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch household the public made 
 lowly obeisance when she passed them as to a Royal 
 princess. But the heiress of York brought her hus- 
 band not only the honours of high descent, she 
 added to the wealth of the family revenue. One of 
 the chief acts of Henry's first Parliament had been 
 to reverse the attainder of Edward IS^eville. Lord 
 Herbert records: — ''That Margaret, daughter to 
 George, Duke of Clarence, late wife of Richard de- 
 la-Pole, Knight, petitioned the King that since 
 
76 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 Edward Earl of Warwick, her brother, had been 
 attainted in a Parliament, held the 19th of Henry 
 YII., and all his lands confiscated, it would please 
 the King to restore her to blood and inheritance, 
 and that she might be styled the Countess of Salis- 
 buiy ; which was granted, and confirmed by Parlia- 
 ment." 
 
 The interval between the dissolution of Parlia- 
 ment in February, 1536, and the summoning of that 
 of April, 1540, brought inexpressible worry and 
 affliction to the family of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The 
 fateful hand of Thomas Cromwell pushed round the 
 fingers of change on the political dial. The mem- 
 bers of the Board of Augmentations toiled inces- 
 santly but in the dark, for no man knew Cromwell's 
 schemes, until he himself revealed them in qualified 
 statements. George Hastings, as Protector of the 
 North, had to hurry with Norfolk northward to 
 dissipate the Pilgrimage of Grace, and return 
 to resume his attendance at the Augmentation 
 Board. For him there was no rest of body or peace 
 of mind ; a seething spirit of revolt expressed itself 
 in the various counties of England on account of 
 the suppression of the lesser monasteries, and, under 
 Cromwell's iron rule, no man dared to speak 
 frankly; while at home the winsome pale face of 
 his high-born daughter betrayed the grief she 
 would have feign concealed, at the intelligence of 
 her father's execution in connection with the insur- 
 rection her father-in-law had assisted to suppress. 
 
 A POMPOrS PARLIAMENT. 
 
 In this condition of mental distress he received 
 the Royal summons to attend the Parliament of 
 April, 1540. The writ of summons was directed, he 
 noted, to Thomas Lord Cromwell, our Vicar- 
 
THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 77 
 
 General of Spiritualities, the man whose supreme 
 influence was about to overshadow every resolution 
 of the immediate assembly — but one — and that the 
 resolution that consigned him to the block. Every- 
 thing had been done that would emphasise the 
 importance of the great event. The King had been 
 prevailed upon to attend in person, and an imposing 
 assemblage of Peers and Commoners had been sum- 
 moned to London. A great gathering assembled 
 about the gates of Westminster Palace to accom- 
 pany his Majesty on his State visit to his Parlia- 
 ment, on his appearance forming into procession : — 
 
 All Gentlemen and Esquires, 
 
 Serjeants at the Law and Justices, 
 
 Knights and bannerets, 
 
 Abbots, Bishops, and Archbishops, 
 
 The Lord Chamberlain of England, 
 
 The Lord Chancellor, 
 
 The Lord Marshall with his Rod, and 
 
 Garter preceding him in the King's Coat, 
 
 The King's Sword Bearer, 
 
 The Cap of Maintenance, 
 
 THE KIIs^G'S HIGHNESS, 
 
 Dukes, 
 
 Marquises, 
 
 Earls, 
 
 Viscounts, 
 
 Barons. 
 
 Each temporal lord was preceded by his ancient 
 on horseback, and the Archer's Guard lined the 
 route. 
 
 At the entrance of Westminster Abbey the Abbot 
 waited for the King, clad in Pontificalibus,and 
 attended by his clergy, to precede him to the Quire, 
 and when all were seated, the Mass of the Holy 
 Ghost was celebrated. 
 
78 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 JS'o Parliament so memorable had ever gathered 
 at Westminster, memorable on account of the 
 unknown schemes flitting through the mind of the 
 Silent King ; of the unspoken conjectures of Peers 
 and Commoners as to how far Cromwell would yet 
 proceed along the path of power, before the Awful 
 Fiat stayed his feet; of the uncertainty of the 
 proud Abbots, whether it was the last occasion, as it 
 proved to be, on which they would sit and vote as 
 Peers ; and of the fear, deep-seated fear, that ani- 
 mated Peers and Commons alike. Seated among 
 his brother Earls, silent, grim, but watchful, George 
 Hastings assented to the preliminary bill appoint- 
 ing the Committee for Religion, who w^ere to be 
 excused attendance from the service of the House, 
 and hatch the mischievous Six Articles, the Lash 
 with six strings. 
 
 THE COUNTESS ATTAINTED. 
 
 Its cruel thongs would never lacerate his flesh. 
 But a cold tremor of horror seized him, as with 
 dilated pupils he watched the Yicar-General rise 
 in his place, and exhibit openly a certain habit 
 made of white silk, which was found by the Lord 
 Admiral in the linen wardrobe belonging to the 
 Countess of Salisbury. On the forepart of which 
 garment were embroidered the arms alone of Eng- 
 land, viz. : — Three Lions surrounded with a border 
 of two different flowers, called paunces and mari- 
 golds. On the back part of it was the device, which 
 the Northern rebels lately used in their insurrec- 
 tion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. As he 
 watched the stern and merciless Cromwell, he 
 recalled the tragic story of the Royal Poles, and 
 their association with the revolt that followed the 
 suppression of the lesser monasteries in Lincoln- 
 
THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 79 
 
 shire and Yorkshire. He had seen the fatal device 
 alluded to npon the insurgents' banners, the five 
 wounds of the Saviour, the sacred elements, and the 
 name Jesus written in their midst, he had also seen 
 the hateful Judas face of Sir Geoffrey Pole, who 
 betrayed his own flesh and blood, giving secret 
 information, true or false, against them, that 
 brought Lords Exeter and Henry Pole, with Sir 
 Edward Seville and others, before the Lord High 
 Steward's dread tribunal, and doomed them to the 
 scaffold. And now the Yicar-General aimed his 
 relentless dart at the noble Countess of Salis- 
 bury, the Yorkist heiress of the Crown, 
 associating with her the Lady Grertrude, Exetor's 
 widow. The charges alleged against her were : — 
 " The maintenance of a treasonable correspondence 
 with her son the Cardinal, and that she had for- 
 bidden her tenants to have the New Testament in 
 English, or any book licensed by the King's 
 authority." With all the force of his high power 
 Cromwell pressed his charge of treason against her, 
 and obtained her conviction. Two years later the 
 illustrious ladies met their fate, but not until their 
 arch accuser himself had tasted the pangs of death. 
 On the scaffold the aged Countess bore herself with 
 Royal courage, scorning the headsman's request 
 that she would lay her head upon the block, and 
 bidding him smite it off as best he could, a task he 
 is said to have accomplished in a horrible manner. 
 
 DISSOLUTION OF THE GREATER MONASTERIES 
 
 Having cleared his Master's path of the possi- 
 bility of dynastic rivalry, the Yicar turned his 
 attention to the completion of the great work of his 
 life. The mitred company of Abbots of the great 
 monasteries listened with spell-bound interest. 
 
80 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 The Abbeys of Westminster, St. Albans, St 
 Edmiindsbiiry, York, Glastonbury, Gloucester, 
 Ramsey, Evesham, Peterborough, Colchester, 
 Reading, Malmesbury, Cwyland, Selby, Thorney, 
 Winchcombe, Waltham, Cirencester, Tewsbury, 
 and Tavistock were represented by their Lord 
 Abbots. The monasteries of Hubn, Bardsey, 
 Abingdon, Battail, Hide, Canterbury, and Coventry 
 were unrepresented. Either their Abbots were 
 dead or they had been suppressed, but their absence 
 mattered not. Straight from convocation the 
 Churchmen came to listen to their doom, and no 
 man dared to oifer opposition. At eight o'clock 
 on the Friday morning following Assension Day 
 the Vicar-General read his bill. It provided: — 
 " That leases of manors belonging to monasteries 
 dissolved, or about to be dissolved, and assured to 
 the King shall take effect. That the King shall 
 hold, possess, and enjoy to him, his heirs, and suc- 
 cessors for ever all monasteries and abbacies, 
 priories, nunneries, colleges, hospitals, houses of 
 friars, or other ecclesiastical and religious houses 
 and places ; which since the 4th of February, 27th 
 Henry YIII. have been dissolved, suppressed, 
 renounced, forfeited, or given up, or by any other 
 means come to his Highness, or shall be dissolved. 
 As also all manors, lordships, lands, tenements, 
 rights, liberties, &c., belonging to them. All which, 
 except such as came by attaindure of treason, shall 
 be under the survey and government of the King's 
 Court of Augmentations of the revenues of the 
 Crown. Other men's titles yet saved." 
 
 Such was the most sweeping measure that had 
 ever been laid before Parliament. It destroyed the 
 monastic priesthood of England. As Fisher had 
 predicted, the handle felled the great oaks. The 
 
THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 81 
 
 total number of religious houses now dissolved 
 amounted to 645, the heads of 27 of which had seats 
 and votes in the House of Lords as mitred Abbots. 
 In the various counties 90 colleges, 2,374 chantries 
 and free chapels, and 110 hospitals were closed, and 
 an income of £160,000, a full third of the national 
 ecclesiastical revenue was assigned to Henry to 
 spend in riot and bribe his courtiers. 
 
 A GREAT OPPORTUNITY. 
 
 Listening on his seat in Parliament to this great 
 scheme of plunder, the Earl of Huntingdon per- 
 ceived that the opportunity of his life had come to 
 him of securing wealth preponderate to his social 
 rank. As a Receiver of the Court of Augmenta- 
 tion, a favoured courtier, and trusted henchman of 
 the King, he would press his claim. This he did, 
 securing the lease of the fat lands of the Great 
 Abbey of Watham. In clutching his prize he 
 suif ered no qualms of conscience to deflect him from 
 the bypath of fortune. People everywhere 
 accounted the plunder of the Church as sacrilege 
 For a thousand years the Church of Rome had 
 swayed the consciences and toned the lives of Eng- 
 lishmen. The traditional associations of the long 
 centuries had covered its nakedness with a gar- 
 ment of sanctity. Its Bishops and Abbots had 
 held high rank in social life; its monasteries 
 studded the lovely hill sides of the English counties 
 like diamonds in a monarch's crown ; all knowledge 
 of art and literature had radiated from the monkish 
 libraries ; and its monks had served the nation as 
 teachers, almoners, preachers, and confessors. Not- 
 withstanding the laxity of many Churchmen's lives, 
 thousands of noble ecclesiastics from the seclusion 
 of their cloisters still disseminated a holy influence. 
 
 7 
 
82 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 The continuous tinklings of monastic bells; the 
 unlimited charity of sacristans; and the ghostly 
 glidings of tonsured priests into the death 
 chambers of baron and serf, had witnessed through 
 the long, dark ages of superstition and bloodshed 
 of a better life, and led the way. 
 
 The immediate effect of dissolution upon the lot 
 of the common people was calamitous, plunging 
 them into irrevocable poverty. It deprived parishes 
 of religious services, the youth of the country of 
 educational advantages, the sick of medical care ; 
 labourers and artisans of employment, the homeless 
 poor of charitable relief, and the dying of ghostly 
 comfort. Sir Thomas More asserts that to his 
 knowledge only seven peers accepted slices of the 
 Church lands, but of these seven Earl George was 
 one. The scruples of a hoary piety failed to deter 
 the imperturbity of the King's man, who held the 
 creed of the ancient barons : — 
 
 " That they should take who have the power, 
 " And they should keep who can." 
 
 Bent as he was upon the aggrandisement of his 
 house, the widespread sympathy with homeless 
 Churchmen weighed with him but as a feather in 
 the scale. He had no quarrel with the Church, he 
 simply coveted its wealth. But his acquirement of 
 the lease of Waltham Abbey lands furthered reform 
 in his own household and in Leicestershire, and 
 strained his personal relations with the Church of 
 his forefathers. Foresight and discretion 
 
 prompted Cromwell's advice to Henry, that the 
 possession of Church lands would alienate their 
 recipients from the old order ; for in the immediate 
 future, and in later reigns, the families that had 
 
THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 83 
 
 become eiiricliecl by siicli means manifested the 
 greatest aversion to Popery, fearing lest its re- 
 establishment wonld lead to restoration. 
 
 A LAST SERVICE. 
 
 After the dissolution of the greater monasteries 
 the Earl of Huntingdon retired from Parliamen- 
 tary service and Court life, to Ashby-de-la-Zouch ; 
 but had scarcely settled there, when a Eoyal mes- 
 senger dismounted at the great gateway, and when 
 ushered into the presence of the Protector of the 
 jN'orth produced from his wallet and handed to him 
 a commission to proceed northwards and extinguish 
 the smouldering embers of thePilgrimage of Grace. 
 Automatically the Earl obeyed, stamped out the 
 revolt, beheaded Neville at York, and returned to 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch. It was his last service to the 
 King. He was 54 years of age, and had spent 33 
 years since his father's death at Court, in arduous 
 and unquestioning attendance on a King, whose 
 favour had proved to many an illustrious English- 
 man a flowerj^ pathway to the fatal block. The 
 memory of them haunted his mind, more and more 
 as he meditated on the effect of the changeful years 
 upon the King's temper. That Monarch had 
 reached the sere and yellow leaf of autumn. Not- 
 withstanding the subservient willingness with 
 which Parliament had ministered to his disordered 
 ambition, fate had banished peace and quietness 
 from his domestic life ; had denied him the satisfac- 
 tion of contemplating a strong succession ; the 
 cause and object of his matrimonial difficulties ; 
 and his disposition had grown morose and sus- 
 picious. Weary of the increasing strain of service 
 the cautious Earl felt that the time for absolute 
 retirement had arrived, and the voices of the past 
 
84 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 confirmed that decision. Cardinal Wolsey, the 
 last and greatest of a long succession of priestly- 
 statesmen, had died at Leicester Abbey, his 
 generous heart broken by the thought of princely 
 ingratitude and unjustice ; Bishop Eisher, the 
 stately and indomitable defender of the church he 
 loved, and Sir Thomas More, the gifted author of 
 *' Utopia," had welcomed martyrdom as a protest 
 against the assumption of a holy title by an un- 
 hallowed despot ; and Cromwell had exterminated 
 the princely Plantaganet line, except the sweet 
 lady who had entered his family as his son's bride, 
 and her eminent uncle, who was safe at Rome. 
 
 Surely it was safer to be out of sight and out of 
 mind; nay, the longing for a peaceful eventide 
 to a stormy day grew upon him, until the stately 
 ceremony of the Castle service became distastefully 
 pretentious, and he isolated himself in his manor 
 house of Stoke Pogis, where the fever of ambition 
 and worry could not break his quietude, but only 
 the birds sang to him and the cattle loWed a welcome 
 to sunset. When he died in November, 1545, they 
 laid him in the chancel of the quaint old church, 
 since distinguished by literary associations, and 
 lie sleeps there quietly. 
 
F 
 
 THE CONSPIEATOE. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A.D. 1514-1561. 
 
 EANCIS, the fourth baron and second earl, 
 succeeded to the title at the sober age of 31. 
 As a youth of 16, he had received a summons to 
 attend the Parliament of November 3rd, 1529, in 
 anticipation of the higher rank about to be con- 
 ferred upon his father, and three years later the 
 Order of the Bath at Anne Boleyn's Coronation. 
 For about twenty years as boy, youth, and man, he 
 had lived in the fierce light that beat upon the 
 throne of the second Tudor King. Probably on his 
 father's retirement from the command of the 
 Archer's Guard he had stepped into his place. 
 
 AN EXPERIENCED GUIDE. 
 
 His shrewd and successful father had from his 
 boyhood impressed him with the traditional family 
 aim, to forward the fortunes of the House by the 
 dual method of ingratiating himself into the 
 monarch's favour, and of making a wealthy and 
 influential marriage. The two arrived at so com- 
 plete and mutual an understanding, that until the 
 elder's death in 1545 they worked together shoulder 
 
86 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 to shoulder as colleagues ; enabling tlie young 
 adventurer on the turbulent sea of state service, in 
 times of stress and storm to anchor his galley in 
 the safe harbour of the veteran's experience. It 
 is noticeable that Francis failed for the first time 
 in the accomplishment of his projects after his 
 father's death. Full of his father's ambitious spirit, 
 but more daring and less cautious, he rushed un- 
 hesitatingly forward at Northumberland's bidding, 
 along a dangerous path that the first Earl would 
 have refused in similar circumstances to take. 
 
 Parental foresight and solicitude had secured for 
 him the royal patronage ; introducing him to 
 Henry VIII. in the happier years of his reign, before 
 his private fortune was exhausted, when the eyes 
 of his admiring subjects were still dazzled by the 
 external glory of royalty; and before the savage 
 irritability of surfeited self -gratification had settled 
 upon his spirit, rendering his temper gloomy and 
 morose. The same foresight had arranged his 
 marriage with the Lady Katherine Pole, when her 
 family was in the full enjoyment of restored 
 position and wealth, by the good-tempered 
 acquiescence of a King secure upon his throne. 
 
 A PROUD FATHER-IN-LAW. 
 
 Earl George regarded the marriage with a peculiar 
 satisfaction. It would mingle the blood of his 
 grandfather's royal master's brother with that of 
 his heirs. In his highest flights of ambition, the 
 Great Chamberlain would have scarcely dared to 
 contemplate such an eventuality. It would give 
 royal descent to his future grandson. One life only 
 stood between the Lady Catherine and the English 
 crown in rightful descent, that of a priest, bound to 
 celebacy by religious vows sacred to his conscience. 
 
THE CONSPIRATOR. 87 
 
 Over his cups and to the associates that he could 
 trust, the old Earl often boasted of his daughter- 
 in-law's royal lineage, as a factor of his family's 
 future greatness. The old dream of the King- 
 maker (alike the impetus of his schemes, and the 
 cause of his downfall) of becoming the ancestor of 
 a dynasty often visited him. The same thought 
 to the end of life animated Francis, leading him 
 to fondly regard his six children as princes and 
 princesses ; prompting him to turn a willing ear to 
 the tempter ; to indulge in a profuse display of the 
 ceremonious appendages of wealth ; to extravagant 
 outlay on apparel; and to the accumulation of 
 riches as a solid buttress of his anticipated great- 
 ness. He contemplated with extreme satisfaction 
 the result of his father's acceptance of Church 
 lands. The rents of the fertile lands of Waltham 
 Abbey poured steadily into the coffers of his 
 Comptroller of the Household at Ashby-de-la- 
 Zouch, and he had no mind to stem the golden tide. 
 
 THE LUST OF GOLD. 
 
 In studjdng the development of the English 
 Reformation, it is remarkable how tenaciously the 
 noblemen w^ho had participated in the Church 
 plunder clung to their gains, closing their eyes to 
 the numerous evidences of popular disapproval, 
 committing themselves to the propaganda of 
 Luther's teaching, and supporting the aggressive 
 legislation of the Reform party in Parliament; 
 impelled by a fixed opinion that the conservation 
 of their wealth depended upon the continual 
 widening of the existing gulf between the Church 
 of England and the mother Church of Rome. 
 There could be no doubt that if the Pope succeeded 
 in regaining his lost supremacy in England he 
 
88 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 would immediately demand restitution. Even in 
 Queen Mary's reign, when such, a restoration 
 appeared to come within the bounds of probability, 
 and a subservient House of Commons, dominated 
 by a majority of adherents of the old faith, passed 
 a bill to restore the Papal Power, it was found 
 necessary to insert a proviso that neither the Bishop 
 of Rome nor any other Bishop, should have any 
 power to convene, or trouble any person for pos- 
 sessing Abbey lands. Even then, when the bill 
 reached the Lords, it was set aside for a time ; until 
 the members of the higher House were better 
 assured of Protection for owners of Church lands. 
 When the bill was actually under discussion Parlia- 
 ment despatched a special messenger to Rome to 
 acquaint the Pope plainly with the resolution of 
 both Lords and Commons, that the restoration of 
 his spiritual supremacy in England must be the 
 price of his abandonment of all claims to the Abbey 
 lands. Within a quarter of a century after the 
 dissolution of Sacred Houses, the number of pro- 
 prietors had largely increased. The material 
 circumstances of some of those who had originally 
 obtained gifts from the King had changed, 
 necessitating sub-divisions and sales of interest to 
 smaller owners, who came to the support of 
 Huntingdon and his confreres in Parliament, 
 whenever danger threatened their possessions. 
 When Queen Mary had succeeded in affecting an 
 apparent restoration of her realm to Catholicity; 
 she yet felt that her work could never be complete 
 until the Church possessed her own again, and at 
 her instigation a bill was submitted to her dutiful 
 Parliament proposing such a consummation. But 
 even those who were well aifected to her were 
 startled at the suggestion, insomuch that some of 
 
THE CONSPIRATOR. b\f 
 
 them clapped their hands upon their swords 
 declaring, not without oaths, that they would never 
 part with their Abbey lands while they had 
 weapons to defend them. This incident being 
 reported to the Queen she wisely and discreetly 
 abandoned her project. 
 
 AN OPEN DOOR. 
 
 Earl Francis had enjoyed the earldom about two 
 years, when the death of Henry YIII. opened to 
 him an adventurous career. He already held an 
 eminent position in the peerage that rendered him 
 eligible to carr}^ the staff of St. Edmund at the boy 
 monarch's Coronation, and commanded the royal 
 body guard ; but the social rank that conferred 
 these privileges upon him had descended to him 
 by inheritance. His ambitious nature could not 
 live, and move, within the circle of inherited 
 greatness; he must extend the circumference, as 
 his predecessors had done. But such a design 
 could not be accomplished by obsequious attendance 
 on the royal person. The King was a mere child 
 of nine years old, incapable alike of exercising his 
 royal prerogatives or controlling the administration 
 of law. In his helpless minority, the task of 
 government devolved upon another. Henry YIII. 
 had provided for such a contingency, by appointing 
 a Royal Council in preference to a regency, naming 
 its members in his will from both religious parties, 
 in a proportion estimated to preserve a safe balance 
 of power ; but placing the care of his child in the 
 hands of his late Queen's relatives. Immediately 
 after his death, however, the young King's 
 maternal uncle. Lord Edward Sejmiour, assumed 
 a protectorate and the Glovernorship of his person, 
 monopolising in his own hands absolute power. 
 
90 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 and filling tlie realm of national affairs with his 
 pretentions personality. His inordinate vanity 
 expressed itself in the royal commission appointing 
 his seat in Parliament. 
 
 A POMPOUS PROTECTOR. 
 
 " We have therefore, as well by the consent of 
 our said uncle, and by the advice of other the Lords 
 of our Privy Council, willed, ordained, and 
 appointed, and do by these presents, will, ordain, 
 and appoint, that our said uncle shall, and do sit 
 alone, and be placed at all times, as well in our 
 presence, as in our absence, upon the midst of the 
 Bench or Stool, standing next on the right hand 
 of our Seat Royal in our Parliament." 
 
 Neither did the country resent the Duke's 
 ostentation. It was believed that his elevation 
 would assure both the safety of the King's person 
 and the well-being of the Reformed Faith ; while 
 Parliament had no objection to his enjoyment of 
 the honours of state, so long as it could obtain the 
 power. 
 
 But the lynx eye of Warwick gauged the 
 irresolution lying at the root of Somerset's pomp, 
 and that nobleman secretly resolved to profit by 
 it to accomplish his downfall. In the new con- 
 ditions of the English monarchy subsequent to the 
 Battle of Bosworth, in which the single authority 
 of the King supplanted the power of the Baronage, 
 the Sovereign found it peremptory to look out- 
 side the peerage for practical business men, com- 
 petent to serve him in the government of his realm. 
 Whenever Henry YII. came in contact with the 
 trading community in civil functions ; or the minor 
 gentry on hunting excursions ; he kept a sharp 
 look-out for prospective ministers to carry out his 
 
THE CONSPIRATOR. 
 
 91 
 
 policy. Empson and Dudley, notorious for their 
 association with the proceedings of the Star 
 Chamber; Sir Thomas Pope, the Treasurer of the 
 Court of Augmentations; are instances of a 
 numerous corps of royal agents, who rose from 
 comparative obscurity in the early Tudor times to 
 affluence. Undaunted by the tragic fate of his 
 father, John Dudley, the son of Henry YII.'s 
 infamous minister, by the aid of his father's fortune 
 and name, gained admission to the peerage of 
 Henry YIIL, under the title of Lord Lisle; so 
 completely conciliating that monarch's favour, that 
 he named him eventually in his will one of the 
 members of his son's Minority Council. In this 
 
 THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 
 
 man Somerset speedily discovered that he had to 
 reckon with an ambition equal to his own. The 
 two nobles, the one owing his importance to the 
 incidental marriage of his sister with the late 
 King, and the other to the soaring flight of an 
 inordinate ambition, could admit no superiority. 
 The one sat insecurely on the second seat of state ; 
 the other aspired to unchair him, and to occupy 
 his place. His elevation to the historic earldom of 
 Warwick failed to slake Dudley's thirst for 
 advancement. Gathering around him every one 
 that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, 
 and every one that was discontented, he established 
 his cave of Adullum in Parliament, bribing the 
 avaricious and ambitious with promises of wealth 
 and honours. By his side Earl Francis took his 
 place ; became his trusted henchman ; shared his 
 schemes and intrigues ; and committed himself so 
 entirely to his policy, as to close the door for 
 retreat. The strong hand of Henry YIIL removed 
 
92 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 from the helm of the ship of state, the uncontrolled 
 Parliament proceeded with reformation work. 
 Warwick, although personally indifferent about 
 religion, discovered that his prospect of advance- 
 ment depended upon a close alliance with the 
 vanguard of the Reform party, and declared him- 
 self the Champion of Protestantism. Many per- 
 sonal ties bound Earl Francis to the old faith ; the 
 traditions of his family, the fidelity of his beloved 
 wife, and the strong friendship existing between 
 Cardinal Pole and himself; but his alienation 
 from the priesthood incidental to his proprietorship 
 of the Abbey lands, brought him under the 
 influence of the purest spirits of the Reformation, 
 leading him to examine Luther's teachings, and 
 deciding him to embrace Protestantism, Drawn by 
 precautionary motives of property defence to the 
 councils of the movement, he found an interpreta- 
 tion of Christ's Gospel that enlightened his heart 
 and mind and moved him to labour for the extended 
 circulation of the Bible as a means of promoting 
 nobler religious opinions. Meanwhile, by in- 
 sidious processes, Warwick accomplished the 
 Protector's downfall, and ordered Huntingdon, 
 with his archers, to convey him to the Tower. Then 
 he seized the supreme power, constituting himself 
 guardian of the King's person, and assuming by 
 royal mandate the higher rank of Duke of 
 Northumberland. He next bestirred himself to 
 reward his followers, jDroving no niggard patron. 
 He conferred the Garter upon Lord Huntingdon 
 on the evening of the day he conducted Somerset 
 to the Tower, made him a Privy Councillor, and 
 granted him the royal license to maintain a 
 personal escort of fifty men. Earl George had 
 
THE CONSPIRATOR. 93 
 
 A GENEROUS PATRON. 
 
 coveted sucli a privilege, and had been summoned 
 before the Star Chamber at the instigation of 
 jN'orthumberland's father for parading an unlawful 
 following. This concession peculiarly gratified 
 Francis ; it raised his social prestige ; it enabled 
 him to accord the I/ady Catherine an attendance 
 in some degree proportionate to her rank by birth. 
 But besides honours Northumberland gave him 
 wealth, for the one, unaccompanied by the other, 
 had been a thankless boon to any lord of Ashby. 
 Amongst other grants he received the estates of 
 John Beaumont, the late Master of the Rolls, an 
 adherent of Somerset, who had fallen with his 
 chief. The Beaumonts were neighbours of the 
 Huntingdons. 
 
 At her husband's fall Mistress Beaumont retired 
 to Grace Dieu, to learn with dismay that even that 
 mansion had also passed into the Earl's possession, 
 leaving her homeless. But a woman interposed 
 on her behalf, none other than the Lady Catherine, 
 and the Earl gallantly returned to her not only 
 her mansion^ but the manor of Grace Dieu. 
 
 THE earl's portrait. 
 
 The Earl had now reached the zenith of his 
 career, his portrait in Donnington Hall represents 
 him at this period and challenges notice. The 
 satisfaction of gratified ambition ; the conscious- 
 ness of inherited prestige ; the firmness of high 
 resolve ; and the easy condescension of lofty and 
 assured social rank, blend in the expression of his 
 face ; forming a composite likeness of a remark- 
 able personage who would attract attention in a 
 modern crowd. The full length figure standing 
 
94 ROMANCE OF ASIIBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 out from tlie huge canvas suggests a lordly pro- 
 prietor walking proudly over his domains. 
 
 The first Parliament of Edward YI.'s made some 
 attempt to remedy the disastrous state into which 
 agriculture had fallen after the suppression of the 
 Abbeys. The Abbots from time immemorial had 
 carried on extensive farming operations, and 
 manufactured all necessary agricultural imple- 
 ments. Each Abbey had possessed an organised 
 statf, to the several officials of which the manage- 
 ment of the various departments had been com- 
 mitted. The erection and repair of farm buildings 
 and workmen's cottages ; the care of plantations 
 and woods ; the raising and herding of stock ; and 
 the systematic tillage of the land ; had all received 
 the attention of monkish overseers and their lay 
 assistants. The dissolution suspended all such 
 operations, destroying an established labour 
 market, and flinging a great horde of helpless 
 Churchmen and Churchwomen upon the charity of 
 their former dependents, who themselves had be- 
 come destitute. In addition, the large number of 
 poor gentle people who had assigned their worldly 
 estates to the Abbots in payment for an assured 
 home for their declining years, were also rendered 
 homeless. In place of the orderly routine of 
 monastic activity, the new proprietors substituted 
 old servitors as caretakers, caring little for the 
 claims of the land, or the welfare of its inhabitants ; 
 and thinking only of immediate gain, cheaply 
 obtained. This condition of affairs resulted in an 
 acute state of agricultural depression and social 
 destitution ; an increase of vagabondism ; and a 
 feeling of unrest throughout England, so prevalent 
 that Parliament deemed it at length prudent to 
 adjourn the work of Spiritual Reformation for a 
 
THE COXSPIRATOR. 95 
 
 consideration of plans for social amelioration. One 
 of the immediate cares of Edward's first Parlia- 
 ment was to pass a resolution to prevent the Decay 
 of Tillage and Houses, and appoint an influential 
 
 ROYAL COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURE. 
 
 committee, consisting of Lord St. John, with the 
 Earls of Avondale,. Shrewsbury, Huntingdon, and 
 Southampton, to elaborate the details of a bill. 
 This reluctant duty performed, both Lords and 
 Commons returned to the absorbing subject of 
 Church Reform, initiating that execrable reign of 
 Vandalism, that denuded our English churches of 
 their pictures, statues, altars, and decorations ; 
 wantonly destroying all monuments of the piety 
 and culture of past ages ; and awakening the 
 callous bigotry and contempt of the beautiful, that 
 found expression in the uncultured practices of 
 Oliver Cromwell and his party. An Act was passed 
 declaring that all books used in churches such as 
 Antiphonales, Missals, Grayles, Manuals, Pro- 
 cessionals, Legends, Pies, Portuasses, Journals, 
 Couchers, and Ordinals after the use of Sarum, 
 Lincoln, and York, or any other private use should 
 be destroyed ; and all those who had any image that 
 did belong to any church or chapel, were required 
 to deface it before the last day of June, 1550. 
 
 UNIFORMITY OF WORSHIP. 
 
 Having reduced the fabric of the churches to a 
 common standard of unloveliness, Parliament pro- 
 ceeded to establish uniformity of worship ; en- 
 forcing the Book of Common Prayer, a compilation 
 of Archbishop Cranmer from the various offices of 
 the ancient faith, upon the clergy as a substitute 
 for the rituals withdrawn. When we consider that 
 
96 ROMANCE OF ASIIBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 the mass of English people had at the time no 
 quarrel with the familiar established service of the 
 churches, we do not wonder at the contemptuous 
 popular comment, that the Reformation was like 
 to change as oft as fashion. The Act provided 
 that an Order of Divine Service being published, 
 many did wilfully abstain from it, and refused to 
 come to their parish churches ; therefore all are 
 required after the Peast of All Hallows next, to 
 come every Sunday and holiday to Common 
 Prayers under pain of the Church's censure. 
 
 LEGAL PIETY. 
 
 The following month saw the enactment of a Bill 
 for the observation of Holy Days and Fasting 
 Days. Its preamble set forth, " that men are not 
 at all times so set on the performance of religious 
 duties as they ought to be ; which makes it 
 necessary that there should be set times, in which 
 labour was to cease, that men might on these days 
 wholly serve God. Which days were not to be 
 accounted holy of their own nature but were so 
 called, because of the holy duties, then to be set 
 about, so that the sanctification of them was not 
 any magical virtue in that time, but consisted in 
 the dedicating of them to God's service. That no 
 day was dedicated to any Saint, but only to God 
 in remembrance of such Saints. That the 
 Scripture had not determined the number of Holy 
 Days, but that these were left to the liberty of 
 the Church. Therefore it was enacted that all 
 Sundays, with the days marked in the Calendar 
 and Liturgy, should be kept as Holy Days; and 
 the Bishops were to proceed by the censures of the 
 Church against the disobedient." 
 
THE COXSPIRATOE. 
 
 97 
 
 MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 
 
 One other Bill to sanction the marriage of priests 
 completed Cranmer's scheme of reform, and passed 
 into law about ten months later. Eemembering all 
 his trouble in Henry's reign, and how he had to 
 block the passage of the Six Articles until he had 
 despatched his wife to Germany for safety, he 
 made it definite. It declared " that many took 
 occasion from the words of the Act formerly made 
 about this matter to say that it was only permitted 
 as Usury and other unlawful things were for the 
 avoiding greater evils ; w^ho thereupon spoke 
 scandalously of such marriages, and accounted the 
 children begotten of them to be bastards; to the 
 high dishonour of the King and Parliament, and 
 the learned clergy of the realm ; who had deter- 
 mined that the laws against priests' marriages 
 were most unlawful by the law^ of God ; to w^hich 
 they had not only given their assent in Convoca- 
 tion, but signed it with their own hands. These 
 slanders did also occasion that the Word of God 
 was not heard with due reverence; whereupon it 
 was enacted that such marriages made according 
 to the rules prescribed in the Book of Service should 
 be esteemed good and valid ; and that the children 
 begot in them should be inheritable according to 
 law." 
 
 CRANMER's SCHEME OF REFORM. 
 
 Such was Cranmer's great scheme for the Re- 
 formation of the English Church, by the destruction 
 of a golden system that had employed literature, 
 painting, music, and architecture, as its ministers, 
 and the substitution of an earthenware system that 
 discarded the sublime assistance of consecrated 
 genius, as a helpful teacher of the eye and ear, and 
 
98 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 reduced worship to a basal deptli of dreariness. 
 The same principle bound expression in each 
 system, viz., priestly assumption, the same aim, 
 viz., uniformity; and the same defect, viz., in- 
 tolerance, only the new and improved plan intro- 
 duced that curious anomaly, the married priest. 
 Cranmer had at length succeeded in legalising 
 marriage with priests, in defiance of the prejudice 
 of his contemporaries. But many years elapsed 
 before popular opinion assented to the principle, 
 and even in the freer judgment of Elizabeth's reign, 
 the Queen could never believe an Archbishop's wife 
 to be anything better than his mistress. 
 
 Earl Francis lent a ready assistance to the reso- 
 lute Parliamentary minority who forced these 
 startling changes upon the country, fully accepting 
 Cranmer' s scheme, primarily in defence of his pro- 
 perty and ultimately from conviction. His endorse- 
 ment of the Reformers' programme of reform 
 involved great changes in the Ashby household, 
 and St. Helen's Church. There as elsewhere, pic- 
 tures and images, long associated with worship, 
 were removed, and the walls were lime washed in 
 accordance with the requirements of a newer and 
 more austere conception of religious worship. 
 
 A GLOOMY OUTLOOK. 
 
 But a worm gnawed at the bud of Northumber- 
 land's prosperity. The preservation of the newly- 
 established order depended upon the duration of 
 the consumptive young King's life. It was mani- 
 fest that the demise of the crown, and the succes- 
 sion of Mary, would result in an attempt to restore 
 the ecclesiastical conditions of pre-Reformation 
 times, and the downfall of Northumberland's 
 power. King Edward had reached that stage of 
 
THE CONSPIRATOR. 
 
 liis fatal malady tliat evidenced a visible diminu- 
 tion of strength dailj^ A hollow cough racked his 
 attenuated frame from which the crude remedies 
 of the unskilful physicians could afford him no 
 relief. The prospect of his approaching dissolu- 
 tion could no longer be concealed, and the expecta- 
 tions of those who held dear the old faith revived, 
 as the Angel of Death focused the sad face of Mary 
 upon the blank sheet of the future. The great 
 mass of Englishmen had never assented to Parlia- 
 mentary interference with her title to the Crown. 
 In the subdued atmosphere of repression in which 
 she had groAvn up to womanhood, the tenets of the 
 ancient faith had been her stay in adversity, and 
 her comfort in friendlessness ; she had observed the 
 advance movement of leading Englishmen toward 
 Church Eeform with regret, declining to join in it, 
 and holding with a woman's fidelity to her mother's 
 religion. The pitiless treatment"^ of that beloved 
 mother, and the brand of illegitimacy burnt upon 
 her own brow by Cranmer and his followers, served 
 to intensify her hatred of the dominant party, and 
 her attachment to the suppressed Catholics. 
 
 The Duke of ^Northumberland had not acted from 
 strong religious motives in identifying himself 
 with Protestantism. Personal considerations care- 
 fully disguised had led him to that cause, as the sole 
 sphere in which it was possible for him to attain 
 supreme power, but he numbered in his following 
 men of sturdier sincerity, who honestly desired to 
 safeguard the Reformation, and maintain its out- 
 posts, even at the risk of personal loss and peril. 
 With these men Earl Francis sypmathised. The 
 conviction grew daily in their \mnds that their 
 legislative programme of reform forced upon the 
 country by violent means could only be sustained 
 
100 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 by revolutionary metliods; and that, contrary tt. 
 law and equity, a change in the succession must 
 be accomplished. Such a great scheme did even- 
 tually receive national sanction, but not in North- 
 umberland's day ; and only after the claim of the 
 Stuart Kings to the tenancy of the Throne by 
 Divine Eight had been condemned in Parliament 
 and on battlefields. 
 
 The Heformers were aware that Parliament 
 would not agree to the nulification of Mary's right. 
 That august assembly had already stubbornly 
 resisted Northumberland's endeavour to asperse 
 the late Protector's Administration. That noble- 
 man, therefore, worked upon the religious hopes 
 and scruples of the dying King, pointing out to him 
 the grave consequences to the Protestant cause that 
 would follow Mary's succession, and urging that 
 the reversionary interest in the Crown ought to be 
 settled in the person of Lady Jane Grey, until by 
 his importunities he obtained the Hoyal consent to 
 such a course. The King's Council, composed of 
 creatures of Northumberland, and supporters of 
 his policy issued an order of Council to that effect. 
 Then Northumberland sent out invitations to the 
 elite of London to gather at Durham House on May 
 21st, to witness the celebration of the nuptials of 
 Lady Jane Grey and his fourth son. Lord Guildford 
 Dudley, and of his daughter Catherine and Lord 
 Henry Hastings, the heir of Earl Francis. To 
 Lady Jane and her husband the union brought 
 untimely death, to Lord and Lady Hastings' years 
 of worry, but afterwards contentment and happy 
 conjugality. 
 
 Six months later the flag floated at half mast 
 upon Windsor Tower, and England's King lay 
 dead. 
 
THE CONSPIRATOE. 101 
 
 COXSPIRACY. 
 
 Northumberlaud at once commenced the great 
 struggle of his life, for the realisation of his plots 
 and schemes, that would exalt him, as he hoped, to 
 the natural guardianship of the Sovereign, and the 
 actual rulership of the realm. English subjects 
 had learned to submit to the power de facto, and 
 Northumberland had established his authority by 
 playing Darby to the Eeformation party's Joan. 
 When he ordered the proclamation of his daughter- 
 in-law, public opinion neither interposed nor 
 acquiesced. The Londoners received the Lady 
 Jane's name without demonstration of welcome or 
 resentment. One intrepid apprentice, however, 
 expressed the prevailing sentiment by crying out : 
 " The Lady Mary hath the better right," and sat 
 the following day in the stocks to meditate upon his 
 hardihood. Misfortunes baffled the Duke on every 
 hand. Even the Lady Jane declined to allow her 
 husband to be crowned except by Parliamentary 
 consent. The Princess Mary fled from the neigh- 
 bourhood of London, and iS'orthumberland deeming 
 himself sure of the Tower, and the Capital, resolved 
 to pursue her. No word of popular encouragement 
 greeted him as he rode out of London at the head 
 of his forces. Uncertain which direction to take, 
 he made for Cambridge, but on arriving there, he 
 found the local sentiment so strongly opposed to 
 him, that his own troops caught the spirit of dis- 
 affection, and refused to fight in his cause. Sur- 
 rounded by popular clamour, Earl Francis and the 
 Duke found it impossible to retire. Only one course 
 opened to them, and they took it with what grace 
 they could, by tossing their caps in the air, and 
 crying " God Save Queen Mary." But their late 
 repentance did not ensure salvation. Their captors 
 
102 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 coiiveyecl tliem to Lonclou, and by Mary's order, 
 to the Tower, which they reached on July 19th, 
 1553. There Lord Huntingdon languished in his 
 cell for six dreary months, while Lady Catherine 
 shed bitter tears in Ashby Castle, and wiped them 
 with Royal courage to pen a letter to her eminent 
 uncle, the Cardinal at Brussels, imploring him to 
 intercede for her imprisoned husband. Since the 
 murder of the founder of the House of Hastings, 
 no head of that illustrious family had ever passed 
 through the sullen gates of the Tower in captivity. 
 The Earls had habitually visited the fortress under 
 the Sovereign's authority and in his service. 
 Throughout his adventurous career Earl Francis 
 had hitherto found little time for meditation ; but 
 during his incarceration he lacked not opportunity. 
 To his mind depressed by the threatening possi- 
 bilities of the future, the Tower, with its associa- 
 tions, recalled bitter reminiscenses. A long suc- 
 
 A REVERIE IN THE TOVTER. 
 
 cession of disquieting memories haunted him. 
 Great personages who had laid their heads upon the 
 hateful block came to him in his lonely leisure. 
 Anne Boleyn, at whose coronation the King con- 
 ferred upon him the Order of the Bath; Queen 
 Catherine Howard, whose hand he had kissed in 
 homage ; the aged Countess of Salisbury, his wife's 
 grandmother; Lord Montague, his father-in-law; 
 Bishop Fisher, of stately presence (of whom Henry 
 had sarcastically observed that the Pope's hat 
 should find a headless Cardinal), who welcomed his 
 doom day as if it had been a bridal morning, 
 exclaiming, as the sun shone gloriously upon the 
 scaffold : " Accedite adeum et illuminamine et 
 vestrce non confundentor," and laid his head upon 
 
THE CONSPIRATOR. 103 
 
 his cruel pillow with a prayer for the King and 
 realm ; the brave Sir Thomas More, the cnltnred 
 successor Wolsey, the most gifted man of his 
 period, who climbed the scaffold steps with a sunny 
 smile upon his lips ; and last of all, Thomas Crom- 
 well, the great work of whose life had enriched the 
 coffers of the Huntingdon family, the thought of 
 whose horrible death made the Earl shiver, as he 
 remembered how the executioner, a ragged and 
 butcherly miser, chopped at his head for nearly 
 half an hour; all visited him, and he recalled the 
 very lineaments of their faces. An atmosphere of 
 suspense pervaded his cell. One day, towards the 
 end of August, an unusual excitement disturbed 
 the monotonous routine of the fortress. If his cell 
 window commanded the w^ay to the Tower Grreen, 
 he watched them lead his patron the Duke of 
 jN^orthumberland to his ignoble end. He had 
 pleaded for life, " yea, the life of a dog, that he mav 
 but live and kiss the Queen's feet, but in vain ; and 
 in his mortal hour he rejected the Reformation and 
 died a Catholic. " He certainly thought beet of the 
 old religion, but that seeing a new one begin, run 
 dog, run devil, he would go forward. But fortune 
 decreed a better future for Lord Huntingdon. The 
 late King's death that hurried him into participa- 
 tion in a great conspiracy, covered him in defeat 
 with shame, and immured him in a cell, gave his 
 brother Edward opportunity to rise in the Queen's 
 
 AN ADVOCATE. 
 
 favour. Influenced by strong religious motives, 
 he declared for Mary, manifesting the traditional 
 Easting's activity in her interests. With skilful 
 and watchful promptitude he thwarted an attempt 
 to seize her horses at Greenwich, thereby rendering 
 
104 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 her a grateful service. As a reward of his fidelity, 
 she appointed him to lead her horse from the Tower 
 to Westminster at her Coronation, and in the trying 
 days that established her authority reposed in him 
 a confident trust such as Edward lY. felt in the 
 first baron. She afterwards honoured him by call- 
 ing him to her Privy Council; granting him the 
 Manor of Bosworth ; conferring upon him the blue 
 ribbon of the Garter, and creating him Baron 
 Hastings of Loughborough. She entrusted to him 
 difficult and honourable missions. He was one of 
 the nobles despatched to quell Wyatt's rebellion; 
 she assigned to him the delightful duty of escorting 
 Cardinal Pole from Brussels to London ; and com- 
 missioned him to undertake the less pleasant errand 
 of conveying the Princess Elizabeth to Court. 
 
 At the low ebb of the Earl's fortunes Lord 
 Edward appealed to Mary to release him, and we 
 cannot wonder that she consented to the prayer of 
 such a petitioner, backed by the Cardinal's influ- 
 ence. Parliament had met in October; Lord 
 Huntingdon's name appeared upon the roll of the 
 peerage, but his place was vacant in the House of 
 Lords, and he was a prisoner. In releasing him, 
 however, the Queen exacted a pledge of fidelity, 
 
 A PLEDGE or FIDELITY. 
 
 nay, more, the proof of service, commissioning him 
 to pursue and capture his former friend, the Duke 
 of Suffolk. In an age when treason filled the air, 
 and ingratitude swayed the actions of statesmen, 
 the Duke had earned for himself notoriety for 
 treachery. After the suppression of Northumber- 
 land's conspiracy, Mary, in making the round of 
 the Tower, encountered him, and, anxious to con- 
 ciliate the nobility, listened to his protestations of 
 
THE CONSPIRATOR. 105 
 
 repentance, and liberated liim. To lier deed of 
 queenly clemency, however, Suffolk responded with 
 an act of ungrateful treason. On sending for him 
 later to assist in quelling one of the numerous 
 insurrections that disturbed her early reign, she 
 received information that he had departed with his 
 brothers to Lincolnshire, where the Grreys possessed 
 estates, to raise his tenants against her, and in sup- 
 port of his daughter. His expedition proved abor- 
 tive, and dejected in spirit, he wandered from place 
 to place, abandoned by his followers. Like a 
 sleuth hound the Earl followed him. At length 
 Suffolk appealed to the compassion of a forest 
 ranger named XJnderhill. But Ilnderhill betrayed 
 him to Lord Huntingdon, who, with his escort of 
 200 men, conducted him to the Tower. 
 
 DISGRACE. 
 
 If the Earl hoped that the successful accomplish- 
 ment of his task would propitiate the Queen, he 
 was mistaken. A judicious clemency had moved 
 her to pardon him ; in her heart she could not for- 
 give or trust him. His Protestantism precluded 
 him from Royal favour, and he made no effort to 
 disguise his objectional views. She treated him 
 with a chilly reserve ; for the sake of her friend- 
 ship for the Cardinal and Lord Loughborough 
 allowing him personal freedom and nothing more. 
 As a solemn warning she commanded him to attend 
 Wyatt's execution, but even from that significant 
 spectacle the sturdy lord proceeded to the House of 
 Lords, and with all the moral and social influence 
 at his command, opposed the bill for the re-enact- 
 ment of the old penal laws against heresy. 
 
 His first appearance in the Parliament of the 
 new reign was attended by prolonged worry. 
 
106 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 Nortliumberlancl had conferred the Beaumont 
 estates upon him, after the impeachment of John 
 Beaumont, the late Master of the Rolls. Beau- 
 mont's son now sought to recover his late father's 
 lands. The dispute occupied the attention of both 
 Houses of Parliament. 
 
 A SUBPCENA. 
 
 The Commons Journal records : " That Mr. Beau- 
 mont, a member of the House of Commons, having 
 served a subpoena on the Earl of Huntingdon in 
 Parliament time, the Lords were offended, and on 
 April 17th, 1554, sent some of the judges to the 
 Lower House, bringing the subpoena with them, 
 and prayed the Order of the House for that offence. 
 After some debate, it was resolved that eight mem- 
 bers of the said House should declare to the Lords 
 * that they took the executing of this writ to be no 
 breach of privilege.' " 
 
 Unpopular in the Commons, and distrusted by 
 the Queen, the Earl found every avenue of activity 
 closed to him. There remained but an existence 
 of inglorious inactivity while Mary lived, and the 
 hope of better prospects at Elizabeth's accession. 
 To that event he looked forward with all the ardour 
 of his sanguine temperament, and while the fires 
 burned fiercely in Smithfield, and his old colleague 
 held his white hand in the ascending flame to 
 expiate his former cowardice. Lord Huntingdon 
 devoutly prayed for the day of hope to dawn. Mean- 
 while, in the gloom of her sick chamber the Queen 
 feared him, lest he might join in an attempt to 
 depose her, and place her sister on the Throne. 
 At her command the Royal Council adopted a reso- 
 lution that "it was agreed that on one pretence or 
 
THE CONSPIRATOR. 107 
 
 another, Derby, Shrewsbury, Sussex, and Hunting- 
 don should be sent out of London to their counties. 
 
 RETIREMENT. 
 
 This order probably saved Huntingdon from 
 participating in another conspiracy. It did more ; 
 it banished him to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, to the 
 delightful society of the Lady Catherine and his 
 children. In the serene atmosphere of home a fair 
 little maiden clambered on his knee, who was 
 destined in the coming reign, to be singled out on 
 account of her Royal birth and beauty, to receive 
 the offer of a crown. It would have been a con- 
 summation profoundly gratifying to her ambitious 
 father, but he lay quiet in the cold silence of his 
 marble tomb in St. Helen's Church. As she grew 
 from childhood to womanhood, the fame of her 
 beauty filled the land, and reached foreign courts. 
 Ivan Yassilovitch, the dread Czar of Muscovy, in 
 his distant palace, heard and dreamed of an English 
 bride. He despatched an embassy to Elizabeth to 
 ask for Lady Mary's hand. The interesting inci- 
 dent appealed to the Queen's love of the romantic, 
 and she arranged that the Czar's ambassador should 
 meet the Lady Mary at a large gathering in the 
 Gardens of York House. In the presence of Queen 
 Bess and her Court, the Ambassador prostrated 
 himself before her, kissed her hand, and proffered 
 his Sovereign's love. But the Lady Mary said him 
 *' Nay " ; nevertheless, the ladies of the Court nick- 
 named her '' Empress of Muscovy," an epithet that 
 clung to her all her life. 
 
 The news of Mary's death broke up the family 
 gathering at Ashby Castle, causing the Earl to 
 heave a sigh of relief, and make preparations for 
 the resumption of active service. But while the 
 
108 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 Court ladies prepared the funeral toilet of tke 
 Queen, the priests of the archiepiscopal palace 
 administered the last Sacrament to Cardinal Pole, 
 and despatched messengers to Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
 to announce the melancholy event to Lady 
 Catherine. 
 
 Three peers of the Huntingdon family attended 
 Elizabeth's first Parliament, the Earl, his son, 
 Lord Henry Hastings, and his brother. Lord Lough- 
 borough. On their journey to the metropolis, the 
 Lady Catherine accompanied them, seated gravely 
 in the cumbrous family coach, and escorted by a 
 brilliant cavalcade to prove her uncle's will as 
 executrix and heiress. 
 
 THE REST OF DEATH. 
 
 But although additional wealth filled the Earl's 
 coifers, honours and Royal confidence, that he 
 would have valued even more, were withholden; 
 for the Queen received him coolly. As in Mary's 
 reign, so in her sister's, the old epithet conspirator, 
 clung to him. He obtained a command in the 
 unsatisfactory French campaign, but returned to 
 England discontented. Birthday presents, and 
 protestations of loyalty alike failed to appease the 
 Queen's distrust, and at the early age of forty-seven 
 he again retired to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and died 
 there. In the full blood of middle life the stout 
 adventurer died, and the children he loved dearly, 
 for whom his strong brain had schemed and plotted, 
 wept around the bed side. In the faith of Jesus 
 Christ the one priest of men he passed into his 
 Gethsemene. ^Ai^d the Lady Catherine, his Royal 
 wife, held his hand in hers until it became cold, 
 her gentle accents followed him into the mysterious 
 shadow of death, and the last fond glance of his 
 
THE CONSPIRATOR. 109 
 
 eyes as they dimned to terrestrial friendship, rested 
 ou the familiar but tear-stained face of the beloved 
 companion of the troubled past. 
 
 They laid him in the chancel of St. Helen's 
 Church at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, over his remains 
 erecting a noble tomb. On it his effigy and his 
 lady's lie, carved in irresponsive marble, and he is 
 represented wearing rich armour under the robes 
 of the Garter. The inscription proclaims his 
 former greatness. 
 
 Here lieth the corpse of Francis, Earl of Hunt- 
 ingdon, Lord Hastings, Hungerford, Botreux, 
 Molms, and Moel, Enight of the most noble 
 Order of the Garter, who deceased June 20, Anno 
 Domine, 1661. 
 
THE ROYAL EARL. 
 CHAPTER y. 
 A.D. 1534-1695. 
 
 COURT OF EDWARD VI. 
 
 THE tliird Earl, following the example of his 
 predecessors, spent his early years at Court. 
 Northnmberland selected him to be the playmate 
 and companion of the child King. 
 
 He had attained his thirteenth year at Henry 
 VIII.'s decease, and Edward was about four years 
 his junior. 
 
 The Court of Edward YI. is memorable in his- 
 tory as a period of renascent religious reform, in 
 which the English Reformers realised with a spon- 
 taneous sigh of relief their freedom from the 
 despotic control of the late King. 
 
 The choicest spirits of the Reform Party — the 
 men of light and leading who formulated its policy, 
 and the sturdy heroes who shrunk not in the imme- 
 diate future to confess their faith amid the fires of 
 Smithfield — circled round the Throne. 
 
 Edward enjoyed the inestimable privilege of 
 intimate association with Cranmer, Ridley, Lati- 
 mer, and kindred spirits — men of whom the world 
 
THE ROYAL EAllL. Ill 
 
 of their time was not worthy — and of receiving 
 instrnction from their lips in the teachings of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. With his yonng companion he 
 drank thirstily at the fountain of their deep convic- 
 tion and calm experience. The same educative 
 influences moulded the thought, and dictated the 
 action of both Royal youths. 
 
 Edward has been declared precocious — he may 
 have been — but it was the precocity of a Divine 
 illumination that opened to his fresh young mind 
 a region of spiritual reality, in which the lustre of 
 an earthly diadem paled in the ineffable light ; the 
 precocity of a soul life that revelled in sublime 
 visions, and discovered its ideals at the foot of the 
 White Christ's Cross. Loaded with the heavy 
 robes of Royalty, weary with the weakness that 
 heralded premature dissolution; separated from 
 his sister Mary by a creed he believed to be blas- 
 phemous ; and bereaved of his maternal uncle and 
 protector by the machinations of a crafty and 
 unprincipled adviser, like a pure spirit on an 
 unworldly mission, he lived and moved amid a 
 throng of ambitious men. 
 
 It is interesting to note the influence he exerted 
 over the character of his companion, who had come 
 to his Court from the Ashby-de-la-Zouch home, 
 where religion yet suffered in the transitional 
 stage; where his gentle mother still cherished a 
 woman's veneration for the Church of her girl- 
 hood ; and the emancipated Earl still struggled 
 against the mercenary and ambitious motives that 
 originally attracted him to the Reformation; to 
 find in the clear light of the serene atmosphere of 
 Protestantism, the parting of the ways, and a 
 patient guide to take his hand, and lead him along 
 a path where God's word became a lamp unto his 
 
112 EOMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 feet. Ere he liacl paced the first stage of that 
 journey Death, with an impartial hand, struck 
 down the Royal guide, but the survivor pursued his 
 pilgrimage in middle age, and in old age ; faithful 
 to an inner light. With him, as us, it was no path- 
 way through fields and flowers, and fragrant with 
 the breath of roses — for him it led through arid 
 deserts, and over stony steeps, made lurid b}^ the 
 flames of martyrdom, it exposed him to Gardiner's 
 frown and Bonner's curses, but it led him Home in 
 the eventide of life, to a reunion with his sainted 
 friend. 
 
 On succeeding to the title and to the estates of 
 the Huntingdons, at the age of twenty-six, the Earl 
 inherited from his mother's ancestry, and from his 
 late father's indiscreet pride, a legacy of irritation 
 that embittered many subsequent years of his life, 
 and laid upon him a burden of misrepresentation. 
 
 While other proud scions of Royalty proclaimed 
 their nearness to the Throne as offspring of the 
 union between Henry YII. and Elizabeth of York, 
 his Royal mother, then clad in widow's weeds, was 
 the direct heiress of Greorge Duke of Clarence, the 
 brother of Edward lY., and unhappy victim of the 
 Woodvilles. The Parliament of Richard III. had 
 declared the children of Queen Elizabeth of York 
 illegitimate. Lady Catherine Huntingdon 
 
 inherited a claim quite independent of Woodville 
 blood. Earl Francis had boasted openly of his 
 wife's right to Royal precedence, and of the great 
 possibilities of his heir's future. 
 
 Neither had the heir himself ignored his high 
 birth ; his constant association with his mother ; 
 the re-iteration of his father's outspoken day- 
 dreams in his ears ; the grand traditions of the 
 House of Hastings; the recollection of the com- 
 
THE ROYAL EARL. 
 
 113 
 
 manding position its lords liad invariably attained 
 in the limited executive of Government all in- 
 fluenced the character of the princely peer. 
 
 But most of all the memory of Edward toned his 
 conduct. 
 
 During the latter years of his father's life he 
 evinced an invariable reluctance to plunge into the 
 vortex of public affairs, preferring the quiet of 
 domestic life and the companionship of his 
 beautiful wife. 
 
 In the early years of their wedlock she needed 
 his society and sympathy, for successively she was 
 called upon to bear with great fortitude the painful 
 intelligence of the violent deaths of her father, the 
 Duke of Northumberland, her brother. Lord Guild- 
 ford Dudley, and his fair young wife, Lady Jane 
 Grey; and his beloved mother in the dreary 
 months of the Earl's incarceration claimed his 
 comforting solicitude. 
 
 His succession to the Earldom lifted him to 
 immediate prominence, and challenged the sus- 
 picious watchfulness of the Queen. 
 
 Her Majesty's coldness to the late Earl had 
 caused consternation at Ashby-de-la-Zouch ; had 
 embittered the close of his life ; and had provoked 
 frequent discussions around the family hearth 
 stone. Strained relations with the Sovereign were 
 untraditional in the Huntingdon family. It was 
 felt that a determined effort must be made to con- 
 ciliate Elizabeth. Accordingly, at the termina- 
 tion of the days of mourning, the Earl despatched 
 an embassy to London with gifts for the Queen. 
 His own offering consisted of a red purse containing 
 £15 in angels, the Countess sent £10 in demi- 
 angels, and the Lady Catherine added £10 in semi- 
 sovereigns. Her Majesty acknowledged the gifts 
 9 
 
114 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 of homage by retiiruing to Ashby presents of silver 
 plate — a cup with, cover for the Earl weighing 
 34Joz., a cup for the Countess weighing 37oz., and 
 a cup for the Dowager weighing 18|oz. thus in 
 awarding her favours fulfilling the words of the 
 greatest exponent of human motives '' that the first 
 shall be last, and the last shall be first." 
 
 Regarding the acceptance of their gifts as an 
 evidence of restored favour Lord and Lady Hunt- 
 ingdon prepared to present themselves at Court. 
 
 A conflict of emotions and fears filled the bosom 
 of the Countess, as seated by her Lord's side, she 
 journeyed to the capital, expecting to find many 
 changes at Court. During the latter portion of 
 Edward's reign she bad enjoyed a conspicuous and 
 acknowledged prestige there, as the daughter of 
 the actual Protector, meeting the Princess Eliza- 
 beth on familiar social terms. But Mary's acces- 
 sion and her father's downfall had banished her 
 from its precincts for a period of five years, as a 
 member of the attainted Dudley family. The 
 revocation of the attainder, however, together with 
 the rise of her brother, Robert Dudley, to the 
 Queen's favour, had at length enabled her to appear 
 in the Royal presence, but the uncertainty whether 
 her Majesty would receive her with sunny conde- 
 scension, or malicious spitefulness, filled her mind 
 with temeritj^ 
 
 THE QUESTION OF THE SUCCESSION. 
 
 But while his Countess feared Elizabeth's snubs, 
 the Earl fully realised that her jealousy might 
 place him in a position of grave peril. Queen 
 Bess resented even a jest that associated any living 
 person with a reversionary interest in her Crown. 
 For nearly 100 years the minds of statesmen had 
 
THE ROYAL EARL. 115 
 
 been agitated by the great question of the succes- 
 sion to the Crown, and that question was still the 
 topic of the hour. Four noble personages nursed 
 pretentions. All of them except himself claimed 
 descent from the Queen's grandfather, the first 
 Tudor King. Besides Mary Queen of Scots, the 
 Countess of Lennox, daughter of Margaret o£ Eng- 
 land by Archibald .Douglas, Earl of Angus, her 
 second husband ; and Catherine, Countess of Hert- 
 ford, the daughter and co-heiress of Henry Grey, 
 Marquis of Dorset and Francis his wife, the eldest 
 daughter and co-heiress of Charles Brandon, Duke 
 of Suffolk by Mary the French Queen, and youngest 
 daughter of Henry YII. had each sympathetic sup- 
 porters. While the peace of the realm depended 
 on the single life of the Queen, their claims ren- 
 dered the national mind uneasy, in the conscious- 
 ness that civil war still remained within the sphere 
 of possibility. 
 
 In Lord Huntingdon the Queen feared a claimant 
 with a title based upon a descent quite independent 
 of the Tudor line, the heir of a rival dynasty, of the 
 illustrious Plantagenet race, and resented his claim 
 with all the violence of a suspicious nature, until 
 the discomfort of Court attendance became intoler- 
 able. His prominent rank, and high birth, accen- 
 tuated the slights her Majesty subjected him to in 
 public, and unfortunately, circumstances tended to 
 aggravate her anger. During her brief illness, in 
 1562, public opinion distinguished the courtly 
 young Earl as her probable successor. This coming 
 to her ears on her recovery further enraged the 
 Queen, prompting her to insult the Countess on her 
 first subsequent appearance at Court. Lady 
 Huntingdon returned home to the Earl prostrated 
 with grief and annoyance. 
 
116 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 The incident moved the Earl to pen a pathetic 
 letter to his brother-in-law imploring his interces- 
 sion with his Royal mistress. 
 
 " My Honourable Lord, — 
 
 " I am sorry that my present disease is such, as 
 there are left me but two remedies, either to 
 swallow up those bitter pills lately received, or to 
 make you a partaker of my griefs, thereby some- 
 thing to ease a wounded heart. At my wife's last 
 being at Court, to do her duty as became her, it 
 pleased her Majesty to give her a privy nippe con- 
 cerning myself, whereby I perceive she hath some 
 jealous conceit of me. What grief it hath con- 
 gealed in my poor heart (but ever true) let your 
 lordship judge, whose Prince's favour was always 
 more dear unto me than any other felicities what- 
 ever." 
 
 Perhaps no person in England understood more 
 clearly the Queen's scruples in relation to the settle- 
 ment question, and its subordinate project of marry- 
 ing her to a suitable consort, than the Earl of 
 Leicester. He himself earnestly desired to per- 
 sonally further the great scheme. He was awaro 
 that she still recalled vivid recollections of the 
 circles of unrest that had been described around the 
 persons of her sister Mary, the Lady Jane Grey, and 
 herself in the troubled past, all monitory memories 
 that warned her to brook the presence of no rising 
 sun in the firmament of her Royalty ; and while he 
 may not have regarded her first public pronounce- 
 ment as the evidence of an inflexible determination 
 to remain single, and probably did not, he could 
 not dismiss from his mind the impression that the 
 striking and unforgotten object lesson on infelici- 
 
THE EOYAL EARL. 117 
 
 ious conjugality, she liad received in her sister's 
 palace in; tlie contemplation of Phillip's brutal 
 neglect, had created a violent prejudice. 
 
 A SHREWD DECISION. 
 
 In response to the Earl's letter. Lord Leicester 
 undoubtedly influenced by personal, as well as 
 brotherly motives, offered him sound advice, that 
 led him to form a sane and safe resolution to at 
 once and for ever abandon his claim to the succes- 
 sion, and avail himself of the first possible oppor- 
 tunity to communicate his decision to her Majesty. 
 His action was the outcome of a sound judgment. 
 He had not failed to learn from the disasters of his 
 father's bitter experience, that innumerable pit- 
 falls endanger the pathway to a Throne, and in pre- 
 ferring the peaceful serenity of a domestic life, lived 
 amid the grandeur and affluence of Ashby-de-la- 
 Zouch Castle, to an unsubstantial prospect of a 
 Crown, he chose the better part, and averted the 
 distrustful vigilance of his mistress. 
 
 After the adjustment of his difficulty with Eliza- 
 beth, the Earl occupied himself for a season with 
 legislative duties. 
 
 But at the meeting of the Parliament summoned 
 for September 30th, 1566, the perennial question of 
 the marriage again cropped up. The Lords 
 appointed a strong Committee to hold a conference 
 with a select number of the Lower House, touching 
 a petition to be presented to tiie Queen's Majesty, 
 and nominated him a member of the said Com- 
 mittee. His difficulties of the past, still present in 
 his memory, induced him to readily assent. 
 
 The petition was duly laid before Queen Bess, 
 and elicited an expression of her private thought 
 about the marriage, " though I can think it best 
 
118 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 for a private woman, yet I do strive with myself not 
 to think it meet for a Prince," and no comment 
 about the succession. 
 
 BROKEN PEACE. 
 
 But if the Earl indulged in self-congratulations 
 at the termination of his troubles about the settle- 
 ment, he was about to receive a rude awakening, 
 for the Queen decided to associate him with the 
 captivity of Mary Queen of Scots, and issued a 
 Royal summons to her trusty and right beloved 
 Earl of Huntingdon, enjoining him to attend her 
 on her northward journey to interview her cousin at 
 York, accompanied by a train of not less than 
 twenty-six retainers, in best array according to his 
 rank. 
 
 SAD-HEARTED LADY OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 The Earl received the commission with dismay. 
 It opened to him the most painful episode of his 
 life. Chivalrous by nature, and royal by lineage, 
 no charge could be more repugnant to him than a 
 participation in the jailorship of the Scottish 
 Queen. 
 
 The sad-hearted Lady of Scotland has for two 
 centuries appealed to historians to accord to her an 
 impartial judgment. Enthroned amid dark clouds 
 of misrepresentation, and assailed by the vindictive 
 malice of intolerant Scottish bigotry, she urges the 
 effective plea that they who knew her most 
 familiarly loved her most faithfully. 
 
 We see her tall, lithesome figure, her coronet of 
 brown hair, and her lozenge eyes, as she rides on 
 horseback through the streets of Edinburgh, while 
 her subjects pause to gaze at her queenly form, and 
 cry, " Heaven bless that sweet face." We watch 
 
THE EOYAL EARL. 119 
 
 her dancing madly in the ball room at Holyrood, 
 and lying abed next day to receive her company 
 French fashion, attended by her four Maries ; or 
 rushing through Edinburgh streets in male attire 
 at midnight; or flitting in homespun about the 
 quaint streets at the foot of Stirling Castle. TVe 
 admire her superb horsewomanship as she gallops 
 on fleet steed over the eternal moors, out-distancing 
 her sturdy male attendants. 
 
 She was a creature of moods, and her moods were 
 often a sure defence in peril. 
 
 Her lips dropped as honey comb. Her laughing 
 mouth could beseech or threaten, as when 
 entrapped at Carberry Hill ; her tearful eyes could 
 awaken pity in the hearts of stern Puritans, who 
 approached her to denounce ; and her appearance 
 half-clad, with bosom bare, and hair flowing loosely 
 about her shoulders, at her palace window, could 
 appease her angry subjects. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth appointed three of her nobles 
 to be the guardians of her cousin's captivity, viz. : 
 The Earls of Shrewsbury, Hereford, and Hunting- 
 don, and surely no trio of noble lords ever attempted 
 a task more difiicult. Their instructions required 
 them to convey their prisoner from Castle to 
 Castle, always southward, further from her beloved 
 realm, and nearer to fatal Fotheringay. 
 
 At length they reached Tutbury Castle, when, at 
 a conference of the three Earls at Wingfield, in 
 Derbyshire, a letter was read from Elizabeth com- 
 manding Lord Huntingdon to assume the sole 
 charge of Mary, and to convey her to Ashby-de-la- 
 Zouch Castle. 
 
 Tourists are sometimes shown a chamber in the 
 ruins, the wall of which is pierced by a cannon ball, 
 and informed that during the Queen's residence at 
 
120 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 AsKby a diabolical attempt was made to accomplish 
 lier death, by treacherous means, but such a state- 
 m.ent is untrue. 
 
 In point of fact, the Earl and Countess enter- 
 tained their unwelcome guest with generous 
 hospitality and solicitous respect, providing for her 
 enjoyment a Royal cuisine, and allotting for her 
 accommodation a noble suite of apartments to 
 which her ladies were permitted free access. But 
 around her state hostile sentinels patrolled, for the 
 boon she most desired — the choicest of all human 
 privileges, viz., her liberty, was denied. 
 
 During the Queen's incarceration the days 
 dragged wearily for the Huntingdons and their 
 household. The wiles of beautiful women, and the 
 potency of gold were employed to overcome the 
 fidelity of the Earl's servants, and sentinels. Not- 
 withstanding the observance of the most scrupulous 
 watchfulness, letters were both despatched and 
 received surreptitiously. Bickerings and intrigues 
 reigned round Mary's person. All interviews 
 between fallen Majesty and the Huntingdons 
 resulted in vexation and annoyance, for the Queen 
 overwhelmed them with reproaches and inuendoes. 
 She -wrote to Eenelon, the French Ambassador, 
 complaining of Elizabeth's injustice in com.mitting 
 her safety to the mercy of a rival. 
 
 Presently, however, relief came to the Earl in 
 response to earnest petitions, in the form of a royal 
 mandate to remove Mary to Coventry. Her 
 Majesty would have been well-advised to content 
 herself at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, for throughout her 
 captivity to its bitter end she never before or after 
 found so kindly a jailor, or enjoyed such princely 
 entertainment ; and her departure marked another 
 stage of her journey to the scaffold. 
 
THE ROYAL EARL. 121 
 
 COURT ATTEXDAXCE. 
 
 Having found relief from Mary's reproaches, 
 tlie Earl resumed his attendance at Court, accom- 
 panying his sovereign on her visit to Westminster 
 to open in person the Parliament of April 2nd, 
 1571. The Journals of the House of Lords omit 
 description of the pageant and ceremony, but Sir 
 Simonds D'Ewes has supplied us with an account, 
 on the authorit}^ of the manuscript of a private 
 member of the Lower House. 
 
 " Her Majesty sat in her couch, in her Imperial 
 robes, and a wreath or coronet of gold set with rich 
 pearls and stones over her head ; her coach, drawn 
 by two Palfreys, covered with crimson velvet 
 drawn out, embossed and embroidered very richly. 
 Next after her chariot followed the Earl of Leices- 
 ter in respect of his office of the Master of the Horse, 
 leading her Majesty's spare horse. And then 47 
 Ladies and Women of Honour ; the Guard in their 
 rich coats going on every side of them ; the Trum- 
 peters before the first sounding ; and the Heralds 
 riding and keeping their rooms and places orderly. 
 In Westminster Church the Bishop of Lincoln 
 preached before her Majesty, whose sermon being 
 clone, her Majesty came from the church, the Lords 
 all on foot preceding her; and over her head a 
 rich canopy was carried all the way. She being 
 entered into the Upper House of Parliament, and 
 there sat in princely and seemly sort under a high 
 and rich cloak of estate ; her robe was supported 
 by the Earl of Oxford, the Earl of Sussex kneeling 
 holding the sword on the left hand ; and the Earl 
 of Huntingdon holding the hat of estate ; and the 
 Lords in their places on each side of the chamber, 
 that is to say, the Lords Spiritual on the right hand 
 and the Lords Temporal on the left. The Judges 
 
122 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 and her learned Counsel being at the woolsack in 
 the midst of the Chamber, and at her Highness' s 
 feet, at each side of her kneeling, one of the Grooms 
 or Gentlemen of the Chamber, their faces towards 
 her, the knights, citizens, and burgesses all 
 standing below the Bar, her Majesty then stood 
 up in her regal seat, and with a princely grace and 
 singular good countenance, after a long stay, spake 
 a few words to this effect : — 
 
 " My right loving Lords, and you our right faith- 
 ful and obedient subjects, we, in the name of God, 
 for His service, and for the safety of this State, 
 are now here assembled to His Glory I hope, and 
 pray that it may be to your o^vn comfort, and the 
 common quiet of our, yours, and all ours for ever." 
 
 Then looking on the right side of her towards 
 Sir Nicholas Bacon, Knight, Lord Keeper of the 
 Great Seal of England, standing a little beside the 
 Cloth of Estate, and somewhat back, and lower 
 from the same, she willed him to show the cause 
 of Parliament. 
 
 But it is delightful to turn from the undeserved 
 accusations of the Scottish Queen, and the jealous 
 exactions of Queen Bess to a contemplation of the 
 real Earl, and a consideration of his personal 
 character. 
 
 CHANGES AT ASHBY. 
 
 His tenancy of the Castle had emphasized the 
 strange change that had been creeping over the 
 domestic and religious life of the household since 
 Earl George acquired the Abbey lands. His 
 acceptance of Church spoil and the retention of 
 the same by Earl Erancis, marked the advancing 
 line of Protestant encroachment, that steadily 
 gathered force, and ultimately swept away the old 
 
THE ROYAL EARL. 123 
 
 Catholic land-marks. No longer monks and friars 
 were to be seen pacing across the conrt-yard pave- 
 ment to celebrate Masses in the Chapel of the 
 Fortress. No longer priests heard confessions in 
 St. Helen's Church. Old-time figures and cere- 
 monies contemporaneous with the Fortress itself, 
 and, hallowed by tradition, had ceased to tax the 
 credulity and awaken the resentment of the 16th 
 century Bible readers, and had become superseded 
 by a freer faith and simpler form of worship. 
 
 In the Palace itself, where some cowled con- 
 fessor had been wont to sit on the raised dais in 
 the banqueting hall, beside the Earl and Countess, 
 sharing their meals with the easy familiarity born 
 of custom, a puritan divine had installed himself 
 as domestic chaplain to help the hours along with 
 theological dissertations. It was a change of 
 method rather than of principle, the substitution 
 of a priest in robes of later fashion, for in all 
 human life there is nothing new, only the old 
 recuperates in less objectionable forms, and the 
 high placed officials of religion never relinquish 
 the seat of honour and the dainty fare. 
 
 And in St. Helen's Church the spirit of Reform 
 had removed the stone altar, substituting one of 
 wood; had stripped the walls of all artistic 
 decoration, had splashed unsightly limewash over 
 beautiful pictures; and had tossed the statues of 
 the Virgin and the Child contemptuously into the 
 grave-yard. In place of the delicious music of the 
 Mass, the sonorous declamations of Puritan divines 
 often reverberated through aisles and chapels. 
 
 THE UPPER CALL. 
 
 But the removal of venerated emblems, and the 
 disappearance of old systems affected not the Earl. 
 
124 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 The Cliurcli had loug become to him the auriculum 
 of the voices of the upper life, and those voices 
 spoke to him in his palace and in the Parliament 
 House alike, making all places sacred. He had 
 learned to walk after the spirit, without the crutches 
 of ritualistic ceremonies, and gained the trans- 
 cendent conception of sacrifice, the highest and 
 divinest expression of worship. Along a pathway 
 of sorrow, moving with manful tread, he had 
 reached Beulah heights, and drunk at the crystal 
 springs of unadulterated Puritanism. The glitter- 
 ing ambitions of wealth and power had given place 
 to a sublime vision of other worldliness. In an 
 environment of that sickly reign of Euphuism at 
 the Court of Elizabeth, the very memory of which 
 in after years provoked from Sir Walter Raleigh 
 a contemptuous sneer, his enrapt soul had received 
 the Spirit of the Son of Man, and standing with his 
 feet upon the Shadow of the Cross, he had heard 
 Him speak — 
 
 •' Yerily I say unto you, there is no man that hath 
 left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or 
 mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake, 
 and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundred- 
 fold now in this time, houses and brethren, and 
 sisters and mothers, and children and lands with 
 persecutions, and in the world to come eternal life." 
 
 Listening to that Yoice he had prayed that he too 
 might be permitted to share the Redeemer's burden 
 of service. 
 
 The tidings of the black panic of St. Bartholo- 
 mew's Eve had roused in his soul a deep solicitude 
 for the persecuted Huguenots so sincere and active, 
 as to prompt him to declare his determination to 
 surrender all his wealth, in the hope of amelio- 
 rating their bitter lot, and achieving their de- 
 
TflE EOYAL EARL. 125 
 
 liverance. It was a mad sclieme, judged by all 
 known standards of worldly prudence, mad as all 
 Christ's teachings are decreed in common and 
 political life, but the upper voices lead men on 
 to deeds of madness. The Christly impulse 
 generated an inflexible resolution to sell his lordly 
 castle and his numerous, manors, and with the pro- 
 ceeds to raise and equip an army of sturdy English 
 Protestants to invade France, and by force of arms 
 to compel the Government of that nation to grant 
 religious toleration. 
 
 The scheme overmastered him, dominating all 
 his thought, and drew him to London, where he 
 poured his amazing project into the Uueen's ear. 
 
 But Elizabeth had never heard the Voices of the 
 Upper Life. To her mundane judgment it seemed 
 that the project touched the province of Imperial 
 statecraft, and she forbade its accomplishment. 
 
 A CONFERENCE OF DIVINES. 
 
 The Earl returned to Ashby-de-la-Zouch dis- 
 appointed and sorrowful, and called to his council 
 chamber the Puritan Divines of Leicestershire to 
 debate the profound question, whether the gracious 
 profligacy of his generosity could find no other 
 outlet for expenditure. 
 
 It would have been diflicult to have gathered 
 together a more resourceful body of councillors in 
 such a dilemma. From time immemorial the 
 Church, through the agency of its ordained officials, 
 has manifested a facile capacity to guide the lay 
 mind to the discovery of suitable channels of 
 benevolence, and has seldom omitted to emphasize 
 the pressing needs of the ecclesiastical order. 
 Neither on this occasion did its representatives 
 fail to enforce the traditional policy, for under the 
 
126 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 potent insjDiration of pipes of tobacco and pewters 
 of brown October ale, they elaborated a scheme 
 calculated to commend itself to the Earl's 
 generous piety and at the same time to enhance 
 their own material comfort. 
 
 Their suggestion was that he should purchase 
 the principal mansion in Leicester town, furnish 
 it, provide it with an efficient staff of servants, and 
 place its gratuitous hospitality at the service of 
 the county clergy of orthodox views. 
 
 The advantages of such a scheme were self- 
 commendatory. The mansion would serve as a 
 hotel, where the weary country clergyman could 
 stable his horse, and find bed and board undisturbed 
 by the unwelcome vision of a bill to pay ; it would 
 fulfil the conditions of a select social club for town 
 members of the spiritual order; it would accom- 
 modate distant clergy invited to minister in the 
 Leicester pulpits with congenial entertainment; 
 and, above all, it would serve as a beacon, from 
 which the light of the Reformed Faith would 
 radiate through the county. 
 
 It is not surprising that the Royal Earl accepted 
 the suggestion, and carried it out with such 
 munificence as to command the gratitude even of 
 his beneficiaries, who in grateful appreciation gave 
 the Mansion the unctious hame " Lord's Place," 
 a designation that has clung to it to this day. A 
 portion of its wall was until recently to be seen 
 embedded in the fabric of a trading house in a busy 
 street recalling the memory of a princely bene- 
 factor. 
 
 TWO LASTING BENEFACTIONS. 
 
 But while the sustentation of the Lord's Place 
 made immense demands upon Lord Huntingdon's 
 Exchequer to such an extent, indeed, as to dis- 
 
THE ROYAL EARL. 127 
 
 organise the family revenue, and lead to the dis- 
 posal of a number of manors ; the drain upon his 
 resources did not indispose him to extend his 
 sjanpathy to other causes. The claims of education 
 lay constantly upon the heart of Edward YI ; his 
 fame has lingered in history as a genuine patron 
 of learning. Indeed, it is remarkable that an 
 increased interest in education has always attended 
 a wider circulation of the Bible. As the memory 
 of the young King is associated with the extension 
 of education to the middle classes, so also is it 
 clearly recognisable that his surviving friend first 
 placed the privilege of a scholastic career, within 
 the reach of the sons of the yeomen of his estates, 
 within a practicable radius from the Castle. While 
 the shelter of the Castle was no longer necessary 
 for the protection of the town, the service of the 
 Earl, and the maintenance of the fabric, employed 
 directly or indirectly, the whole of the able-bodied 
 men resident in the town. At this period the 
 population of Ashby did not exceed 400. Under 
 the influence of the new teaching and in the light 
 of his position as a territorial lord, the Earl 
 admitted his responsibility for the moral condition 
 of his tenantry, and erected and endowed a school 
 under his castle walls for the teaching of morals, 
 learning, knowledge, and virtue. And so it came 
 about that Ashby-de-la-Zouch owes the two 
 institutions it prizes most to the liberality of the 
 Huntingdons, viz., its church and its school; both 
 to this day dependent on the financial supports 
 with which the Earls buttressed them, and two 
 uninventive centuries have done nothing more than 
 trustee their benefactions. 
 
 The mind lingers admiringly in the contempla- 
 tion of the sublime character of such a free-handed 
 
128 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 philanthropist, and defends him from the charge 
 of indiscreet and reckless liberality by emphasizing 
 the circumstances of his environment. Transfused 
 by the Spirit of the Son of Man his mind soared 
 into realms of trancendentalism, from which 
 mundane considerations failed to divert him. Xo 
 son stood by his side to assist him to carry the 
 burden of his honours as in the case of former 
 Earls; no children's mirthful voices made 
 m.elodious the chambers of his Castle ; only the 
 Countess and himself sat before the great hearth- 
 stone and watched the fire blaze and flicker through 
 the long winter nights, recalling reminiscences of 
 the past, of their courtship at Edward's Court, of 
 the Protector's fall, of Mary's gloomy reign, and 
 of the jousts and tournaments and masques with 
 which their brother Leicester entertained Eliza- 
 beth at his Castle in Keuilworth, her gift to him 
 of Love. 
 
 One duty to the companion of his life he left un- 
 discharged, to her in her future widowhood a cruel 
 inconvenience. He made no will. The omission 
 caused endless worry to his successor, who after- 
 wards found his sister-in-law, a true daughter of 
 the house of Dudley, difficult to satisfy. Even her 
 Majesty ultimately deemed it necessary to inter- 
 fere in the family dispute, and summon Sir Robert 
 Sidney from the Wars in the Netherlands to watch 
 his aunt's interests. 
 
 EVEXTIDE. 
 
 The passing of the years had prematurely bent 
 the shoulders of the Royal Earl. The preachers 
 had often warned him in their discourses that in 
 the midst of life we are in death. For him theij* 
 platitude became a prophecy. Death struck him 
 
THE ROYAL EARL. 129 
 
 at the age of 61, after a brief illness, and the same 
 week visited his brother George's son, his own heir. 
 With a supreme contentment filling his sonl, and 
 a halo of peace radiating from his life, he received 
 the summons to leave his palace, and enter into the 
 place not made with hands. The Queen who, not- 
 withstanding self-delusions, was hurrying to the 
 same bourne, received the intelligence of his 
 decease with a pang of emotion, and ordered his 
 funeral rites to be celebrated at St. Helen's Church 
 with all the pomp and honours of a state pageant. 
 At Ashby-de-la-Zouch and throughout the county 
 of Leicester a profound sorrow prevailed. Crowds 
 gathered in the town to witness the funeral. Her 
 Majesty sent a representative, who came accom- 
 panied by a group of eminent personages from 
 Court. Amid the benedictions of his tenantry they 
 laid the Earl in his last resting place. Ashby-de- 
 la-Zouch had never before witnessed so costly or 
 impressive a funeral, perhaps never will again, for 
 it cost the nation £1,392 12s. The family erected 
 no memorial stone, what need of one to perpetuate 
 the memory of such a life, lived in response to 
 Celestial Voices from the Higher Spheres. But 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch still cherishes the remembrance 
 of him, and his royal spirit lingers in the town. 
 
 10 
 
THE REIGN OF ECONOMY. 
 C H AP T E E VI. 
 
 A.D. 1595-1604. 
 
 A DISORDERED ESTATE. 
 
 THE advent of the fourth Earl, George, in- 
 augurated a searching inquiry into the 
 financial condition of the estates, not a regime 
 of parsimony for all we know of the new Earl tends 
 to dismiss such a suggestion, but a reign of 
 economy, a period in which the head of the family 
 took in his own hands the guiding reins. 
 
 The revenue was in a state of complete disorder ; 
 Lord's Place made large and continuous demands 
 upon it; many hot-headed gospellers of the 
 aggressive section of the Puritan party had grown 
 accustomed to look to the late Earl for monetary 
 support; the territorial possessions of the earldom 
 had diminished to the tune of more than seventy 
 manors; the difficulties of the Dowager Countess 
 rendered an impartial examination of her claims 
 essential; and it was fortunate that an economist 
 followed a philanthropist. The Earl George, him- 
 self a sexagenarian, had not accustomed himself 
 to contemplate the probability of a personal suc- 
 cession to the title, but rather to regard his eldest 
 son Francis as his brother's heir. 
 
THE REIGN OF ECONOMY. 131 
 
 After his marriage with the daughter and heiress 
 of Sir John Port of Etwal, thirty years agone, he 
 had settled down at Dale Abbey to the duties of a 
 country squire, to rear his three children, and 
 settle them in life. But as the years advanced and 
 his brother Henry continued to be childless, it 
 became apparent that chance might at any time 
 exalt him to the headship of the Huntingdon 
 family. His double bereavement in 1595 imposed 
 the dual responsibility of correcting the effects of 
 his late noble brother's reckless generosity and of 
 acting jointly with his daughter-in-law as guardian 
 of his little grandson Henry, who in the course of 
 nature would be called upon during his minority 
 to succeed him. 
 
 Undoubtedly if he could have consulted personal 
 preferences he would have desired to complete his 
 old age in the leisured comfort of his country 
 grange. It is not easy at three-score years of age 
 to accustom the mind to an enlarged environment 
 that affords no increase of personal gratification, 
 but demands an additional expenditure of vital 
 activity. His portrait in the picture gallery at 
 Donnington Park represents him in early middle 
 age, as a bro^\Ti muscular man of considerable 
 executive forcefulness, a man of monkish type, 
 whom we should expect to see command an im- 
 portant office in his monastery. 
 
 REFORM. 
 
 And his appearance at Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
 effected a radical reform. Whatever may be its 
 disadvantages, old-age does reject many of the un- 
 profitable ideals of earlier days, and aided by the 
 involuntarj'^ cynicism of experience, conserves only 
 the things of present value. 
 
132 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 The extravagant expenditure on preachers im- 
 mediately ceased ; Lord's Place assumed the 
 semblance of a nobleman's town house ; important 
 officials were required to give an account of their 
 stewardship ; and Donnington Park was purchased 
 from the Earl of Essex to serve as a dower house 
 for the family. 
 
 The first three Earls had not only striven to keep 
 in touch with the Court, but had given sedulous 
 attention to their Parliamentary duties. The 
 growing authority of Parliament subsequent to the 
 fall of the baronage, and the royal seizure of 
 baronial power, had prompted the Commons to 
 press their authority into the domain of the royal 
 prerogative. Such a state of affairs rendered it 
 expedient for Earl George in the first instance, and 
 Earl Francis more particularly, to manifest alert- 
 ness in the conservation of acquisitions that were 
 the direct result of royal favoiir. Since the 
 abandonment of his royal claim the third Earl had 
 seen no reason why he should continue a political 
 career at once distasteful to his inclinations, and 
 calculated to expose him to rebuffs at the Queen's 
 hands ; and now Earl George, succeeding to the 
 title in old age (when ambition does not seek a 
 sphere in the angry arena of public affairs), and 
 cordially endorsing his brother's action in the 
 question of the settlement of the Crown, practically 
 abandoned statecraft. 
 
 In doing so he did not in any sense weaken the- 
 family influence at Court, but strengthened it. A 
 desire to participate in the management of national 
 affairs was not the surest passport to James' favour. 
 That monarch came to England resolved to main- 
 tain existing, and if possible recover abandoned 
 prerogatives of the Crown. 
 
THE REIGN OF ECONOMY. 133 
 
 His slirewd mind instinctively concluded, long 
 iDefore he left his Scottish capital, that his rights 
 vv'ere not likely to receive injury at the hands of the 
 Earl of Huntingdon, while his mercenary nature 
 admired the practical common-sense of his aged 
 subject, and adjudged him a safe man. 
 
 A STATE CEREMONY. 
 
 But his habitual caution did not fail him in his 
 negotiations with the agents of the English Parlia- 
 ment in the waning days of Elizabeth, and he 
 stipulated that George of Himtingdon, the only 
 man who possessed a title to oppose his succession 
 outside the Tudor line, should re-affirm his abdi- 
 cation of that title. Accordingly by the new King's 
 command, immediately after the Queen's death, 
 the Earl proceeded to London and proclaimed the 
 accession of King James I. at St. James's Palace. 
 James had already resolved to cultivate the Earl's 
 acquaintance, and during his journey southward 
 visited Ashby-de-la-Zouch. In the familiar inter- 
 course of guest with host, when even the rigid 
 reserve of royalty unbends, he discovered a com- 
 munity of sentiment that induced him to extend 
 his friendship to Lord Huntingdon, and before the 
 Queen commenced her progress he arranged that 
 she also should break her journey at the castle to 
 share his hospitality, and yet again when he marked 
 the stages on the map at which his sickly child 
 Prince Charles should rest, when some months 
 later he set off from Edinburgh to London, he put 
 his cross beside the name of the fortress, that would 
 be one of the last to lower the royal flag in the 
 coming days of disaster and gloom. During her 
 Majesty's visit an unfortunate contretemps 
 occurred. She graciously extended her favour to 
 
134 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 the town of Leicester, where she stayed for four 
 days. The dutiful Mayor and Corporation met her 
 at the Town Gate, and after presenting her with a 
 silver cup, formed into a procession to escort her 
 to Sir William Skip worth's house in the Swine- 
 market. But the requirements of hospitality over- 
 taxed Sir William's linen closet, table service, and 
 stable, compelling him to solicit assistance of 
 Sir John Harrington, of Elmthorpe. After the 
 Queen's departure it was discovered that some dis- 
 loyal rascal had taken advantage of the unusual 
 bustle to steal a horse, as well as a quantity of 
 linen and pewter from Sir William Skipworth's 
 mansion. 
 
 SIMPLE TASTES. 
 
 It is probable that the difficulty the Earl ex- 
 perienced in accommodating himself to the cere- 
 monial etiquette of the castle accounted for the 
 purchase of Donnington in 1595, the year he entered 
 upon residence at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. He found 
 himself unable to lay aside the simple dignity but 
 unrestrained freedom of a country squire, or to 
 dispense with the rural calm of a less pretentious 
 dwelling. 
 
 The delightful seclusion of Donnington Hall, 
 with its extensive park of undulating turf land, 
 accommodated itself to the habitual love of 
 quietude that marks the stages of old age; and 
 alternate change of residence prevented monotony. 
 Besides, in humouring his own convenience, the 
 Earl unconsciously served his future heirs by pro- 
 viding another home that should serve them, when 
 the grand old Castle had been depleted. 
 
 To the old servants of the Ashby household it was 
 a joyful experience to hear again after forty silent 
 
THE REIGN OF ECONOMY. 135 
 
 years the merry laughter of children. Memory 
 recalls a charming mental picture of the old Earl 
 and Countess surrounded by their eight grand- 
 children. But their especial regard centered in 
 the person of the little heir. His father's death in 
 1595 had raised him to the heir apparency at 
 eleven years of age, while his grandfather's succes- 
 sion had conferred upon him the courtesy title Lord 
 Hastings. Earl George settled him at Donnington 
 Park under his mother's immediate care, from 
 whence he could periodically visit the Castle and 
 receive with accustomed courtesy the obsequious 
 attentions of the household. The Earl was fast 
 hurrying to the bourne from which no traveller 
 returns, and all eyes turned with interest to the 
 young Lord who would soon sit in his chair. 
 
 But one visitor who came occasionally to pay his 
 dutiful attentions to the Earl and Countess may 
 not be forgotten, because he was a typical English 
 gentleman of the seventeenth century, viz., their 
 second son Henry Hastings, of the Woodlands, 
 Dorsetshire. In later years his contemporary, 
 Lord Shaftesbury, drew a vivid pen and ink sketch 
 of him that has found its way into the Biographa 
 Britannica. Substantially it is as follows: — 
 
 AN ECCENTRIC SQUIRE. 
 
 " In the year 1638 lived Mr. Hastings, by quality 
 son, brother, and uncle to Lord Huntingdon. He 
 was an original of our age, and a copy of the ancient 
 nobility. He was low, very strong, and had 
 reddish, flaxen hair. He always wore green clothes, 
 never worth £5 when new. He lived in an old- 
 fashioned house, in a large park well stocked with 
 deer. Near the house were found rabbits for the 
 kitchen, fish ponds, woods and timber, a bowling 
 
136 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 green, kept sport hounds for buck, fox, hare, otter, 
 and badger; hawks long and short- winged, and 
 nets for fish. He was fond of his neighbour's wives 
 and daughters, but very popular, and made his 
 neighbours always welcome at his house, where 
 plenty of beef, puddings, and small beer were at 
 their disposal. The house was very untidy, dirty 
 shoes lying about. The great hall was strewn with 
 marrow bones, full of hawks, perches, hounds, 
 spaniels, and terriers. 
 
 The parlour was a large room, properly furnished, 
 and on the great brick-paved hearth spaniels and 
 terriers lay. 
 
 Often two of the great chairs had litters of cats 
 in them, and three or four attended him at dinner, 
 where he had a little white stick of fourteen inches 
 long to keep the animals away. 
 
 The windows were large, and had places for 
 arrows, cross bows and stone bows, and an oyster 
 table stood at the lower end, for he ate oysters for 
 dinner and supper every day, the neighbouring 
 town of Poole supplying them. The upper part of 
 the room had two small tables, and a desk on one 
 side, on which was a Bible, and on the other the 
 Book of Martyrs. Tables for dice and cards were 
 not wanting. Tobacco pipes were stuck in a hole 
 in the desk. 
 
 There was a closet on one side of the room. 
 Strong beer and wine were kept therein ; Mr. 
 Hastings caused the wine to be served in small 
 glasses, for he never exceeded in drink, nor per- 
 mitted it. On another side of the room was the 
 door of an old chapel, not used for devotion, in 
 which the pulpit served as a receptacle for a chine 
 of beef, venison pasty, a gammon of bacon, an 
 apple pie, with thick crust, well baked. His table 
 
THE REIGN OF ECONOMY. 137 
 
 cost tim not much, tKougli good to eat at. His 
 sport supplied all but beef and mutton, except 
 Pridays, when he had salt fish, as well as any other 
 fish he could obtain. He never wanted a London 
 pudding. He drank a glass or two of wine at 
 meals, often putting syrup of gilly flowers in his 
 sack; and had a glass without feet standing by 
 him holding a pint of small beer, which he often 
 stirred with rosemnry. 
 
 He was well-natured, but soon angry. He lived 
 to be 100 years old, and never lost his eyesight, 
 but always wrote and read without spectacles, and 
 got on horse back without help. Until past eighty 
 years old, he rode to the death of a stag as well as 
 any. He died on the 5th day of October, 1650." 
 
 A GOOD STEWARD. 
 
 The old Earl's anxiety about the Huntingdon 
 succession led him, with Lady Sarah's co-operation, 
 to arrange a matrimonial alliance between his 
 youthful heir and the Lady Elizabeth Stanley, 
 daughter of the Earl of Derby, and King of Man 
 in 1603. The daughter of one of the proudest 
 families of England, the Lady Elizabeth, like her 
 young husband, boasted a royal lineage, tracing 
 her descent from Henry Clifford, Earl of Cumber- 
 land, and his w4fe, Eleanor Brandon, the daughter 
 of Mary Tudor, and granddaughter of Henry VII. 
 Before he had passed out of his tutor's care, as a 
 boy bridegroom. Lord Henry married his girl- 
 bride, and the marriage proved an union of hearts 
 as well as hands, for during thirty years of 
 unbroken happiness, the noble couple lived together 
 in Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle, lovers to the end. 
 Lady Elizabeth did not live to see the cruel war, 
 but her brother, the Earl of Derby, did, and lost 
 
138 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 his head for liis loyalty to the King, whilst his. 
 proud French dame rendered her name famous for 
 all coming centuries as the heroine of Lathom 
 House. A full-length portrait of the Lady 
 Elizabeth on an expansive canvas, and with a land- 
 scape background, hangs on the wall of the dining- 
 room at Donnington Hall, and the visitor lingers 
 beside it with interest, because its great charm is 
 its sweet naturalness. 
 
 The royal lady has disregarded the toilet of Court 
 fashion, and the arts of the coquette, and chosen to 
 be painted as a child of Js'ature, in homely attire, 
 and amid the flowers. Not a Court beauty looks 
 down from the canvas, but a sweet and girlish 
 woman. 
 
 But just when the compass of his years had 
 spanned the Psalmist's allotted period of life the 
 Angel of Death bade the Earl close the ledgers of 
 his stewardship. He had added nothing to the 
 family renown, either in statesmanship or in war- 
 fare. Competent men of his type rarely achieve 
 distinction, they are content to complete their task ; 
 but his nine years of reformative administration 
 had effected a wonderful improvement at Ashby- 
 de-la-Zouch, and prepared the way for the coming 
 golden age. Efficiency had become the motto in 
 the household and on the estates, and everywhere 
 order reigned. 
 
 The Castle was in a state of excellent repair; 
 the pleasaunce and the parks evidenced horticul- 
 tural attention ; and by the Earl's generous assist- 
 ance his young relative, the Rev. Arthur Hilder- 
 sham, had been enabled to give efficient attention 
 to the fabric and clerical staff of St. Helen's Church. 
 A sense of restfulness creeps over the mind as it 
 recalls the memory of the old Earl, the personal 
 
THE REIGX OF ECONOMY. 139 
 
 friend of King James I., who was brave enoiigli to 
 stem the flood of an enthusiastic' s extravagance 
 and restore order where confusion had reigned for 
 many years. He was called to the accomplish- 
 ment of an unwelcome task, and he proved himself 
 capable, and when he died, on the 31st of December, 
 the Yicar's careful hand recorded the melancholy 
 event in the parish register, a more imperishable 
 memorial than marble slabs or polished brasses. 
 
THE GOLDEN AGE. 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 A.D. 1586—1643. 
 
 THE year following his marriage Lord Henry 
 became Earl, at the age of 19. His succes- 
 sion may be said to have inaugurated the Golden 
 Age of Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle. 
 
 The economies of Earl George had made possible 
 the splendid hospitality about to be extended to 
 the first two Stuart Kings. There is no record of 
 Yorkist or Tudor Kings visiting the Castle, but 
 from the accession of James L to the fatal evening 
 of Naseby fight, royal guests frequently accepted 
 bed and board at Ashby, and came attended by 
 numerous suites. To accommodate his visitors the 
 Earl found it necessary to add a number of apart- 
 ments, building them on the site of the present 
 Manor House. 
 
 Yanity of vanities ; all is vanity had been the 
 dying thought of Earl Francis ; the giddy steeps of 
 ambition and the absorbing interests of wealth are 
 vanity. Only the sweet love of the home circle, the 
 delicious tenderness of wife and child, of all our 
 mundane treasures can content the weary heart. 
 
 HOME AND ALTAR. 
 
 The young Earl and Countess, wise in the fervour 
 of their young love, made Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
 
THE GOLDEN AGE. 141 
 
 Castle a home, and in that home erected an altar 
 to their God. 
 
 One of the stately homes of Stuart England the 
 Castle truly became. Earl George had left every 
 department of the household in decorous order, 
 though contracted to suit his quiet mode of life; 
 Earl Henry augmented the household to meet the 
 convenience of a yoang and royal pair, who desired 
 to surround themselves with the seemly ceremonial 
 that accorded with their rank, until the number 
 who regularly dined and supped at the Castle, 
 exclusive of guests and strangers, told sixty-eight. 
 The rules laid down in the household book supply 
 us with a graphic word picture of a regulated and 
 ceremonious daily routine. 
 
 THE HOUSEHOLD. 
 
 The Steward of the Household held supreme 
 authority in the Castle, assisted by his immediate 
 subordinate, the Gentleman Usher. A Gentleman 
 of the Horse controlled the Stables, and a Clerk of 
 the Kitchen the Culinary Department. The Clerk 
 of the Kitchen held the chief cook responsible for 
 the excellence of the cuisine. The table arrange- 
 ments fell to the care of the Usher of the Household, 
 and the Almoner looked to the disposal of the 
 broken viands, for the service of the servants, and 
 afterwards for distribution amongst the needy poor, 
 who clustered daily about the Great Gateway. 
 Other important officers were the yeomen of the 
 pantry, the buttery, the wardrobe, and the granary, 
 as well as the porter, the baker, and the brewer. 
 
 The Earl allowed an approximate amount of 
 money for each department, and each head of a 
 department was expected to keep his expenses 
 within bounds. The annual beef bill amounted to 
 £190, mutton £200, salt fish £70, hops and vinegar- 
 
142 ROMAXCE OF A.^HBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 £30, wine £80, grocery £140, sweetmeats £20, coal 
 £80, linen £51, wages £140, footmen's coats £20, 
 pages' coats £50, repairs £200, saddlery £205, 
 hawkes and hounds £40. for mv Lord's apparel 
 £200, for my Lady's £200, for the children's £60. 
 This list does not include venison from the parks 
 and woods, game from the preserves, and fresh fish 
 from the neighbouring rivers and ponds, together 
 with the large quantities of comestible products 
 that the widespreading estates of the Earldom 
 might be depended upon to yield for the mainten- 
 ance of the Castle's food supply. The household 
 book estimates the annual cost of maintenance at 
 £2,853 13s. 4d., and if we multiply that sum by 
 nine, or possibly by ten, we are able to estimate the 
 purchase power of such a sum in modern times. 
 The book fixes the meal hours as follows : — Break- 
 fast at 8 a.m., dinner 11 a.m., beaver 3 p.m., and 
 lyverye at 8 p.m., and the duties of the separate 
 officials are specified. The active functionary was 
 the Gentleman Usher. Before a meal was served 
 it was his duty to visit the porter at the Great Gate- 
 way and satisfy himself that all loiterers had been 
 ordered away, and the gates closed. That done, 
 his mode of procedure was as under : — 
 
 The Gentleman TTsher, as soon as their honours' 
 meals are laid in the great hall, do see the board 
 laid in the hall, and a basin and ewer for the 
 steward's table every Sabbath, or when strangers 
 are present. 
 
 That he do walk bareheaded up and down and 
 see all ready, and remain till meals are over. 
 
 Upon the server's appearance, he goes to the 
 dresser, at the upper end of the room, and calls 
 with a loud voice, '' Gentlemen and Yeomen, wait 
 on the Server." 
 
THE GOLDEN AGE. 143 
 
 That upon the appearance of their honours' meat, 
 he calls, " By your leave," and come to the other 
 end of the room, bareheaded, whilst the meat is 
 handed to them. 
 
 That when their honours' meat is served up to 
 the chamber, and the gentlewomen's, that he call 
 with a loud voice, saying, '' Gentlemen server to the 
 dresser, and come himself with the steward's mess, 
 and that when there are strangers he call the 
 grooms of the stable to wait in the hall, and if any 
 refuse, give notice to the head officers. 
 
 That he cause every man in the hall to be bare- 
 headed while their honours' second meal of fruit 
 pass through. 
 
 That he suffer no supper in the hall upon fasting 
 nights. 
 
 That the yeoman chip the bread orderly, without 
 waste, and that he serve all the tables in the hall 
 with stale bread. 
 
 When the meal was finished the Almoner carried 
 the broken viands to the Great Gateway for distri- 
 bution amongst the poor of Ashby and any passing 
 vagabonds who waited there. 
 
 THE PORTER. 
 
 The Porter of the Gateway was an official alto- 
 gether too important to be overlooked. He sat 
 daily in the gateway clad in gorgeous livery, and 
 holding his staff of office in his hand. Every 
 member of the household understood the expe- 
 diency of keeping on pleasant terms with him, as 
 did the daily pensioners who frequented the gate- 
 way. It was woe to the saucy maid, or insolent 
 groom, who tarried over long in the town, and 
 reached the Castle after the closing of the gates if 
 they had incurred the porter's ill-will. 
 
144 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 The duties of the autocrat of the Great Gateway 
 are clearly laid down in the book of the household 
 rules : — 
 
 That the Porter sit not at the gate without his 
 staff. 
 
 That the gates are shut, and no man enter during 
 dinner. 
 
 That he suffer no rogues, vagabonds, or diseased 
 persons to linger about the gates. 
 
 That he shut the gate at 9 p.m. winter and 10 p.m. 
 summer, and open not again till 6 a.m. winter, and 
 5 a.m. summer. 
 
 REV. ARTHUR HILDERSHAM. 
 
 But while the young Earl maintained discipline 
 and morality in his lordly palace, the Vicar of 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch, as Chaplain of the Household, 
 ministered at the family altar. He owed his position 
 primarily to his membership of the Pole family, 
 a connection that rendered him a personce gratoe at 
 the Castle. It is notable how many of the Poles 
 forsook the ancient faith so dear to the Great 
 Cardinal, and adopted Protestant views, in the face 
 of bitter persecution. In Arthur Hilder sham's 
 youth, immediately after he left the University, 
 his parents desired him to accept the appointment 
 of Catholic Lecturer at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, for 
 even after Earl Francis's rupture with the old 
 religion many families in and around the town 
 remained faithful, but for conscience sake he could 
 not consent. In consequence, his parents disin- 
 herited and discarded him, and in his desolate con- 
 dition the Royal Earl not only succoured and 
 protected him, but ultimately advanced him to the 
 vicarage of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Installed in that 
 post, he manifested a cultured grasp of Bible inter- 
 
THE GOLDEN AGE. 145 
 
 pretation, and an independence of thonglit and 
 speech that involved him in a long trial in the High 
 Court of Commission. Through the interminable 
 proceedings of that Court, however, the Royal Earl 
 watched over his personal safety, and when he was 
 silenced, still welcomed him back to the Castle. 
 During Earl George's time he suffered no molesta- 
 tion, but the fifth Earl protected him against two 
 episcopal prosecutions, and in the local Ecclesiasti- 
 cal Court of Leicester. Four times Puritan courts 
 silenced him, and four times the Earl of Hunting- 
 don's influence restored him to his pulpit. He 
 suffered fines (which the Earl paid), excommunica- 
 tion and imprisonment for conscience sake, but all 
 the thunders of the Church failed to destroy his 
 unorthodox zeal. 
 
 He refused to wear a gown in his pulpit, to make 
 the sign of the cross in baptism, and to kneel at 
 Sacrament. These objections were but the outward 
 sign of an indwelling light too bright for the narrow 
 spirit of his time. In the furnace of persecution 
 he had looked upon the face of the Son of God, and 
 had come to regard ceremonial rites and priestly 
 pretentions as noxious creepers round the true vine. 
 His spiritual nature absorbed the thought of the 
 Apocalypse, of a city of God, where there is no 
 temple or priest, or sacrifice, as the consummation 
 of earthly worship, and he openly taught his flock 
 to look backward to the first century of the Chris- 
 tian Era for its ideal of Church life. For forty- 
 three years the indomitable divine ministered to the 
 town and Castle household in holy things, making 
 his influence felt in the social life of the whole 
 county. During the long period of his vicariate he 
 ministered to three Earls in four different reigns, 
 but it was chiefly in the last quarter of a century 
 11 
 
146 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 of Ms life that lie unfolded to his congregation his 
 rich stores of thought. In 1610 he delivered from 
 his pulpit in St. Helen's Church a course of 100 
 lectures on the fourth chapter of St. John, and 
 fourteen years later he commenced a series of 152 
 lectures on the 51st Psalm. Week by week the 
 Earl and Countess sat under his ministry in the 
 Huntingdon pew. 
 
 In his Church History, Fuller gives a succinct 
 and interesting account of him. 
 
 " This year (1632) ended the days of Mr. Arthur 
 Hildersham, born at Shekworth, bred in Christ 
 Church, in the University of Cambridge, whose 
 education was an experimental comment on the 
 words of David, ' When my father and my mother 
 forsake me, then the Lord taketh me up.' " 
 
 My Father Thomas Hildersham, a gentleman of 
 an ancient family. 
 
 My Mother Anne Poole, daughter of Sir Geoffrey 
 and niece of Cardinal Poole, and 
 grandchild of Sir Ptichard Poole, 
 and Margaret, Countess of Salis- 
 bury, who was daughter of George 
 Duke of Clarence. 
 
 Forsake me Quite cast him off because he would 
 
 not be bred a Papist and go to 
 
 Eome. 
 
 then An emphatical monosyllable just in 
 
 that nick of time. 
 
 The Lord Not immediately (miracles being 
 
 taketh me ceased), but in and by the hands 
 
 up. of Henry, Earl of Huntingdon (his 
 
 honourable kinsman), providing 
 plentiful maintenance for him. 
 
THE GOLDEN AGE. 147 
 
 However, after lie was entered in tlie ministry 
 he met with many molestations, as hereby doth 
 appear : — 
 
 (The High Commission Court, June 1590. 
 Bishop 'Chadderton, April 24th, 1605. 
 Bishop Neile, November, 1611. 
 The Court at Leicester, March 4th, 1630. 
 The Court of High Commission, January 
 1591. 
 
 {Bishop Barlow, January, 1608. 
 Doctor Eidley, June 20th, 1625. 
 The Leicester Court, August 2nd, 1631. 
 
 And now methinks I hear the spirit speaking unto 
 him, as once to the prophet Ezekiel, " Thou shalt 
 speak and be no more dumb, singing now with 
 the Celestial Quire of Saints and Angels." In- 
 deed, though himself a Nonconformist, he loved 
 all honest men, were they of a different judgment, 
 minded like Luther herein, who gave his motto, 
 " In quo aliquid Christ! video ilium diligo." 
 
 A NOBLE COUPLE. 
 
 In their beautiful home, and under the spell of 
 Arthur Hildersham's influence, the young Earl 
 and Countess lived their idyllic lives in the 
 cadences of holy wedlock. Never before had a Lord 
 and Lady of Ashby-de-la-Zouch blended their tastes 
 and affection into so perfect an union. In 1606 
 they made preparations to receive their mother, 
 the Dowager Countess of Derby, deciding upon 
 a masque as an appropriate tribute of honour with 
 which to mark the close of her visit. The memory 
 of the gorgeous pageantries that had enlivened 
 the festivities at Kenilworth during the late 
 Queen's visit to the Earl of Leicester, still lingered 
 
148 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 in the minds of the members of the household. The 
 Earl commissioned '^ John Marston, the poet," to 
 compose the masque, which he described as " ye 
 lorde and ladye of Huntingdon's entertainment to 
 their right noble mother, Alice Countess Dowager 
 of Derby/' For weeks before her arrival in 
 August skilled artists laboured to produce floral 
 and scenic effects, and convert the little park and 
 the pleasaunce into an arcadia, and rehearsals were 
 held. The Earl intended the masque to be the 
 close of a long series of revels, and designed that 
 as her ladyship of Derby rode through the little 
 park at her departure from the Castle, a shep- 
 herdess should sing a passionate lay, and a Niobe 
 present her with a casket. 
 
 A BABY HEIR. 
 
 A year and a half later, an event happened of 
 unusual interest to the household. In January, 
 1608, the Countess gave birth to an heir to the 
 Huntingdon titles and estates, who received at the 
 baptismal font of St. Helen's Church the favourite 
 Derby name of Ferdinando. The unconscious babe, 
 the object of so much congratulation, was destined 
 by fate to an inglorious future. Called to the Long 
 Parliament as Lord Hastings, he departed tem- 
 porarily from the traditional policy of his house, by 
 coquetting with the leaders of the Hevolutionary 
 Party, and accepting military service against the 
 King. Clarendon tells the story how "the Lords 
 sat in their Chamber at Westminster on the morrow 
 of the fight at Edge Hill, listening to the reading 
 of a despatch from Essex. While they were 
 greedily digesting the news the Lord Hastings, who 
 had a command of Horse in the Service, entered 
 the House with a frightened and ghastly look, and 
 
THE GOLDEN AGE. 149 
 
 positively declared all to be lost, whatsoever they 
 believed or flattered themselves with, and though 
 it was evident enough, that he had run away from, 
 the beginning and lost his way thither, most men 
 looked upon him as the lost messenger, and even 
 shut their ears against anj possible comfort, as that 
 without doubt very many in the horror and con- 
 sternation of 48 hours, paid and underwent a full 
 penance and mortification for the hopes and in- 
 solence of three months before." 
 
 After his premature flight from Edge Hill Lord 
 Ferdinando took no further part m the civil war. 
 
 "An Angel came 
 
 And whipped the oflFending Adam out of hira." 
 
 With the whole weight of the family interest on 
 the King's side he considered that the position of 
 isolation in which a continued alliance with the 
 rebel leaders would have placed him, would be 
 painful beyond endurance. He accordingly retired 
 from the conflict, but though he became Earl in 
 1643 he failed to obtain possession of Ashby-de-la- 
 Zouch Castle until his brother Henry surrendered 
 it to Colonel Needham, and even then only obtained 
 a nominal admission of his ownership. 
 
 THE PLAGUE. 
 
 In 1607 the plague raged in Leicester town, and 
 a number of residents died. The Corporation made 
 efforts characteristic of the period to assuage the 
 visitation. According to the accounts for the year 
 of the Chamberlain of the borough, they engaged 
 a nurse to visit the sick and search the dead, and 
 even despatched a messenger on horseback to " one 
 Mr. Willy am Motte, a fizition of Bourne in Lin- 
 colnshire, to request him to come over to Leicester 
 to the visited people to helpe to cure them." On 
 
150 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 reaclimg Bourne tlie messenger ascertained that 
 the doctor had been called by professional duties 
 to Uppingham, and followed him there, but there 
 is no evidence that Mr. Motte visited Leicester. 
 Until June, 1610, the scourge lingered inter- 
 mittently in the town, yet not with sufficient 
 virulence to cause any immediate anxiety in the 
 county. 
 
 A LOVE LETTER. 
 
 In the early spring of ICIO the Countess of 
 Huntingdon passed through Leicester, unaccom- 
 panied by her lord, and wrote him one of the 
 sweetest letters surely any wife ever penned to a 
 lover husband. It breathes the spirit of a perfect 
 companionship : — 
 
 " Dear Sweet harte, — I prayse God wee came 
 very well hither, and about four o'clock. The 
 waters were deepe and not passable by Bellgrave, 
 wherefore Mr. Rydeings guided us another way 
 over St. Sunday's Bridge. Your much love and 
 care of me makes me trouble you with mv 
 passage hither. God willing, I will be in ye 
 coach to-morrow by seven o'clock, for 'tis a longe 
 journey. Your mares go very well, and the 
 chariot mare I will send back as you appointed. 
 I will from hence write to my Lorde Graye, of 
 Bradgate, your excuse and mine own. My lorde 
 is gone to my Lorde Sherwood's, but his eldest 
 son fell sick, and stayed my Layde's journey. 
 News I know none. Mr. Rydyngs will wait on 
 you. Badger purposed before I came to come 
 to Donnington to-morrow or next day, and I wish 
 you any company till I come to fill up and supply 
 their rooms. I beseech God send you health, 
 and send us a happy meeting. Indeed, I shall 
 
THE GOLDEN AGE. 
 
 151 
 
 wish myselfe with yon much sooner than I can 
 come ; and to hasten my coming I will lose no 
 time. I will make it many clayes sooner down, 
 rather than stay© should the weather be ill, after 
 I have done my business, and I hope in God I 
 shall be sooner back than you expect me, and as 
 longe as I have life, I will praye for yours, and 
 ever rest. 
 
 " Your most affectionate wife till death, 
 
 " Elizabeth Huntingdon." 
 
 " Leicester, Tuesday night." 
 
 "As soon as I have supped, God willing, I will 
 to bed, and wish you there, and in your own 
 bed again, and with as much ease as I used to 
 walk between my little cabin and yours." 
 
 henry's birth. 
 When the June roses were blooming the same 
 year, the plague broke out in Leicester with such 
 fury as to alarm the gentry throughout the county. 
 The efforts of the authorities to battle with it 
 proved unavailing. They relied upon medical 
 science, and the doctors of the period were mere 
 quacks and charlatans. No conception of sanitary 
 science dawned upon their minds. The dreadful 
 epidemic raged for nearly twelve months, desolat- 
 ing hundreds of homes and filling the streets with 
 mourners. The townspeople distinguished this 
 visitation from all previous ones by describing it 
 as the Great Plague. The sickness dispersed into 
 several parts of the to^vn, and six different levies 
 were made upon the inhabitants of the best sort to 
 relieve the destitution. At length the burden upon 
 the town's resources became too heavy to bear, and 
 
152 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 the distressed Mayor appealed to tlie Earl to initiate 
 a County Relief Fund, to which his lordship 
 assented. 
 
 Meanwhile he hurried the Countess off to Lough- 
 borough, that she might be safe from infection, 
 amid the bracing breezes of Charnwood Forest. At 
 the Manor House there, on the 28th of September, 
 1610, according to Fletcher's '^ Eoyal Peerage of 
 Leicestershire," she gave birth to a second son, the 
 intrepid Henry Hastings, who was decreed to recall 
 the memory of the founder, and in the gloaming of 
 the day of chivalry in England at Edge Hill, at 
 Hopton Heath, at Newark, and at Lichfield, and on 
 many fields of less repute, to fight bravely for his 
 King. The parish register at Loughborough does 
 not record either the birth or baptism, but the 
 old town has cause to be proud of its brave son, as he 
 was ever proud of his birthplace. When King 
 Charles conferred upon him a patent of nobility 
 he chose to be kno^vn as Lord Loughborough, and 
 at the restoration, when he settled down in London, 
 he named his mansion Loughboro' House. 
 Although his infant eyes were not to fi.rst see the 
 light in the ancestral fortress, which will be ever- 
 more associated with his name, it was there that he 
 spent his days of childhood. No mansion in the 
 wide domain of England could have supplied a 
 fitter nursery for the future cavalier than the 
 Castle of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, with its indelible 
 traditions reaching backward into mediaeval times. 
 
 CARE FOR ASHBY. 
 
 Probably within a month after his birth, the 
 little Henry with his mother arrived at Ashby-de- 
 la-Zouch, for we find the Earl manifesting an active 
 solicitude for the safety of the town from infection. 
 
THE GOLDEN AGE. 153 
 
 He instructed liis private secretary to write to " tlie 
 right worshipful Mr. Maior of Leicester " as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Good Mr. Maior, — It is my Lord's pleasure 
 that none of your towne of Leicester should 
 repeare to the ffayre of Asheby. And accordingly 
 his lordship would entreat you that it may be 
 made knowen unto them all that intend it, so 
 farre as you can learne. 
 
 '' His lordship living heare is carefull for the 
 preservation of his towne, and doeth not only 
 deale soe with Leicester, but with all others 
 infected. And soe taking my leave I rest. 
 
 "Ashby, this 26th day of October, 1610. 
 
 '' Your vearj^ loveinge friend, 
 
 '' John Burrowes.'' 
 
 In Henry's fifth year King James visited Ashby- 
 de-la-Zouch, staying some days. It was the 
 memorable occasion when he released the witches 
 in Leicester gaol. 
 
 henry's monitors. 
 
 Outside the immediate guardianship of the Earl 
 and Countess, the person who most influentially 
 contributed to the formation of Henry's character 
 was the Rev. Arthur Hildersham, his minister and 
 probably his tutor. When but eleven years old the 
 boy sat with his parents in the family pew of St. 
 Helen's Church, clad in velvet and lace, listening 
 to the opening lectures of the long series of 152 
 expositions of the 51st Psalm. Undoubtedly the 
 spell of the noble divine bound the mind and spirit 
 of the future cavalier throughout his life. The 
 beautiful ministry that sustained the devotional 
 
154 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 instincts of tlie royal Earl ; that won the confidence 
 of the unemotional Earl George ; and that 
 spiritualised the lives of the Golden Earl and his 
 gracious Countess, left its impress on the 
 character of Henry Hastings. His correspondence 
 breathes the spirit of the reverent Christian, and 
 throughout the course of the cruel war, no charge of 
 cruelty was ever associated with his name. 
 Attempts were made by bigoted sectaries of the 
 Protestant party, at the outbreak of the war, to 
 damage his authority and frustrate his plans, by 
 branding him a Papist. It is true that Papists 
 enrolled themselves in his forces, but to his un- 
 biassed judgment they were equally subjects of the 
 King with the Protestants, and consequently com- 
 petent to take up arms in defence of the monarchy, 
 and the associations of the Hildersham ministry, 
 then barely closed ten years, helped the conviction 
 of his Leicester hearers when he publicly denied 
 such an insinuation. 
 
 But if the Rector of Ashby-de-la-Zouch moulded 
 his moral character and fashioned his religious 
 belief, his great uncle, the eccentric Henry 
 Hastings, furnished his model of an ardent sports- 
 man. The service of the Castle supplied him with 
 every facility for indulgence in manly field sports. 
 No falcon house in merry England could boast of 
 choicer birds, for it drew its supplies from the 
 aviaries of the Isle of Man. 
 
 AN OLD-TIME SPORTSMAN. 
 
 The Earls of Derby held the sovereignty of man 
 under a yearly tribute to the King of England of 
 a brace of falcons. Besides, he lived in an age 
 when sporting propensities were as yet unchecked 
 by those finer susceptibilities that now condemn 
 
THE GOLDEN AGE. 
 
 155 
 
 the pleasures that involve animal suffering. Even 
 the sedate and godly puritan did not discoun- 
 tenance a bull or bear baiting scene on Ashby 
 Green, or decline to witness a spirited fight between 
 two game birds in a private cock-pit. 
 
 Seventeenth century gentlemen took great 
 delight in aquatic sports, and a wide area 
 round the Castle, the Soar, the Derwent, and the 
 noble Trent, as well as the numerous brooks, un- 
 contaminated by the refuse of factories, afforded 
 the angler and the fisherman opportunity to in- 
 dulge in the meditative art, while the abundance 
 of otters and badgers opened to sportsmen of 
 hardier habits a fiercer pastime. 
 
 But it was on the hunting field that Henry 
 Hastings acquired that superb horsemanship that 
 served him in good stead in after years. Following 
 the hounds he obtained a marvellous knowledge 
 of the topography of the Midlands, that enabled 
 him to manoeuvre bodies of troops with ease and 
 safety. His sporting proclivities brought him into 
 close touch with the minor gentry and yeomen of 
 half-a-dozen counties, familiarising him with their 
 political bias, their religious convictions, and the 
 measure of their independence. The occupants of 
 the principal mansions, and the numerous farm- 
 houses were well-known to him as well as the by- 
 lanes, the bridle paths, and the bridges. 
 
 His charming affability and his fearless horse- 
 manship won for him a widespread popularity, and 
 rendered him the most popular young man in the 
 county of Leicester. The tradesmen of Ashby, 
 Loughborough, and Leicester esteemed him and 
 deferred to him, while at whatever homestead he 
 ventured to call, on the return journeys of his long 
 hunting excursions, in quest of hospitality, the 
 
156 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 hostess, be she squire's lady or yeoman's wife, 
 received him with her sunniest smile. 
 
 A PORTRAIT. 
 
 Two interesting portraits of him hang in the 
 dining room of Donnington Hall, one painted in 
 1628, and the other in 1642. The earlier picture 
 represents him in his eighteenth year as a gallant 
 youth of the Rupert type. The characteristic 
 Huntingdon features, the long nose, straight firm 
 mouth and finely chiseled contour dominate the 
 face. The eyes are large and grey, and his long 
 auburn hair flows over a costly collar of lace, while 
 the whole face is expressive of frankness and fear- 
 lessness. 
 
 BEREAVED. 
 
 Two years after he attained his majority, the 
 supreme sorrow of his life visited him, for in 
 January, 1633, the broken-hearted Earl stood 
 between his two sons, beside the open grave of his 
 beloved Countess in the Church of St. Helen's. 
 Ere her fiftieth year, the irrevocable fiat had 
 broken the winsome union of nearly thirty years' 
 duration. No more her light feet were to hurry 
 from her little cabin in the old Castle to the Earl's 
 chamber ; no more was her boudoir to be the fond 
 resort of the Earl and his two sons; no longer 
 would her sweet presence diffuse through the grim 
 fortress, the delicious fragrance of homeliness. 
 
 Through the January snows they carried her over 
 the grassy knoll to St. Helen's Church, her 
 husband and sons following bare-headed. And at 
 the churchyard gate a new clergyman met them 
 with words of hope. The familiar voice of their old 
 
THE GOLDEX AGE. 157 
 
 miuister, Mr. Hildersham, could no longer soothe 
 their grief, for he, too, lay sleeping in the same 
 consecrated ground. 
 
 A ROYAL VISIT. 
 
 The following year, in 1634, King Charles and 
 Queen Marie Henrietta visited the C;jstle in State. 
 
 No maiden's voice had yet awakened melody in 
 the lone chamber of Henry's heart, but the stately 
 King and his bewitching consort filled the void with 
 new interests and new ambitions. It is not diffi- 
 cult to imagine the emotions that Charles' per- 
 sonality kindled in the young aristocrat's mind, 
 prepared as it had been by the educative influence 
 of an inheritance of two centuries of ancestral loyal 
 traditions for the impression. His Majesty was as 
 yet in the zenith of his reign. Even to-day we 
 cannot deny his kingly attributes. After all has 
 been said that bigotry and malice have devised to 
 asperse his name and fame, after an impatient dis- 
 missal of the adulation of immediate restoration 
 days, in our calmer judgment his memory appeals 
 to us to remember him as a sovereign who lived a 
 clean life, loving his wife and children with 
 intense devotion ; as the patron of Inago Jones, of 
 Rembrandt and of Yan Dyck, and the friend of 
 art and literature. It is significant that in the 
 supreme moments of human life, when symptoms 
 of weakness are not unusual even with the strongest, 
 he maintained the calm dignity of kingliness. In 
 the dejection of flight, and when a hunted fugitive 
 sitting awhile upon some grassy knoll to munch a 
 crust; or when bearding the cold reserve of his 
 judges; or on the scaffold before his palace of 
 Whitehall, he was always the King. 
 
158 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 In the banqueting chamber of Ashby-de-la- 
 Zouch. Castle, and tkroughout tlie fulsome cere- 
 monials of the Royal visit to Leicester, Henry 
 Hastings remained in close attendance. The 
 Queen made him her willing captive, and his 
 enthusiasm in her cause henceforward became a 
 controlling motive of his future career. During 
 her triumphal march in 1643 from York to Edge 
 Hill, no cavalier of all the joyful body guard that 
 surrounded her contributed so largely to the suc- 
 cessful accomplishment of her design, as her knight 
 of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. King Charles did not fail 
 to estimate the worth of his young subject. It is 
 probable that Hastings followed him to Court, as 
 was the habit of scions of his house, for during the 
 gloomy days of the spring of 1642 he was near the 
 royal person. On the eve of the Civil War his 
 Majesty personally addressed the Commission of 
 Array for Leicestershire to him, and commanded 
 him to carry that momentous document to Ashby- 
 de-la-Zouch and act upon it. 
 
THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1642. 
 
 ON his departure from London in tlie spring of 
 1642, the King relied for sympathy and 
 support upon the loyalty of the Lord of Ashby-de- 
 la-Zouch, but was equally conscious of the enmity 
 of the Bradgate family. The long-standing feud 
 between the houses of Huntingdon and Bradgate 
 had stirred the deep-seated prejudices of the 
 country people, and prepared many of them to take 
 part in the impending struggle. 
 
 LORD STAMFORD. 
 
 Lord Stamford's territorial power lay chiefly 
 in Lincolnshire, around the town from which he 
 derived his title. His Leicestershire estate, how- 
 ever, surrounding Bradgate, and stretching beyond 
 Copt Oak, was sufficiently extensive to qualify him 
 for the lord-lieutenancy of the county, to which he 
 had been appointed in February, in succession to 
 Lord Ferdinando Hastings. Like that young 
 nobleman, he could trace his descent from Mary 
 Tudor, the daughter of Henry VII. His past 
 career had not commended him to Charles' favour. 
 
160 llOMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 In June, 1639, while attending tlie King at Ber- 
 wick, Jie visited the Scottish camp and accepted 
 Leslie's hospitality. On his return he loudly ex- 
 tolled Scottish loyalty to his master, but Charles 
 chillingly replied : — 
 
 '' You have done them too much honour to go, 
 my lord." 
 
 Sinister and mercenary, he lacked those personal 
 graces that are essential to a leader of men. His 
 haughty and arrogant demeanour had alienated the 
 country gentry; while his cynical hostility to the 
 Church had awakened strong resentment in the 
 hearts of the local clergy. The cavaliers during 
 the course of the war accused him of living a 
 dissolute life, and of spending the plunder of Here- 
 ford in profligacy; lampooning him in satirical 
 songs until the Parliamentarians themselves sus- 
 pected his honesty. Failure dogged his steps. He 
 conducted himself with unsoldierly incapacity and 
 cowardice at Stratton in Cornwall, where he en- 
 trusted the command of his troops to General 
 Chudleigh, remaining outside the zone of danger 
 during the battle, and fleeing for his life im- 
 mediately the fortunes of the day favoured the 
 Royalists. He incurred the censure of Par- 
 liament for the surrender of Exeter, and the 
 anxiety he manifested to insure his personal 
 safety in the terms of capitulation, while his abject 
 letter to the King provoked royal contempt. 
 
 LOUD GREY OF GROBY. 
 
 He had little in common with his son and heir, 
 Lord Grey of Groby, a youth of nineteen years of 
 age, whom Mrs. Hutchinson describes as a young 
 man of no eminent parts, but backed by the 
 authority of Parliament, and the Parliamentary 
 
THE COMMISSION OF AERAY. 161 
 
 records distinguish as a lord dear to the Commons. 
 A dreamy religious fanatic, he sat in the Lower 
 House as member for Leicester, taking a bold part 
 in the proceedings of the Long Parliament. He 
 stood by Colonel Pride's side when he purged that 
 assembly, as Carlyle relates, *' and as this member 
 or that comes up, whispers or beckons ' He is one 
 of them; he cannot enter.' " He sat as a judge at 
 the King's trial, and afterwards signed the warrant 
 for his execution. His religious fanaticism carried 
 him into the counsels of the Fifth Monarchy Move- 
 ment, and led to his imprisonment at Windsor, 
 where he languished a martyr to gout for four 
 months, until Cromwell's clemency released him. 
 Along the troubled pathway of his life the Earl 
 refused to accompany him ; not understanding his 
 temperament or his ideals. Thorsby, the historian, 
 has recorded with pardonable pride a story of an 
 ancestor, Thomas Thorsby, of Ansty. He tells us, 
 " that when grey with years, on hearing of the 
 disaster of the Royal troops at Naseby, that yeoman 
 voluntarily drove his team to Leicester to assist the 
 Cavaliers' flight." 
 
 Later he happened to be at Bradgate, when Lord 
 Grey brought his father the intelligence of the 
 sovereign's execution, 
 
 " Well, Thomas," said the Earl, " King or no 
 King." 
 
 " No King, my lord." 
 
 " Then no Lord Grey," the Earl retorted, and 
 abruptly turning his back upon his son, left him. 
 
 Stamford's mission. 
 
 But notwithstanding his personal unpopularity. 
 Lord Stamford in the early portion of 1642 wielded 
 a strong political power in Leicestershire. The 
 12 
 
162 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 supporters of Parliament deferred to him on 
 account of his social rank, regarding him as a 
 fearless exponent of their cherished aspirations, 
 while Parliament itself believed him to be a 
 heaven-sent leader. To strengthen his hands he 
 had been apj^ointed lord-lieutenant. It had been 
 wiser to have left him to the more suitable occu- 
 pation of devising a better method of dressing flax, 
 and managing his farms, for nature had endowed 
 him with a talent for agricultural pursuits and 
 designed other men of humbler social position, but 
 manlier instincts, to formulate a revolutionary 
 policy, and lead armies in the field. 
 
 On the 4th of June, 1642, Stamford arrived in 
 Leicester from London armed with a commission of 
 Parliament to put in force the Ordinance of Militia. 
 His instructions authorised him to seize the town 
 magazine, without attracting public attention, and 
 retain it under his own control. The local train 
 bands were known to be in sympathy with the 
 Parliamentary cause, being drawn mainly from the 
 houses of burgesses of Leicester and the disaffected 
 families of the smaller towns. 
 
 Provided that their equipment could be insured, 
 the Parliamentary leaders flattered themselves that 
 their hold on the county would be complete. 
 Opposition would undoubtedly be offered by the 
 Huntingdon family, but the scarcity of arms and 
 ammunition would restrict their measures. The 
 residences of the country gentry contained but 
 meagre stores of weapons, which were chiefly relics 
 of past days, antiquated armour and arms, dating 
 back to the period of the Wars of the Roses, and 
 of little use except for wall decorations. Even 
 money seemed powerless to assist the Royalists, 
 for the citizens of Birmingham declined to supply 
 
THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 163 
 
 them from their forges, and the armourers' shops 
 of London were watched by Parliamentary agents. 
 Besides, disloyalty had found its way into Ashby- 
 de-la-Zouch Castle. 
 
 Lord Ferdinando had been drawn into the 
 councils of the Revolutionists, but had given them 
 his hand, and not his heart. 
 
 By the unwilling consent of the Mayor, and the 
 co-operation of the Corporation and burgesses, 
 Stamford quickly removed the greater portion of 
 the magazine to Bradgate. He next, in consent 
 with the High Sheriif, Archdale Palmer, issued an 
 order for the assembling of the train bands at 
 Leicester on Wednesday, June 8th, a step that 
 brought Henrv Hastings on the scene. 
 
 HASTINGS' OPPOSITION. 
 
 The later portrait in Donnington Park is 
 interesting, because it portrays him at this 
 anxious period of his career. Dressed in a rich 
 black lace cape reaching to his waist, with a throat 
 bow of white lace, like ladies wear, he looks down 
 from the canvas with a sad and worried expression. 
 It is the face and head of an idealist, and on 
 enthusiast; but it is chiefly the painful solicitude, 
 cleverly depicted by the artist, that arrests atten- 
 tion. Looking upon his sensitive face the student 
 doubts not, that in unsheathing his sword for the 
 King, he fully realised the burden of pain that his 
 decision would lay upon his shoulders. 
 
 Riding out to Leicester from Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
 Castle, he put up at his favourite inn the " Angel," 
 and despatched a messenger to the Mayor, bidding 
 him meet him there. The ensuing conference 
 between the Cavalier and the Mayor resulted in the 
 squashing of the order for the assembly of the train 
 
164 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 bands as far as Leicester town was concerned. But 
 at Bradgate, Stamford gathered the violent faction 
 of the party, and assisted by Lord Ruthven, and Sir 
 Arthur Haselrigg, superintended the drilling of his 
 unmilitary supporters, and organised a body of 130 
 musketeers for the defence of his mansion, equipped 
 from the stores of the magazine. It became 
 apparent to Mr. Hastings that Stamford had 
 resolved to push the quarrel to extremity. He 
 therefore determined to bring matters to an 
 immediate issue. Leaving the burgesses of 
 Leicester under a cloud of suspense, and Bradgate 
 in a state of siege, and accompanied by several 
 friends, he rode along the great North Road to 
 York. He had kept his Majesty exactly informed 
 by means of daily messengers of the progress of 
 events in Leicestershire, but the time had now 
 arrived for determinate action. So along the 
 historic roadway he galloped in the June sunshine. 
 The hedges had already donned their green coats, 
 and the dog roses bloomed upon their branches, the 
 labourers dropped their hoes and watched him pass, 
 but he rode on, his mind absorbed in great schemes, 
 until the turretted Towers of York rose distinct out 
 of the horizon. Arrived at York he sought audience 
 of the King, and after one night's refreshment and 
 rest commenced his homeward journey, through 
 loyal Pontefract, indifferent Doncaster, and 
 friendly iS^ewark, carrying in his pocket the Com- 
 mission of Array for Leicestershire. That docu- 
 ment honoured and distinguished Leicestershire as 
 the first of the Forty Counties of England to receive 
 the King's appeal for help. It was written in legal 
 Latin, addressed to the Earls of Huntingdon and 
 Devonshire, Sir Richard Halford, and himself, and 
 signed by the royal hand. It empowered the four 
 
THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 165 
 
 gentlemen named, or any one of tliem, under pre- 
 tence of the malice of public enemies, and the 
 apprehension of an invasion of the Kingdom to arm, 
 train, and array, all of bodily ability, or of sufficient 
 means to enlist soldiers, both within, and without, 
 the liberties of the county, to be conducted to the 
 sea coast, or elsewhere, as might afterwards seem 
 expedient ; to erect bale fires and beacons ; and to 
 claim the assistance of all barons, bailiffs, sheriffs, 
 and constables, in the furtherance of the Commis- 
 sion. Those labouring under bodily infirmity were 
 required to furnish offensive or defensive weapons 
 according to the amount of their property, as esti- 
 mated by the Commissioners. 
 
 HASTINGS AND HIS FATHER. 
 
 On the evening of June 15th Mr. Hastings drew 
 rein at the Great Gateway of his father's Castle, and 
 hurried to his presence. Strong and resolute to 
 further his royal master's cause, as was the brave 
 cavalier, he involuntarily heaved a sigh of regret 
 as he entered the old Earl's chamber. It was dis- 
 tasteful to break upon his retirement with the 
 abrupt intelligence of war, for deeply as he sympa- 
 thised with his homeless Sovereign, the Earl, 
 broken in health, and prematurely aged, lacked the 
 strength and energy to take a personal part in the 
 approaching conflict. Ten lonely years of bereave- 
 ment had greatly lessened his interest in local and 
 Imperial affairs. Although he lacked nothing of 
 that warm loyalty for which his family had ever 
 been distinguished, he yet realised that his day was 
 spent, and that other arms must strike the blows, 
 and other brains must guide the councils that should 
 restore the King's power; while his willing 
 generosity should strive to supply financial aid. 
 
166 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 His lonely heart craved that quiet season of medita- 
 tion that forms a flitting environment for men who 
 feel that the mysteries of the unknown world are 
 crowding around them. For him the harmony of 
 life had given place to unrestful discords, and the 
 Golden Age of Ashby Castle had reached its sunset, 
 when he stood, broken-hearted and desolate, beside 
 the open grave of his beloved wife. 
 
 The disaffection of his heir Lord Ferdinando had 
 grieved him sorely, and when he took the royal 
 document in his trembling hand, and scanned its 
 contents, he noted the significant omission of the 
 young nobleman's name. But he turned with con- 
 fidence to his younger son, and committed to his 
 charge the care of the Castle. 
 
 At the close of the interview Henry Hastings left 
 his father's presence with a fixed resolution to stake 
 fortune and life in his Sovereign's cause. During 
 his long ride from York he had matured his plan of 
 action. Next morning betimes he rode to Leicester, 
 and hurried to the Old Guildhall. The Mayor and 
 Aldermen had already assembled in the Council 
 Chamber, and a number of townspeople occupied 
 the public benches. 
 
 THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 
 
 To the Mayor he handed the Commission of 
 Array, who passed it to the Town Clerk with a 
 request that he would construe its contents into 
 homely English. The scene in the Council Chamber 
 might furnish a worthy subject for an artist's brush. 
 His Worship rose from his official seat in deference 
 to the King's message ; the Councillors, less hearty 
 in their loyalty, stood grouped about him ; the 
 Town Clerk adjusted his barnacles ; and the inquisi- 
 tive citizens strained their ears to gather the pur- 
 
THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 167 
 
 port of their Sovereign's will; while Hastings, 
 calm and impassive, looked on, with curious 
 interest. No man questioned the authority of the 
 document, questions and criticisms fovind voice in 
 after thought. Slowly the Town Clerk translated 
 the Commission in the intense silence, and when he 
 pronounced the Charles E,., inscribed at its foot by 
 the King's own hand, the assembly felt that its 
 authority had abrogated the Parliamentary decree, 
 and placed the direction of affairs in Mr. Hastings' 
 hands. The Cavalier watched the meeting dis- 
 perse, and after giving instructions that a copy 
 should be handed to the Earl, returned to his inn. 
 
 On receiving the document, however, the Earl 
 wrote to the Lords, " informing them that he had 
 executed the Parliament's Militia Ordinance in 
 Leicestershire with great success but that a Com- 
 mission of Array was granted to the Earls of 
 Huntingdon and Devonshire, and others, to oppose 
 him therein, and requiring them to arraj^, train, 
 and muster the people ; that the said Commission 
 was to take place in a few days ; and, therefore, he 
 desired the advice of Parliament what he should do 
 if the said Commission was put into execution." 
 
 Parliament at once appointed a Committee of 
 both Houses to consider how to prevent this new and 
 dangerous project. 
 
 Stamford now proceeded to remove the remainder 
 of the magazine, but Mr. Hastings interposed, 
 desiring the Mayor to set a guard over the building 
 that contained it, night and day. 
 
 THOMAS RUDIAM. 
 
 Perhaps no Mayor of Leicester, before or after 
 him, ever experienced so harrassing a year of office 
 as Thomas Rudiam. His political bias and private 
 
168 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 conviction bound him to the Royalist Cause ; but 
 oversbadowing bis official life tbe great form of 
 Stamford towered, commanding tbe sympatbetic 
 co-operation of bis civic associates. A weaker man 
 would bave become a mere puppet of tbe Lord of 
 Bradgate, but Tbomas Rudiam, according to bis 
 streugtb, maintained a consistent independence in 
 tbe Council, and on tbat account received a sum- 
 mons to appear before tbe Bar of tbe House of 
 Commons to answer for bis delinquency, and to 
 suffer imprisonment during a portion of bis 
 mayoralty. 
 
 Tbe Commission of Array caused no little stir in 
 Parliament. A close examination sbowed tbe 
 document to bave been prepared by able lawyers, 
 after consulting tbe old records. It bad been 
 drawn up in anticipation of coming troubles, and 
 tbe utmost secrecy bad been maintained in regard 
 to it. Tbe exulting Royalists regarded it as a 
 master stroke of policy. It fell amongst tbe bewil- 
 dered Parliamentarians like a tbunderbolt; claim- 
 ing, as it did, obedience to tbe lawful and regnant 
 Sovereign of tbe realm. For more tban a tbousand 
 years, as Cbarles was wont to assert, tbe King bad 
 been tbe fountain of autbority. His kingly prero- 
 gative to command bad remained uncballenged ; 
 disputes as to tbe rigbtful occupancy of tbe Tbrone 
 bad frequently convulsed tbe national life, but 
 resistance to tbe autbority of tbe establisbed King 
 bad been unknown. Efforts bad been successfully 
 made to wrest privileges from bim, but it bad 
 always been an axiom of government tbat sucb con- 
 cessions were an act of grace. 
 
 His title to tbe supreme beadsbip of all national 
 forces bad never been disputed. Feudalism bad 
 establisbed and crystalised tbat beadsbip, wbile tbe 
 
THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 169 
 
 decline of Feudalism had consolidated it. Tke 
 forces of mediaeval times controlled sectionally by 
 territorial lords had been nominally his. In the 
 changeful Tudor era the same understanding had 
 prevailed ; in the anxious period of the Armada 
 the resolute Queen had ridden warrior-like to Til- 
 bury forts, to animate her soldiers. Even in the 
 rebellion under discussion the revolutionary 
 party acted in the King's name, and every Commis- 
 sion they granted was under the authority of his 
 name, assuming the protection of his august person 
 to be a sacred duty. When Cromwell afterwards in 
 brutal earnestness declared that if he were to 
 encounter the King in battle he would shoot him, 
 as he would any other enemy, his statement 
 shocked his colleagues. The Houses recognised the 
 gravity of the document, and many of their mem- 
 bers asserted its authoritativeness. They sub- 
 mitted it to the lawyers, who sent for the original 
 records, with which they carefully compared it, and 
 ultimately, to the great relief of Parliament, dis- 
 covei^d a difference. Precedent, they declared, 
 permitted the Sovereign to issue such a Commission 
 only in case of foreign invasion. Parliament at 
 once voted the Commission to be against law, and 
 against the liberty and property of the subject : and 
 all those who are actors in putting the Commission 
 of Array in execution shall be esteemed as dis- 
 turbers of the liberty of the subject. It was 
 ordered also that this Commission of Array with 
 the aforesaid votes shall be forthwith printed and 
 published throughout the Kingdom, and lastly, that 
 all those persons, except the Peers, who had 
 executed this Commission in Leicestershire, should 
 be sent for as delinquents. Two Parliamentary 
 messengers, John Chambers and James Stamford, 
 
170 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 were despatclied to Leicestersliire witli mstructions 
 to arrest Mr. Hastings and his associates. 
 
 But while Parliament discussed the Commission 
 of Array, Stamford proceeded energetically with 
 the task of fortifying Bradgate. Deeming his 
 musketeer guard a sufficient defence for the 
 mansion itself, he established a camp for recruits at 
 Copt Oak. On the evening of June 20th, the day 
 the messengers arrived at Bradgate, he visited 
 Leicester, accompanied by them; arrested the 
 Under-Sheriff, an active Royalist; fastened a 
 printed copy of the ^ otes of Parliament in connec- 
 tion with the Commission of Array to the gates of 
 the " Angel Inn '' ; and returned to Bradgate with 
 another portion of the magazine. Reports were 
 freely circulating in the county of warlike Royalist 
 preparations, and the garrison at Bradgate hourly 
 expected to be attacked. 
 
 ASHBY ROUSED. 
 
 The state of affairs at Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
 afforded colour to the forebodings of the Bradgate 
 garrison. The Commission of Array had already 
 produced an appreciable effect in the county. 
 Since its presentation to the Mayor of Leicester, 
 its contents had been earnestly considered in halls 
 of the Squirearchy and the homesteads of the 
 Yeomanry, and with a result favourable to 
 Hastings' agitation. Already his supporters were 
 gathering in the Castle. Squires and yeomen, 
 mounted on their own steeds ; horse dealers, 
 grooms, and ostlers ; and young tradesmen, bound 
 by hereditary loyalty to the Huntingdons; 
 crowded into the courtyard, volunteering service. 
 Hastings welcomed all, asking no questions. Even 
 footpads and highAvaymen presented themselves; 
 
THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 171 
 
 and Will JSTevison, tlie notorious terror of tlie 
 Leicestershire turnpikes, became one of his busiest 
 scouts. He bought up all weapons available, and 
 his agents scoured the towns in quest of saddlery 
 and ammunition. On returning from Leicester 
 on the 16th June, one of his first measures had 
 been to despatch messengers to his father's 
 collieries to raise the miners and lead them, with 
 the pit horses, to Loughborough. According to a 
 contemporary pamphlet, he appears to have 
 arranged to bring 500 men to Leicester to join the 
 forces of Colonel Lumsford and Captain Legge, 
 amounting to an equal number, and with the com- 
 bined troops, after overawing Leicester, to march 
 to Bradgate and capture the magazine, but his 
 plans miscarried. " Being in possession of several 
 coal mines in Derbyshire, he raised 100 colliers, 
 armed with pikes, muskets, and calivers, and used 
 engine horses (a few of the train bands joined 
 him) ; assembled his friends at Loughborough, 
 where, and at Ashby, he bought up all the powder 
 and troopers' saddles that on sudden could be had. 
 When all were come together he made proclama- 
 tion that whoever wanted arms should be furnished 
 from Garrendon Abbey, and other Popish places, 
 and so they marched to Leicester, with drums 
 beating, colours fljdng, and himself marching 
 before them." 
 
 WALTER HASTINGS. 
 
 His cousin, Mr. Walter Hastings, had been 
 instructed to create a diversion the same morning 
 in Leicester. Mr. Archdale Palmer, the High 
 Sheriff, was known to be staying at the '' Heron 
 Inn," the hostel favoured by the Roundheads. 
 Faithful to his instructions the choleric squire. 
 
172 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 accompanied by Lord Lovelace and Mr. Killigrew, 
 and followed by a rabble of townspeople, rode into 
 the inn yard, vowing lie would eat the Sheriff up. 
 On cooling down he addressed the crowd, bidding 
 them to stand up for the King and for the House 
 of Huntingdon that had ever been loyal. His 
 oratory, however, failed to evoke any sympathetic 
 response, for the people told him plainly they were 
 for " King and Parliament." By this time the 
 High Sheriff had joined the assemblage, and Mr. 
 Hastings called upon him to read the Commission 
 of Array, but he answered that he had no copy 
 in his possession, and Mr. Hastings retired to 
 await his cousin's coming. 
 
 ENFORCING THE COMMISSION. 
 
 A distance of about a dozen miles separates 
 Loughborough from Leicester. The route lies 
 through the ancient town of Mount Sorrel. When 
 within three miles of Leicester, Mr. Hastings 
 caused powder, matches, and bullets to be 
 delivered to every musketeer. The cavaliers 
 anticipated opposition from the Roundheads, but 
 Stamford sat quietly at Bradgate. The burgesses 
 of Leicester were in a state of intense excitement. 
 Messengers had periodically ridden up to the 
 Mayor's residence with news from Loughborough, 
 both on the 21st and 22nd. The authorities of the 
 town were well informed of the occurrence at 
 Loughborough during the forenoon. The 
 Royalists did not leave the town before eleven 
 o'clock in the forenoon. The Leicester people, 
 however, made no attempt to offer an organised 
 resistance; indeed, any such idea was barred by 
 the absence of the train bands at Bradgate and at 
 Copt Oak. The burgesses regarded Hastings' 
 
THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 173 
 
 movement more as a riot than a military expedi- 
 tion, and hundreds of adventurous spirits hurried 
 to the Horse Leys to await his appearance. At 
 ahout two o'clock his cavalcade was seen to be 
 approaching. Mr. Hastings rode at its head, 
 accompanied by his intimate friends, and a sedate 
 company of thirty-two clergymen in canonicals. 
 Amongst the divines the spectators noticed 
 Hastings' great friend, Mr. Leverett, the Ibstock 
 parson, the successor of Archbishop Laud; next 
 in order came 100 horses, a motley company; 
 followed by 120 musketeers with matches lighted ; 
 and about 100 colliers, armed with pikes, brought 
 up the rear. 
 
 By this time the crbwd of spectators numbered 
 several thousands, including the High Sheriff and 
 the two Commons' messengers, awaiting an oppor- 
 tunity to execute their instructions. 
 
 Hastings' appeal. 
 
 With a motion of his hand the Cavalier silenced 
 the drums, and proceeded to read the Commission 
 of Array. Then he addressed the assemblage. 
 
 "He appealed to the inbred loyalty of English- 
 men to their sovereign, and declared his august 
 master's desire to avoid bloodshed. He disputed 
 the prevalent idea so diligently proclaimed by the 
 hot sectaries of the Puritan movement, that the 
 English monarchy had allied itself to the Eoman 
 Church. It had been persistently asserted that he 
 himself belonged to the Eoman fold. He desired 
 then and there to solemnly deny the statement, 
 and to proclaim his attachment to the faith of the 
 Eoyal Earl, and of his father the present Earl. 
 The impending struggle was not a conflict for 
 religion, or for freedom, but it was a traitorous 
 
174 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 attempt to deprive tlie sovereign of his kingly pre- 
 rogatives. Let them all, without regard to creeds 
 or sects, obey the commission of their sovereign 
 Lord the King, and cry ' God save the King.' " 
 
 The address was received in sullen silence by 
 the people. 
 
 High Sheriff Palmer then stepped forward and 
 read the Parliamentary decree against the com- 
 mission. It denounced Hastings, Halford, Bale, 
 and Pate as delinquents, and ordered the arrest of 
 each and all of them. 
 
 Sir Richard Halford contemptuously bade the 
 High Sheriff wait until the King's business was 
 over, but Henry Hastings maintained a more con- 
 ciliatory attitude. Throughout his career he 
 seldom lost his head. While appreciating the 
 forcefulness of the opposition he would be called 
 upon to encounter, he yet knew well that many 
 of his opponents were personally friendly to him- 
 self, and despaired not of winning them over to 
 the King's side. He quietly invited the people to 
 remain patient, and to accompany him to the 
 " Angel " to confer with the Royalist leaders, 
 promising them at the same time civil treatment. 
 
 AN UNDIGNIFIED MESSENGER. 
 
 The bigoted Chambers, however, had not come 
 to Leicester to conciliate, but to suppress. Calling 
 loudly to those around him for support in arresting 
 the malignants, he rushed to Hastings and laid 
 hands on him. In the confusion two butchers 
 lifted the cavalier upon his horse, placing a loaded 
 petronel in his hand. The opposing parties began 
 to press together. An aggressive temper began 
 to dominate the Roundheads, and a flight appeared 
 imminent. Mr. Hastings passed the word to 
 
THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 175 
 
 Captain Worsley to command his musketeers to 
 fire upon his clamorous enemies, but a sudden 
 shower of rain fell, preventing the fusilade, and 
 the Roundheads began to disperse. Then the 
 cavaliers, accompanied by their reverend allies, 
 moved for the town. During the procession to the 
 town an incident occurred that brought ridicule 
 upon Chambers. Walter Hastings, inflamed at the 
 thought of his fiasco of the forenoon, spurring his 
 mettlesome charger, endeavoured to ride him down, 
 and b}^ his superior horsemanship succeeded in 
 unhorsing him. To escape his tormentor the un- 
 lucky messenger climbed the town rampart; but 
 a King's man pushed him into the ditch, where 
 he lay until his own party discovered and escorted 
 him to the '' Heron Inn." 
 
 Arriving at the " Angel," the cavaliers barri- 
 caded the doors and entrance gates. It soon be- 
 came evident, however, that no Roundhead troops 
 were stationed in the town, and an unarmed mob 
 could offer no impediment to an equipped force, 
 so the cavaliers returned in the evening to 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Hastings manifested no 
 solicitude for the thirty-two divines. He knew 
 they were comfortably ensconced in snug quarters 
 and able to care for their own safety, so he left 
 them in Leicester, a butt for the sarcasm of the 
 Roundheads. It is amusing to note that when- 
 ever the members' of the Sacred Order came in 
 contact with him, they invariably retired with loss 
 of dignity. 
 
 TO THE KING. 
 
 From Ashby-de-la-Zouch Hastings immediately 
 communicated the result of his proceedings at 
 Leicester to the King. Charles replied, giving 
 
176 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 him " thanks for his faithful endeavours to pre- 
 serve his royal and legal authority, and enjoining 
 him to use his power in apprehending the Earl of 
 Stamford, who by force and under pretence of 
 authority by the pretended ordinance of the two 
 Houses of Parliament, had surprised all, or part of 
 the magazine of munition belonging to the county 
 of Leicester, and keeps the same by force ; which 
 was actually levying war against himself; and 
 therefore he could not account him and his adhe- 
 rents other than traitors." 
 
 On the receipt of this letter Hastings im- 
 mediately proceeded to Leicester with a consider- 
 able force and publicly proclaimed Stamford. 
 
 EXECUTING THE COMMISSION. 
 
 Meanwhile the Earl, through his steward Salis- 
 bury, an irascible puritan, actuated by bitter 
 animosity towards Hastings, kept Parliament fully 
 informed of the Cavalier's proceedings. Salisbury 
 complains that under the authority of the Com- 
 mission of Array Hastings had issued warrants to 
 the various constables of several hundreds of 
 Leicestershire to serve and obtain recruits; and 
 had loudly proclaimed his intention to seize the 
 town magazine by force from Bradgate, if he 
 could not obtain it by fair means. He referred 
 especially to a particular warrant served on the 
 Head Constable of the Sparkehoe hundred, and to 
 a letter despatched to William Ward, David 
 Dickens, Richard Ludlam, and William Franks, 
 describing the raid on Leicester, and proclaiming 
 William Eaynor, the custodian of the remaining 
 portion of the magazine, a traitor. This informa- 
 tion made a grave impression upon Parliament. 
 Orders were at once issued to Lord Grey of Groby 
 
THE COMMISSION 0? AERAY. 177 
 
 to hasten to Bradgate to strengthen his father's 
 hands. The Houses were already in possession of 
 a full account of the events of June 21st and 22nd, 
 supplemented by a report from the Committee for 
 Leicester. The Committee so strongly denounced 
 the Mayor's conduct that he was summoned before 
 Parliament and imprisoned. Acting upon Salis- 
 bury's information the Commons appointed a 
 committee to draw up a specific charge against 
 Hastings. That Cavalier was well aware of the 
 doings in Parliament, but nothing daunted, con- 
 tinued his efforts to obtain arms and ammunition 
 for his followers. One day, attended by a large 
 following, he rode up to the front door of Bradgate 
 Hall and held a stormy interview with the Earl, 
 in which he demanded in the King's name the 
 surrender of the magazine; but Stamford, safely 
 protected behind the defences, and guarded by his 
 musketeers, declined, upon which, foaming with 
 rage, he retired to Ashby-de-la-Zouch to await his 
 opportimity. 
 
 Mr. Salisbury did not fail to report this occur- 
 rence to the Houses, and to expatiate upon the 
 unsettled state of the county, upon which the 
 impatient Commons put into force that potent 
 instrument they had used so successfully against 
 Strafford ; the Judgment of Impeachment. It 
 was the exercise of the highest function of Parlia- 
 mentary prerogative. The practice of impeaching 
 offenders, so frequently resorted to under the 
 Yorkist and Lancastrian dynasties, had been 
 largely discontinued during the Tudor reigns. 
 James I. revived the practice, and in doing so 
 awakened a Nemesis, that was destined to follow, 
 and to strike down his son, and to eventually 
 annihilate his house. 
 
 13 
 
178 KOMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 Upon the meeting of the House of Commons, the 
 Committee having prepared the charge against Mr. 
 Hastings according to direction, and appointment 
 given them by the House, it was publicly read, and 
 the Lords' House being completed, settled that 
 the said charges be sent up to them for their 
 approbation, also with a desire of the said Com- 
 mittee that the said Mr. Hastings might be forth- 
 with proceeded against, which was assented to, and 
 an order i^-sued for his summoning in, to answer the 
 same. The date fixed for his appearance, together 
 with his three fellow offenders, before the Bar of 
 the House was August 30th. 
 
 Mr. Hastings had now brought his fortunes to 
 a pass sufficientlv perilous to awaken reflection in 
 the mind of a man of ordinary courage. But no 
 thought of personal danger troubled him. For 
 him there could be no withdrawal. 
 
 ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT. 
 
 The Articles of Impeachment are as follows : — 
 " Whereas by Order and Command of the Lords 
 and Commons; for the safety and defence of the 
 County of Leicester, the Magazine of the said 
 County, was delivered into the hands of Henry 
 Earl of Stamford, who in June, 1642, removed a 
 great part thereof to his dwelling-house called 
 Bradgate, in the said County, for the more safety 
 and security thereof. 
 
 " And whereas in the said month of June, several 
 warrants issued out, by order of both Houses of 
 Parliament; the one directed to the Gentleman 
 Usher of the House of Peers, his Deputy, or 
 Deputies; the other to the Serjeant-at-Arms 
 attending on this House, his Deputy, or Deputies, 
 for the apprehending of the said Henry Hastings, 
 
THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 179 
 
 Sir Ricliard Halford, Sir Jolm Bale, and JoKn 
 Pate, for High. Crimes and Misdemeanours, by 
 them committed against the said Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, to answer the same before the said Houses of 
 Parliament. 
 
 " He the said Henry Hastings, Sir Eichard 
 Halford, Sir John Bale, and John Pate, being then 
 and yet Justices of the Peace of the said County, 
 in or about the 22nd of June, wickedly and 
 maliciously, without Warrant of Law, did raise 
 and draw out of the several Counties of Derby, 
 Lincoln, and Leicester, forces of horse and foot to 
 the number of 300 persons, or thereabouts, some of 
 them being colliers, and other mean and desperate 
 persons, and many of them Papists, and them un- 
 lawfully assembled at Loughborough, in the said 
 County of Leicester; where the said Henry 
 Hastings, the day aforesaid, made Proclamation. 
 
 " That if any persons, affected to that service, 
 wanted arms, and would repair to the town, thev 
 should be furnished therewith. 
 
 " And they the said Henry Hastings, Sir Richard 
 Halford, Sir John Bale, and John Pate, together 
 with the said other persons so assembled, being 
 armed with swords and pikes, and with pistols, 
 muskets, and carbines, ready charged with powder 
 and bullets, and other habiliments of war, marched 
 along in a warlike manner, with drums beating, 
 colours flying, and their matches lighted, to the 
 great terror and affrightnient of his Majesty's 
 subjects, divers miles within the said County of 
 Leicester, to the town of Leicester, and so through 
 the said town with great noise and shouting-, to 
 a certain place near the said town called Horse 
 Lease ; to the intent to keep themselves from being 
 arrested by the said officers of both Houses of 
 
180 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 Parliament; and in case they should be arrested, 
 then to rescue themselves by force; and to the 
 intent likewise to take away the said Magazine 
 by force and arms, and to kill and destroy the said 
 Earl of Stamford, he the said Henry Hastings, 
 and some other of his said accomplices, giving out 
 ' That they would fetch away the said Magazine 
 with a vengeance, and that they would have the 
 said Earl's life before they left; and would fire 
 his house, and have his heart's blood out, with 
 divers other such like desperate speeches.' 
 
 " And the said Henry Hastings, Sir Richard 
 Halford, Sir John Bale, and John Pate, with the 
 rest of their said confederates, being assembled at 
 the said Horse Fair Lease, John Chambers and 
 James Stamford being authorised thereunto by a 
 deputation under the hand of the officers afore- 
 said, together with Archdale Palmer, Esq., then 
 High Sheriff of the said County of Leicester, and 
 divers other persons in their aid and assistance, 
 repaired to the said place to execute the said 
 warrants from both Houses of Parliament; and 
 the said Henry Hastings, well knowing thereof, 
 did then tell the said Chambers ' That he knew he 
 had warrants from Parliament as well for others as 
 for himself ' ; whereupon the said Chambers pro- 
 duced the said warrants, and read them openly in 
 the hearing of the said Henry Hastings, Sir 
 Richard Halford, Sir John Bale, and John Pate, 
 to yield obedience to the said warrants; which 
 they refused to do ; but instead thereof, they and 
 their other adherents did violently assault the 
 said High Sheriff, Chambers, and Stamford, and 
 rode upon them with their horses ; and one of the 
 said confederates, named Mr. Walter Hastings, 
 with his pistol charged, gave fire upon the said 
 
THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 181 
 
 Chambers, and some others of them drew out their 
 pistols, and presented their muskets upon the said 
 High Sheriff and Chambers, using other force and 
 violence upon them to the great danger of their 
 lives ; and the said Henry Hastings, Sir Richard 
 Halford, Sir John Bale, and John Pate, by force 
 and arms, and in a warlike manner at the time 
 and place aforesaid, rescued themselves from the 
 said officers and High Sheriff in contempt of justice, 
 and to the high affront and scorn of Parliament; 
 and afterwards marched back again, in warlike 
 manner, into the said town of Leicester ; all which 
 doings of the said Henry Hastings, Sir Richard 
 Halford, Sir John Bale, and John Pate, were and 
 are contrary to the Laws of the Realm, the Rights 
 and Privileges of Parliament, tending to Sedition, 
 and to the danger and effusion of much blood. 
 
 " Whereupon the said Commons do, in the 
 names of themselves, and all the Commoners of 
 Eno-land, impeach the said Henry Hastings, Sir 
 Richard Halford, and Sir John Bale and John 
 Pate of the said several high crimes and misde- 
 meanours. 
 
 " And the said Commons, by Protestation, saving 
 to themselves now, and at all times hereafter, the 
 liberty of exhibiting of any other accusation or 
 impeachment against the said Henry Hastings, 
 Sir Richard Halford, Sir John Bale, and John 
 Pate, or anv of them ; and of replying to the 
 answers which they or any of them shall make ; 
 or of offering any proofs of the premises, or any of 
 them, as the case, according to the Courts of 
 Justice shall require ; do pray that the said Henry 
 Hastings, Sir Richard Halford, Sir John Bale, and 
 John Pate, and every of them, may be forthwith 
 put to answer the premises in presence of the 
 
182 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 Commons; and tliat sucli proceedings, examina- 
 tions, trials, and judgments may be upon them, 
 and every of them, had and used, as shall be agree- 
 able to Law and Justice. 
 
 '' It was ordered that at a time fixed these afore- 
 said gentlemen appear before the House to hear 
 the Impeachment read, and to put in their 
 answers to it." 
 
 Having Impeached Henry Hastings, Parliament 
 proceeded to instruct the Judges engaged at the 
 Summer Assizes in the matter of the Commission 
 of Array, issuing to them the following order : — 
 
 Order of the Lords and Commons assembled in 
 Parliament. 
 
 ORDER TO JUDGES. 
 
 "Whereas several Commissions of Array have 
 been lately issued out, under the Great Seal 
 of England, into the several Counties of this 
 Realm, tending to the great danger to his Majesty, 
 and the disturbance of the peace of the Kingdom. 
 For the preventing of, and execution of, 
 and issuing out of any such Commissions 
 for the time to come, it is ordered by the 
 Lords and Commons, the Judges and Justices of 
 Assizes, of the several counties of England and 
 Wales, be required in their several counties at the 
 Assizes and Sessions, to be next held for each 
 county, within this Realm, and the Dominion of 
 Wales, in open Court, in their several charges to 
 be delivered to the Grand Juries, at the said Assizes, 
 openly to declare and publish that the said Lords 
 and Commons have upon mature deliberation 
 resolved upon the question, ' That the said Com- 
 m.issions are against Law, and against the Liberty 
 and the Property of the subject.' 
 
THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 183 
 
 " And all those that are authors in putting the 
 same in execution shall be esteemed Disturbers 
 of the Peace of the Kingdom, and Betrayers of the 
 Liberty of the subject. 
 
 "Ordered to be printed, 
 
 " John Brown, 
 
 " Cer Pari." 
 
 THE KING AT LEICESTER. 
 
 In the light of Parliamentary procedure, it 
 became apparent to Henry Hastings that im- 
 mediate steps of an imperative character must be 
 taken to establish the Royal supremacy in 
 Leicestershire. The Assizes were about to be 
 held, over which a Judge named Reeves had been 
 appointed to preside. Clarendon describes him as 
 a man of good reputation for learning and in- 
 tegrity, and who in good times would have been 
 a good judge. The occasion appeared to be 
 auspicious, and Hastings appealed to the King to 
 visit the town. His Majesty reached Leicester 
 from Beverley on July 22nd, accompanied by 
 Prince Charles and Prince Rupert. The burgesses 
 received him with great expressions of duty and 
 loyalty, by the appearance of the train bands, and 
 the full acclamations of the people ; the Mayor and 
 Corporation awaited him at Frog Island, and con- 
 ducted him to Lord's Place, where the Earl and 
 Henry Hastings entertained him. 
 
 But he had not hurried to Leicester to attract 
 empty homage. In his forlorn heart he yearned 
 for hearty service, and to the Old Guildhall he made 
 his way, where Reeves sat, clad in his judicial 
 robes, with the recent Parliamentary order before 
 him. Surely no English Judge ever contem- 
 
184 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 plated a more distasteful task, viz., to disobey tlie 
 King's commands in the King's name. Seated by 
 bis side, bis Majesty watcbed tbe transaction of 
 County business, and tbe object for wbicb be visited 
 Leicester was achieved, by tbe appointment to tbe 
 Higb Sheriffalty of his leal friend Henry Hastings. 
 This appointment settled, he appealed to the county 
 people for support. Before E-oundheads and 
 Royalists his Majesty unbent to be a suppliant, 
 and the incident left a painful memory in his mind, 
 for majesty pleaded in vain. Everywhere lip 
 loyalty environed him. Stamford and his chief 
 adherents had fled in haste to Northampton at his 
 approach, but had left a legacy of annoyance be- 
 hind in the shape of a guard of Roundhead soldiers 
 to protect the remainder of the magazine. The 
 King had come to Leicester unaccompanied by an 
 armed following. He therefore requested the 
 Judge to remove the Roundheads, but Reeves had 
 no force at his disposal. Accordingly some country 
 gentlemen, who had not yet declared for either 
 King or Parliament, visited the magazine, and 
 prevailed upon the obnoxious guard to quit the 
 town, under promise of safe passage. 
 
 On Sunday the King attended St. Martin's 
 Church. Great preparations had been made to 
 celebrate the event. The good Countess of Devon- 
 shire had placed a throne in the chancel, and caused 
 the building to be decorated with greenery. The 
 parish authorities had provided flowers and herbs. 
 The Mayor and Corporation attended at Lord's 
 Place in their robes to conduct his Majesty to 
 church. Every expression of deference attended 
 on his pleasure, but the lonely King realised that 
 
THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 185 
 
 his good subjects of Leicester had only Dead Sea 
 apples to lay upon their banquet table. 
 
 When the Mayor and Councillors arrived at 
 Lord's Place on the following day, they were in- 
 formed that the King had departed from Leicester. 
 
 During the Royal visit Henry Hastings found 
 opportunity to discuss county affairs with Rupert, 
 especially the all-important question of the 
 magazine at Bradgate. As a result of their con- 
 sultation the two cavaliers parted with a mutual 
 understanding. Parliament had fixed August 
 30th as the day on which Hastings must appear 
 before its Bar to answer his impeachment. 
 
 A RAID ON BRADGATE. 
 
 The two cavaliers decided to give Parliament an 
 answer of a different quality. On that day Rupert 
 rode through the great gates of Bradgate Park, 
 at the head of a well-equipped force of 600 troopers, 
 with Hastings at his side. Over the green turf of 
 the park they galloped with jingling spurs and 
 shouts of triumph. They were the advance guard 
 of the Royal army. Salisbury and the servants 
 peered through the hall windows and saw a sight 
 that made their hearts quail with fear. The Earl 
 and his colleagues were away at Copt Oak. The 
 equanimity of the domestic chaplain deserted him, 
 and he fled for his life, with the fleet feet of fear, 
 leaving his flock to the ravening fangs of wolves, 
 and his gown and bands to be carried by irreverent 
 hands as a trophy to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The 
 musketeers dispersed, and the boisterous cavaliers 
 battered open the oaken doors, and poured into 
 the mansion in search of arms and ammunition. 
 The household became panic-stricken. All who 
 were able followed the prudent example of the 
 
186 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 chaplain. It is recorded that the cavaliers rushed 
 through the mansion threatening and cursing, 
 crying, " where are the brats ? we will kill them." 
 But the cavalier force consisted mainly of gentle- 
 men, led by a Royal Prince of generous instincts, 
 who had not yet grown accustomed to the brutality 
 that was in later times to characterise the opera- 
 tions of the coming war; and no blood was shed. 
 Only the magazine was wanted ; it had been 
 Hastings' fixed resolve for three months to recover 
 it, and he had succeeded. The accomplishment of 
 his purpose was his triumphant answer to Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
A FIGHT FOE LICHFIELD. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A.D. 1642-1643. 
 
 ATTACK ON THE CASTLE. 
 
 THE year 1643 opened with gloomy prospects 
 for Henry Hastings. A letter from him on 
 January ITtli (old date) to Prince Enpert describes 
 his difficult position — 
 
 " May it please your Eoyal Highness, 
 " To give me leave to trouble you with the 
 relation of things here. The Lord Grey hath been 
 this week at Leicester with 400 horse or there- 
 about, and the forces belonging to Derby are about 
 1,200 (that is a town of no considerable strength and 
 full of wealth). All their forces are now joined 
 together in a body within three miles of Ashby-de- 
 la-Zouch, where I am now, and will this day fall 
 upon me. God willing, I will do my utmost endea- 
 vour to keep this place, in hopes of your Highness' 
 gracious favour to relieve me, and I shall have 500 
 horse and foot to join with such forces as your 
 Highness shall please to send me. 
 
 Your Highness' most humble servant, 
 
 Henry Hastings. 
 
188 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 The raid on Bradgate had roused in the Stam- 
 fords a thirst for revenge. As Hastings predicted, 
 Lord Grey delivered his attack with a force better 
 armed and disciplined than the garrison, drove in 
 the ontposts, and forced the whole garrison into the 
 Keep ; but a rumour of Rupert's approach caused 
 him to retire in haste to Collorton. Meanwhile, 
 until the siege, Hastings established at his father's 
 castle, harried the district to the walls of Leicester, 
 and disputed with the Stamfords. 
 
 SIR JOHN GELL. 
 
 The close of 1642 had established a formidable 
 Parliamentary confederation in the associated 
 counties of Leicester, Derby, Stafford, Northamp- 
 ton, and Warwick, under the supreme command of 
 Lord Brooke, of Warwick Castle. Under him Lord 
 Grey commanded in Leicestershire, and Sir John 
 Gell in Derbyshire. Gell acquired an absolute con- 
 trol over the town of Derby. After earning an 
 invidious reputation as a King's agent in levying 
 ship money, he had adopted the Parliamentary 
 cause. "No one," writes Mrs. Hutchinson in her 
 " Memoirs," '^ not even himself, knew for what 
 reason he chose that side, for he had not understand- 
 ing enough to judge the equity of the cause, nor 
 piety, nor holiness, being a foul adulterer ; but he 
 was a stout fighting man, although the most licen- 
 tious and ungovernable soldier of the Parliament. 
 Amongst the county gentry of Staffordshire a pro- 
 nounced Royalist sentiment prevailed, and the 
 King's garrisons held Dudley, Tutbury, and Staf- 
 ford Castles. But the loyal gentry of Lichfield, led 
 
A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 189 
 
 by Sir Eicliarcl Dyott, attracted tlie resentment of 
 the Association leaders, by hoisting the King's 
 colours upon the spire of tlieir glorious Catbedral, 
 and fortifying the Close. 
 
 THE CLOSE. 
 
 Leland thus described tlie Close : — The whole 
 Close was newly dyked by Bishop Laiigdon, who 
 made a gate at the west part, a lesser at the south- 
 east, and the Bishop's Palace at the east end. The 
 glory of the Cathedral Church is the work at the 
 west end, costly and fair. There be three stone 
 pyramids, two at the west end, and one in the 
 middle. The prebendaries' houses in the Close 
 builded by divers men be very fair. The Cathedral 
 being situated on an eminence was at an early 
 period used as a fortress, and enclosed about with a 
 wall, and a good deep dry trench on all sides except 
 towards the city, where it was defended by a great 
 marsh or pool." 
 
 But the zealous gentry of Lichfield speedily 
 realised their premature indiscretion. The town 
 contained a strong Parliamentary party, who com- 
 municated at once with Lord Brook, imploring him 
 to march to their assistance. At this juncture the 
 arrival of the Earl of Chesterfield with a reinforce- 
 ment of fifty-six men, temporarily inspirited the 
 garrison. The Earl assumed the command, but 
 physical incapacity disqualified him for active 
 leadership. He had passed middle age ; his early 
 life had been spent in dissipation; and he was a 
 martyr to gout. Meanwhile the reports reached 
 Lichfield of formidable preparations in progress at 
 Warwick Castle. No time was to be lost ; no friend 
 but Hastings was near ; and the distressed Royalists 
 appealed to him. 
 
190 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 The difficulty of Hastings' own position at Ashby- 
 de-la-Zoucli demanded serious consideration. 
 Since the raid on Bradgate he had put forth stupen- 
 dous exertions. He had fortified and provisioned 
 the Castle ; he had taken part in the opening cam- 
 paign of the war, fighting stoutly at Edge Hill, and 
 conducting his Blue Coats safely back to Ashby-de- 
 la-Zouch after the battle ; and he had survived a 
 determined attack of Lord Grey's forces, but an 
 incident of personal discomfort had tended to 
 depress his spirits. In one of the numerous skir- 
 mishes of the campaign he had lost an eye. Yet 
 in his capacity of Colonel-General of the Midlands 
 he determined to assist the Lichfield Royalists. 
 
 TAMWORTH CASTLE. 
 
 In the projected expedition it was necessary that 
 Tamworth Castle should be taken into account. 
 Perched upon the summit of the mighty rock, with 
 a sufficient fighting force it might have blocked the 
 route to Lichfield. But by means of spies, 
 Hastings ascertained that the numerical strength 
 of its garrison barely sufficed for defensive pur- 
 poses; and that on account of its isolation from 
 either roundhead base of operations, no interference 
 need be feared. Accordingly, leaving Ben Scuda- 
 more responsible for the safety of Ashby Castle, 
 Hastings hastened to Lichfield with a reinforce- 
 ment of 150 men. He found the Close in confusion. 
 Chesterfield was confined to his chamber; the 
 officers had no consecutive plan of defence; Sir 
 Richard Dyott's house had been converted into a 
 hospital for the wounded from Edge Hill; while 
 the sacred enclosure at the west front of the 
 Cathedral had been filled with baggage waggons 
 and tethered horses and cattle. Assuming imme- 
 
A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 191 
 
 diate command as Chesterfield's deputy, Hastings 
 restored order, and stationed tlie fighting men in 
 defensive positions. He had time for little more, 
 for news arrived that Lord Brook had started from 
 Warwick Castle. 
 
 At a Council of War in Chesterfield's sick 
 chamber, it was deemed advisable that Hastings 
 and his following sliould remain o^itside the Close 
 during the approaching siege, botit to economise 
 the food supply and to raise a relief force. Rushall 
 Hall, a mansion some miles distant, had already 
 been fortified, under the direction of Colonel Lane 
 There Hastings decided to establish himself, and to 
 immediately open negotiations with Lord North- 
 ampton. 
 
 MY LORD BEOOK. 
 
 On the 1st March the rebel army reached Lich- 
 field. Lord Brook drew up his men near the town, 
 and addressed to them a religious exhortation, 
 declaring that he had come to Lichfield to destroy 
 the beautiful Cathedral, and leave not one stone 
 upon another. One of the striking figures of the 
 stern age in which he lived, Eobert Lord Brook was 
 esteemed a man of great account amongst the Par- 
 liamentarians, because of his high birth and great 
 integrity. He wore a plush cassock, with plate 
 armour, and a plumed helmet of steel, which had 
 five bars of gilt steel in front, and a chaplet of 
 laurel. Having concluded his address, he raised 
 his hands, and prayed devoutly for a blessing upon 
 his intended work ; withal earnestly desiring that 
 God would, by some special token manifest upon 
 them his approbation of that their design, then the 
 whole army raised their favourite Psalm : — 
 
192 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE, 
 
 Lift up your voice ye saints, and sing 
 
 The praises of your Lord ; 
 And in your hand unsheathed bring 
 
 The sharp two edged sword. 
 To smite the Heathen, and correct 
 
 The people with your hands, 
 To bind their stately Kings in chains, 
 
 Their lords in iron bands. 
 To execute on them the doom 
 
 That written was before : 
 This honour all the saints shall have ; 
 
 Praise ye the Lord therefore. 
 
 With the sentiments of the ancient bard so 
 opposed to our modern conception of God's gracious 
 purpose in their minds, the Eoundheads rushed 
 furiously to the town gate, and beat it down. They 
 would have stormed Lichfield, but the garrison had 
 discreetly withdrawn to the Close. 
 
 A long pool separated the town from the Close, 
 crossed by two causeways, which were commanded 
 by the batteries of the fortress. The attack com- 
 menced at daybreak on the 2nd March, by a heavy 
 Roundhead bombardment, under Lord Brook's eye, 
 his Lordship " standing in a window of a little 
 house near thereunto to direct the gunners in their 
 purposed battery; but it so happened that, there 
 being two persons placed in the battlement of the 
 chiefest steeple to make shot with their long 
 fowling pieces at the cannoniers, upon a sudden 
 accident which caused the soldiers to give a sudden 
 shout, this Lord coming to the door, was suddenly 
 shot into one of his eyes." Many devout Royalists 
 noted that this sad event occurred on St. Chad's day, 
 and gravely asserted that the General had received 
 his Sign, by the hand of Dumb Dyott, a Divine 
 instrument. 
 
A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 193 
 
 The death of Lord Brook caused a temporary 
 cessation of hostilities. The Roundheads imme- 
 diately despatched an urgent invitation to Sir John 
 Gell, then at Derby, to hasten to Lichfield, with 
 artillery from Coventry. On his arrival he assumed 
 the command, retaining it until the end of the siege 
 by the tacit consent of Peto, whom Parliament 
 appointed as Lord Brook's successor. Without 
 delay he ordered his engineers to fix a battery to 
 play upon the north gate, at the same time massing 
 a contingent near the guns. He intended that 
 arrangement as a feint to draw the besieged from 
 the real point of attack, which was to be the west 
 gate. The garrison had arranged a sortie, during 
 which Hastings was to attack the besiegers in the 
 flank. By a pre-arrangement with him he was to 
 wait with his horsemen between Pushall and Lich- 
 field for the hoisting of a red flag on the Cathedral 
 tower. At daybreak the defenders noticed a massing 
 
 SIR John's artifice. 
 
 of troops upon the causeway, which they at once 
 prepared to assail with their guns. But they had 
 mistaken their man, for as the morning brightened 
 they discovered that Gell had collected the wives, 
 daughters, and servants of known Royalist residents 
 of the to^vn, and forced them upon the causeway in 
 the van of his troops. The sight appalled the 
 defenders, who groaned as they watched the 
 advancing mass of terrified women and grim saints. 
 Having crossed the causeway, the assailants found 
 access to the gate barred by a massive portcullis. 
 Nothing daunted, they drew a bridge of planks 
 over the moat, and attempted to cross with quanti- 
 ties of pitch, rosin, tar, and torches, intent on 
 burning the gate. But the bridge was narrow, and 
 14 
 
194 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 no sooner had it become crowded than the Eoyalist 
 marksmen raked it with shot, while stones rained 
 down from the bastions. Some of the assailants 
 fell into the moat, others dropped wounded upon 
 the plank bridge, the remainder endeavoured to 
 regain the causeway. But it was already crowded 
 with Gell's victims, who blocked retreat on the one 
 hand, and re-enforcement on the other. At that 
 moment the portcullis fell, and a picked body of 
 defenders rushed from the fortress. Many of the 
 E-oundheads threw down their arms. The main 
 body, however, gained the Barbican Street, where, 
 on noticing their superior numbers, they rallied. 
 When the sortie commenced, the red flag should 
 
 A BELATED SIGNAL. 
 
 have been hoisted upon Tantany spire, but by a 
 misadventure this was delayed, and when Hastings 
 received his signal, the fugitives had rallied in 
 Barbican Street, and the noise of his galloping 
 steeds gave them warning. " On the N.W. and 
 S.W. some of his horse entered the town, which 
 gave the holy brotherhood a strong alarm, with 
 some pickering, insomuch, that if the Colonel had 
 kept his ground two or three hours longer; or 
 advanced something nearer to the city ; or his body 
 there stood, the besiegers had drawn off, for they 
 were very much affrighted at his coming, and all 
 their cry was " Blind Hastings is coming " ; but 
 he drew off suddenly to Eushall, he being always 
 careful which way he marched and what he did. 
 
 DESOLATE LICHFIELD. 
 
 At the close of that day of desolation, when the 
 sun had set, and the sombre darkness overmantled 
 the city, a torchlight procession of Roundhead 
 
A FIGHT FOR LICHFIFLD. 195 
 
 soldiers passed out of Lichfield, on its way to 
 Warwick Castle, with, the corpse of the dead leader. 
 Before daybreak the arrival of additional 
 artillery enabled Gell to resume the bombardment. 
 Contemporary accounts describe one particular 
 mortar " as a terrifying gun that shot grenadoes a 
 greater distance than the others." It enabled the 
 gunners to drop shells into the open part of the 
 Close. For hours the murderous hail dropped 
 death. The women and children sought shelter in 
 the cellars, and the fighting men dropped at their 
 posts. The residences of the clergy were scarred, 
 and pierced by cannon balls. But amid the 
 wreckage the minster staff flitted from station to 
 station, tending the wounded. Throughout the day 
 at the stated hours, they conducted Divine worship 
 in the Cathedral. In the afternoon, just at the con- 
 clusion of service, a terrible crash brought the resi- 
 dents from their cellars, and caused the soldiers to 
 pause in their deadly tasks. The great spire had 
 collapsed, and its debris had fallen on the choir, 
 crushing the roof. To the stricken residents it 
 seemed that the day of doom had come. Lord 
 Chesterfield summoned a Council of war in the 
 night, at which merciful considerations prevailed, 
 
 HUMANE PETO. 
 
 for at day dawn a flag of truce was sent out. If 
 Peto had allowed Grell a free hand with the fighting, 
 his milder temper now interposed to arrange the 
 terms of capitulation. The fall of Lichfield cannot 
 be said to have discouraged the Cavaliers, seeing 
 they had from the first realised its inevitability. 
 
 HASTINGS AND NORTHAMPTON. 
 
 Hastings at once addressed himself to the task of 
 its recovery, but for that purpose a large reinforce- 
 
196 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 ment was necessary. He was aware of tlie hopeless* 
 ness of an appeal to Rupert, whose duties as Presi- 
 dent of Wales absorbed his whole energy; while 
 the Earl of Newcastle declined to move south of 
 Yorkshire. He therefore re-opened communica- 
 tions with the Earl of Northampton, the lordly 
 owner of Compton Wynj^ates, who had enlisted and 
 equipped a force of 1,000 horse and dragoons at his 
 own expense, and had established himself at Ban- 
 bury. The following letter explains the success of 
 Hastings' forceful appeal : — 
 
 "My Most Honourable Lord the Earl of 
 
 Northampton, — 
 
 " I am extremely joyed to hear you are at 
 Henley- in-Arden with your forces, and beseech you 
 to advance to TamAvorth, which will be the greatest 
 service ever done the King ; for with God's blessing 
 we shall beat them out of Lichfield, or suddenly 
 starve them all, being there is no relief can com^ to 
 them, nor have they any provision for a day, nor 
 horse to fetch any, I having so much the greater 
 number. Their strength consists of several garri- 
 sons, what are now very weak. I have a certainty 
 of their number, by the confession of divera 
 prisoners, and confirmed by several intercepted 
 letters. Their number is as follows : Six small 
 troops of horse and dragoons, 300 foot that came 
 with the Lord Brook, 400 with Gell, and some 300 
 Morelanders, but part of them armed and no 
 fighters. I, God willing, will attend your Lord- 
 ship with 16 troops of horse and dragoons, and can, 
 upon a night's warning, call in 1,000 in Stafford- 
 shire, half of them armed, so that with your Lord- 
 ship's forces and mine we shall make a good body 
 of an army, and I have cannon carriages, six pound 
 
A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 197 
 
 bullets, and store of small pieces ; and within six 
 days can have culvering and demi-ciilvering. My 
 Lord, you know it hath ever been my expression 
 and design to wait upon you in any action I shall 
 do in this, to the uttermost of your command. God 
 hath given this fair opportunity to your Lordship 
 to make you the most glorious and happy servant 
 to his Majesty. The enemy we are to encounter 
 are full of distractions with the loss of their Lord 
 General, and under several commands, the soldiers 
 raw and inexperienced, but rich with plundered 
 goods. My Lord, I doubt not, with God's assist- 
 ance, of a most happy success, and that you will 
 return laden with honour and riches, and take all 
 this side of Warwickshire on your return who have 
 been great rebels to the King, and are full of 
 wealth, which will be the reward of you and your 
 soldiers' pains ; your Lordship may survey your 
 forces to take many arms and horses. Indeed, my 
 Lord, your presence will be of infinite advantage, 
 and without it this country is in danger to be lost, 
 and the rebels grow to a great body that now are not 
 considerable ; therefore, let nothing divert you 
 from this good and great work. As soon as I know 
 your Lordship's resolution, God willing, I will 
 suddenly wait upon you, and doubt not better to 
 satisfy you, than I can by letter. But I beseech 
 you, believe this, were not the design grounded upon 
 much reason, and great probability of happy 
 success, I should not thus earnestly press your 
 Lordship, that am to yourself, my Lord Compton, 
 and your gallant family. 
 " Your most faithful and affectionate servant, 
 
 " Henry Hastings." 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Wednesday, 7 o'clock. 
 
198 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 This letter determined Lord Northainptou to 
 march to Hastings' assistance; while a second 
 letter, written a week later (and of melancholy 
 interest, because it was found upon the dead noble- 
 man's person, when the rebels rifled his corpse on 
 the battlefield of Hopton Heath) shows how busily 
 Hastings prepared to co-operate with him. The 
 information it contains also, of whole troops 
 deserting the Greys to serve under him, supplies 
 an involuntary testimony of his personal popu- 
 larity. 
 
 DESERTIONS FROM GREY. 
 
 " May it please your lordship, — 
 
 " I have received your latter dated at two of 
 the clock this morning, and accordingly shall 
 follow your directions, and lodge my troopers both 
 nearer you and Tam worth. I have just now 
 despatched a gentleman of my Lord Chaworth to 
 Newark for six troops of horse, and 100 muskets of 
 which I shall have answer to-morrow morning. 
 Here is with me the Sheriff of Eutlandshire and 
 one of the Commissioners of Lincolnshire, who I 
 shall stay, till I have an answer from Newark. 
 There came to me last night five troops, under the 
 command of Lord Grey. I have expected them a 
 fortnight, and look for more to come. The intelli- 
 gence they give me agrees with others in this, that 
 their six troops of horse and dragoons were not 
 above 240. And there was expected to them from 
 Nottingham two troops more, which are all to go to 
 Lichfield on a design of this place. 
 
 " They are now at Burton, and by this day's 
 moving I shall discover their intention, having 
 sent out a party of fifty horse to Lichfield Heath, 
 and some spies into both towns. The Lord Grey 
 
A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 199 
 
 went yesterday to Northampton with forty horse, 
 and left Lichfield with but 200 foot. I am cer- 
 tainly assured that there is not 400 foot m Lich- 
 field, nor 150 horse, Uit from thence I shall know 
 more to-morrow morning, and shall send to you 
 from time to time what I hear. 
 
 " Your humble servant, 
 
 "Henry Hastings." 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 
 
 Wednesday, 15th, ten o'clock. 
 Northampton advanced northward until he 
 reached the vicinity of Lichfield, where Hastings 
 ioinedhim, as arranged. The combined forces 
 then attacked the City of Lichfield with such 
 determination that they captured about 100 ot the 
 enemy's horse, and drove the Roundheads into the 
 Close. Leaving a strong garrison there Sir John 
 Gell retired to join Sir William Brueton, who had 
 arrived in Staffordshire from Cheshire; while 
 Northampton and Hastings withdrew to Stafford. 
 
 HOPTON HEATH. 
 
 The combined Roundhead army numbered 3,000 
 horse and foot, together with a park of artillery. 
 The associated leaders resolved to advance towards 
 Stafford, in the expectation that Northampton 
 and Hastings would quit the town to otter 
 battle. The two cavaliers appear to have been 
 ignorant of Brueton's presence, and to have 
 supposed that they had merely to contend with 
 Gell's force. In that case, the numbers ot 
 the belligerents would have been about equal, 
 for Hastings had miscalculated his re-enforce- 
 ments, and the Royalist army in consequence 
 barely numbered 1,500. On Sunday after- 
 noon, March 19th, 1643, the cavaliers marched out 
 
200 KOMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 of Stafford, to the Heath, two miles distant, where 
 they found their enemy drawn up in battle array. 
 The battlefield was so circumscribed that a musket 
 shot would carry from one fence to another. The 
 battle consisted of two cavalry charges, in the first 
 of which the Eoyalists, by their personal braveiy 
 and superior horsemanship, swept the enemy 
 before them. Fortunately for the victors, the 
 limited area of the Heath prevented distant pur- 
 suit. In the second charge the Roundhead horse 
 were flanked by their foot, who poured a protective 
 fusilade upon the advancing foe. But on came the 
 cavaliers, shouting their war cry, and spurring 
 their steeds. Their swords and helmets glittered 
 in the setting sun, as impetuous and unconquer- 
 able they charged. The Eoundheads turned and 
 fled, trampling down their foot. At this juncture 
 the Earl's horse dropped under him, leaving him 
 behind his own troops and amid the hostile foot. 
 
 DEATH OF NORTHAMPTON. 
 
 He had often declared by the bivouac fire, and on 
 the march, that if he outlived these wars he was 
 certain never to have so noble a death. And now, 
 encompassed by foes, he met Death like a soldier. 
 Freeing himself from his dead horse, he sprang to 
 his feet and fought for his life, one man against a 
 crowd, slaying the Roundhead Colonel. A soldier 
 struck off his headpiece with his musket, after 
 which the rebels say they offered him quarter, 
 which he refused to take, declaring that " he 
 scorned to take quarter from such base rogues and 
 rebels as they were." A soldier slipped behind 
 him and struck him on the hinder part of his head 
 with his halbert, and another inflicted a deep 
 wound in his face. 
 
A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 201 
 
 Meanwhile the sun had set. In the darkness the 
 Cavaliers, fearing pit holes, abandoned the attack ; 
 and the Roundhead foot retreated carrying with 
 them the stark corpse of the dead Earl. Next 
 day they refused to surrender it, or allow it to be 
 embalmed, except their cannon were returned to 
 them. 
 
 THE KIJNG's disappointment. 
 
 The failure of the victory of Hopton Heath to 
 relieve Lichfield not only caused Hastings annoy- 
 ance, but it alarmed the King, who regarded the 
 Close as the first of three fortified positions neces- 
 sary for the maintenance of a clear passage for the 
 Queen from York to Oxford, the other two being 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Newark. The Queen had 
 brought stores from Holland, purchased with the 
 proceeds of the Crown jewels ; the army at Oxford 
 needed supplies, therefore the way must be cleared 
 for her Majesty and her convoy. The despatch of 
 a strong expedition, under Rupert, to Newark, to 
 fetch the Queen had been already decided upon. 
 The King now hurried its departure. Circum- 
 stances favoured the expedition. Gell was cursing 
 at Lichfield, Stamford was preparing for his 
 Cornish campaign, and Lord Grrey was guarding 
 the paternal estate at Stamford. At the end of 
 March Rupert set out from Oxford, with a force of 
 1,200 dragoons and 600 foot. The dragoons rode 
 in the front, carrying on their horses Irish female 
 camp followers. The foot were mostly barefooted 
 and half clothed, and armed with pikes, halberts, 
 hedgebills, Welsh hooks, pole axes, pitchforks, 
 chopping knives, and scythes. The expeditionary 
 force passed without delay through Stratford-on- 
 Avon, Henley-in-Arden, to Birmingham. 
 
202 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 From Good Friday to Easter Monday, the 
 citizens lived under the strain of intense suspense. 
 Crowds gathered in the Bull Ring before the doors 
 of St. Martin's Church, calling loudly for advice 
 from Mr. Roberts, the minister, their political and 
 spiritual leader. For many months he had 
 thundered declamations against the ungodly 
 Cavaliers. In tones of unaccustomed moderation 
 he addressed them from the Churchyard pulpit: — 
 
 PRUDENT ADVICE. 
 
 " Brethren in the Lord," he said, " consider well 
 what ye do ; shall ye meet the servants of the Evil 
 One, or shall ye leave them for a time to run their 
 course. What is the power that Prince Rupert, 
 that prince of robbers, brings against the people of 
 the Lord ? It is full 1,200 men. Shall ye then, 
 your small band of scarce six score musketeers, 
 hope to make defence ? They have their cannon, 
 ye have none. No walls compass the town round 
 about, ye have no defence against the powers of 
 Darkness that prevail. What then say ye ? Shall 
 ye shed your blood for the Lord's sake, or shall ye 
 rather, abiding the time of the Most High, march 
 away with all your arms, even to the hazard of the 
 spoiling of your goods? I would that ye left all 
 in the service of the Lord. I would that ye looked 
 to what is rational and safe." 
 
 Consistent with the advice he had given his 
 flock, the minister retired from Birmingham until 
 Rupert's departure, but his flock declined to follow 
 so prudent an example, declaring they would not 
 desert the Lord's cause. Hundreds hurried to the 
 entrance of the town, men, women, and even chil- 
 dren, resolved to spend that Easter Sabbath in 
 erecting barricades. Trunks of trees, stones. 
 
A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 203 
 
 planks, waggons, barrels, were built into a huge 
 wall across the deep hollow way between Camp 
 Hill and Derritend. Behind the barricade 100 
 musketeers took up a position, supported by a troop 
 of horse. 
 
 THE ROBBER PRINCE. 
 
 Noon had scarcely passed when shouts from the 
 sentinels on the hill tops announced Rupert's 
 approach. Climbing to the top of the barricade, 
 the citizens recognised the Robber Prince, clad in 
 scarlet coat, and blue velvet breeches, his boyish 
 face set in the background of a broad-brimmed 
 felt hat, adorned with ostrich feathers. A rich 
 lace collar overspread his shoulders, and golden 
 spurs glittered on the heels of his tall riding boots. 
 The ride from Henley over the Common, and down 
 the hill from Shirley, had exhilarated his spirits. 
 Nothing on the journey had occurred to ruffle him, 
 and he anticipated no resistance on the part of the 
 townspeople. Accordingly he instructed his 
 trumpet to advance to the barricade and promise 
 the citizens forgiveness for their past rudeness to 
 the King, and safety from molestation during his 
 residence in the town, on condition that they pro- 
 vided him with provender and food. But the 
 citizens fired upon his messenger. The choleric 
 Prince immediately commanded his gunners to 
 unlimber their drakes and sackers and bombard the 
 barricade, after which he twice endeavoured to 
 carry the defences, and twice his soldiers recoiled. 
 The Birmingham men unfurled the Banner of 
 Parliament, and mocked their assailants as they 
 fired upon them, calling them " devilish cavaliers," 
 and cursed dogs. Assaults upon the barricade 
 were a mere waste of life, but scanning the fighting 
 
204 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 ground tlie Prince conceived another plan, and 
 ordered his troopers to leap the hedges that parted 
 the meadows from the town. The order had scarce 
 left his lips when his horsemen were over the 
 hedges attacking the defenders upon the town side 
 of the barricade, crying in vindictive exultation, 
 "Where is your God, Lord Brooke, now?" "See 
 you rebels, how God now fights against you." At 
 their head Lord Denbigh charged, singing Cavalier 
 songs. They rode down women and children alike, 
 tarrying not for plunder, but galloping through 
 the streets, and firing through windows and doors. 
 The old ostler at the Swan hurried to thci gate, and 
 received a bullet in his chest; worthy Doctor 
 Tillam was shot upon his own door step ; while 
 cries were raised for Mr. Roberts. On the Lich- 
 field Road Captain Greaves awaited their approach, 
 and delivered a well-timed charge that threw them 
 into momentarj^ confusion. Cavaliers and Round- 
 heads became mixed ; a Puritan pole axe fatally 
 wounded Lord Denbigh; Lord Digby and Sir 
 William Ayres were wounded, and dismounted; 
 and a Cavalier bullet struck Captain Greaves in 
 the face, but after the onset Greaves galloped back 
 to Lichfield, leaving the Cavaliers masters of the 
 town. 
 
 The Prince had already established his head- 
 quarters at the Ship Inn, where he instituted a 
 " Liberty Exchange," receiving various sums from 
 2d. to £1 and upwards, as ransom money. He 
 mulcted Thomas Peake, a miser, of £1,500, and 
 altogether collected about £4,000 in cash, besides 
 large quantities of boots, stockings, clothings, arms 
 and ammunition ; and burned Mr. Porter's foundry 
 that had supplied pikes and swords to the Parlia- 
 mentary army. 
 
A FIGHT FOK LICHFIELD. 205 
 
 Amid the smoke of bixrning liouses and the 
 muttered execrations of tke citizens the Cavalier 
 marched towards Stafford -^^e- Hastings joine^ 
 them, not to accompany them to Lichfield, but to 
 receive the Prince's commands. . ^ , , • 
 
 Eupert manifested no disposition to ^^f er-esti- 
 mate the difficulties in the way of a successful siege. 
 Mter Hopton Heath the P-l-^^-^'^^-^^^^Close' 
 siderably strengthened the g/"-^^°\f ,,^? Slest 
 placing it under the command of one of their ablest 
 Serl Colonel Russell, an officer who enjoyed a 
 certain reputation as a stern disciplmaTian, a 
 resourceful commander, and a faithful partisan, of 
 absoWe rectitude. By means of spies Hastings 
 had ascertained that every possible endeavour had 
 been made to render the fortress impregnable. 
 
 Before setting out from Oxford Rupert decided 
 that the place lould only be captured by a mine 
 and an asLnlt at the breach, and communicated his 
 opinion to Hastings by letter. He had no sappers ; 
 
 HASTINGS COLLIERS. 
 
 his effective arm was cavalry; -^ his Jnf^ry 
 consisted of undrilled recruits. Hi» letter tnere 
 
 The following letter explains how successfully he 
 
 completed liis task : — 
 
 " Mav it t)lease yovir Highness, — 
 
 " Upon mv coming hither, having information 
 from some I employed into the Close yesterday. 
 I w"oteTor some luch miners from Norton or Can- 
 noZor thereabout., as your Hig^iness -uW have 
 who are as skilful as any, and fifty m number. 
 
206 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 conceive them sufficient, but if you please I will 
 send for 100 more to-morrow night; they are 
 within seven miles of Lichfield, and shall be within 
 a mile of the town by ten o'clock this morning, at 
 which hour I will attend your Highness, with 
 quarters made, whither shall be brought provisions 
 of all sorts, or anything else you will command. 
 
 " Your Highness' faithful servant, 
 
 "Henry Hastings." 
 
 Tamworth, seven o'clock Saturday morning. 
 
 On April 8th, the watchmen of the Close observed 
 Rupert's approach, upon which orders were issued 
 for the evacuation of the City, which the Prince at 
 once occupied. By the 10th he completed the 
 investment of the Close. Ten days after his 
 arrival he had drained the moat, besides construct- 
 ing two bridges across the dry bed. A letter of one 
 of the besieged supplies an interesting account of 
 
 A roundhead's letter. 
 
 his procedure : — " All the news I can write is how 
 bravely our men behaved at Lichfield in the Close 
 against Rupert. He hath fought against it ever 
 since the 10th, and can do no good. He lay shoot- 
 ing against it five days and could not make a 
 breach, whereupon he caused the colliers to come in 
 with their pickaxes to undermine it. So he sent 
 for all the ladders within eighteen miles, intending 
 to scale. But in the scaling our men killed eight 
 of his men, and took one, which they hanged three 
 yards from the wall like a sign, and bid Rupert 
 shoot him down. Then Rupert swore : ' Damn 
 him, he would not give one man quarter.' But 
 next day he sent a trumpeter to the Close, to know 
 if they would yield on quarter. Then our men did 
 
A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 207 
 
 ring tlie bells in defiance. Since I writ this letter, 
 I hear that Rupert is slain, but I do not know the 
 certainty of it." 
 
 THE BREACH. 
 
 Unfortunately for the garrison, the rumour of 
 E/Upert's death proved unfounded. The obstinacy 
 of the defence indeed urged him to increased 
 activity. Under his direction the rock and water 
 were eventually overcome, and five bags of powder 
 deposited in the mine. But Russell had likewise 
 excavated a mine, and when the explosion occurred 
 the opposing combatants met in the breach. In 
 the dust and smoke, the Cavaliers encountered so 
 deadly a reception as to cause them to stagger. 
 Their leader, Colonel Usher, with some of their 
 superior officers, fell mortally wounded. Even 
 under Rupert's eye, they refused to cross the 
 barrier. The assault at the breach had failed. 
 
 Again Rupert's guns belched fire. For upwards 
 of an hour the battered town sustained their 
 murderous hail, until the limit of human endurance 
 had been reached, and amid the exultant cheers of 
 the assailants the white flag was hoisted on the 
 Cathedral tower. 
 
 A BRAVE MISSIONS'. 
 
 Rupert commissioned Hastings to enter the Close 
 for the purpose of negotiating the terms of capitu- 
 lation. In the darkness he passed through the 
 breach, striding over the battered wreckage, and 
 avoiding the falling stones. During the siege 
 operations his capture would have caused greater 
 satisfaction than that of any other Royalist leader. 
 It would have been triumphantly announced to 
 Parliament, whose pains and penalties he had 
 defied. 
 
208 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE, 
 
 Amid tlie flickering lights of LicKfield City 
 Rupert awaited his return, and waited in vain. He 
 chafed and swore, but Hastings lingered. At 
 length he commanded the gunners to resume the 
 bombardment, and amid their thunders, Hastings 
 arranged the terms of surrender. At break of day 
 he recrossed the breach, accompanied by hostages. 
 
 At Oxford afterwards the terms he granted to the 
 garrison were pronounced too lenient, but Hastings 
 had granted them, Rupert had confirmed them, and 
 accordingly the King allowed them. 
 
 SACRILEGE. 
 
 The Cavaliers found the Cathedral a scene of 
 indescribable desolation. The Roundheads had 
 destroyed the altar; defaced the statuary; and 
 rifled the tombs in search of plunder ; besides using 
 the great church as a place of amusement. It had 
 been their practice to dress a calf in cannonicals, 
 and mockingly baptise it at the font ; and to hunt 
 cats through the aisles for the enjoyment of the 
 echoes. 
 
 Rupert was not permitted to remain at Lichfield 
 or to continue his journey into Yorkshire. A 
 peremptory mandate from the King instructed him 
 to return to Oxford, leaving Colonel Bagot governor 
 of the Close, and Henry Hastings commander of all 
 forces in the neighbourhood. 
 
QUEEN AND CONVOY. 
 CHAPTER X. 
 febrijaiiy to july, 1643. 
 queen's landing. 
 
 THE Queen's return from Holland in Feb- 
 ruary infused into the Cavalier party a warm 
 glow of ardent loyalty to the Royal House, correct- 
 ing tlie laxity of interest that had crept into its 
 ranks, in consequence of the vacillating policy of 
 the King, and temporarily healing the dissensions 
 of rival commanders. It gave the forces of the 
 North and North Midlands a picturesque figure 
 head, and a name they were proud to adopt, as an 
 inspiring battle cry. It was Epic of the Civil War. 
 The prologue recalled the heroic sufferings of an 
 exiled Queen in foreign lands, scheming amid the 
 intrigues of the French Court, pleading with the 
 reluctant Prince of Orange, and negotiating with 
 the discourteous burghers of the Dutch cities, in 
 the interest of a beloved husband, from whose 
 affectionate companionship the stern progress of a 
 national rebellion had banished her, a Queen 
 pawning her pearls and rubies, her personal 
 treasures, and by hard struggling with adverse 
 fate, successfully raising two millions sterling, to 
 15 
 
210 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 purchase munitions of war for the defence of that 
 husband's crown. 
 
 Nay more a Queen against whose life and liberty 
 the Parliament of England had pronounced the 
 ban of impeachment. 
 
 The drama opened with startling vividness. 
 While the Parliamentary Navy scoured the 
 Northern Sea to obstruct her passage, like a Storm 
 Queen she crossed the ocean, escorted by a Dutch 
 naval squadron commanded by Yan Tromp, the 
 most celebrated Admiral of his time, and bringing 
 with her eleven transport ships laden with muni- 
 tions of war. Under the protection of Van 
 Tromp's guns she landed at Burlington, amid the 
 acclamation of a thousand Cavaliers assembled on 
 the beach to bid her welcome home. But never 
 English Queen before or after received so dismal a 
 greeting, for in the night, when she lay sleeping 
 m her bed, and the Dutch ships had withdrawn to 
 sea, Admiral Batten with his Parliamentary 
 squadron anchored in the bay, and ruthlessly 
 bombarded her lodging, driving her half clad, and 
 bare footed, into the neighbouring fields to seek a 
 shelter under a hedge bank, where the cannon balls 
 still ploughed the ground, bespattering her person 
 with mud. Yet several days later, looking through 
 a window in her lodging, she noticed a number of 
 her soldiers leading a culprit to the gallows, and 
 on inquiry ascertaining him to be one of Batten's 
 captains, the very man who had deliberately 
 pointed his guns at her window, she ordered his 
 release, a Queenly act that became her better than 
 her crown. Mere smiles or frowns upon the 
 changeful face of fortune are powerless to qualify 
 the gracious operations of a Royal spirit, too high 
 to be vindictive, and high enough to forgive. 
 
QUEEN AND CONVOY. 211 
 
 HER RECEPTION. 
 
 Batten's unmanly brutality served the Queen's 
 cause by awakening a commiserent loyalty in the 
 breasts of Yorkshire gentlemen unprecedented in 
 English history. They resented the action of 
 Parliament through its responsible officer, in sub- 
 jecting the highest lady of the realm to treatment 
 so cowardly, stoutly asserting that the habitual 
 deference accorded to her sex should have protected 
 her from an outrage so unpardonable ; while her 
 responsive and womanly clemency appealed to 
 their chivalrous impulses, moving them to 
 spontaneous vows of fidelity. 
 
 Animosities and feuds that had divided county 
 families for many years were allowed to lapse into 
 temporary forgetfulness in her presence. Even 
 persons who from conscientious motives dis- 
 approved of her design, softened at the thought of 
 the sufferings through which she had passed with 
 noble courage, and accounted themselves honoured 
 if any chance occasion permitted them the oppor- 
 tunity to render her any personal service. The 
 stoutest and manliest leaders of the Roundhead 
 party frankly admitted their condemnation of the 
 ruffianly affair at Burlington, as an offence against 
 womanhood. Sir Thomas Fairfax, the local leader 
 of the Parliamentary forces, and one of the small 
 band of prominent officers who emerged from the 
 mid scenes of the Civil War with clean hands, 
 ventured to offer her Majesty, in spite of 
 Parliamentary impeachment, the service of his 
 troops to conduct her safely to York; and had 
 she accepted so uncongenial an offer would un- 
 doubtedly have carried out his undertaking in the 
 spirit of an English gentleman. 
 
212 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 But the Queen needed no alien protection, for 
 hundreds of northern gentlemen gathered in the 
 park round Boynton Hall eager to enroll themselves 
 m her bodyguard, and when the Marquis of 
 Montrose arrived to conduct her to the headquarters 
 of the Earl of JSTewcastle, his command immediately 
 swelled to upwards of 2,000 gallant horsemen, 
 gaily apparelled, and equipped at their own 
 expense. 
 
 The Queenly benignity that moved Her Majesty 
 to pardon Batten's Captain, did not forsake her 
 during her four months' reign in Yorkshire. Not- 
 withstanding her foreign birth and education, and 
 her attachment to the Roman faith, by tactful 
 flattery, and dignified condescensions, she 
 established her supremacy; cajolling the stately 
 Earl into victorious activity by the promise of a 
 Marquisate, inflaming the romantic loyalty of the 
 Marquis of Montrose, and beguiling the Holthams, 
 father and son, who had shut the gates of Hull in 
 the King's face, from their allegiance to the Par- 
 liament. The very joy of sovereignty exhilarated 
 her spirits. After the cold atmosphere of neglect 
 in her native France, and the offensive boorishness 
 of the Dutch merchants, the fervent loyalty of her 
 English subjects, gladdened her heart, and 
 increased her confidence in the ultimate triumph 
 of the E/oyal Cause. She had become again in 
 reality the English Queen. Her forces held the 
 northern counties, with the exception of the 
 manufacturing towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire. 
 From Newark to Newcastle no Roundhead force 
 was sufficiently strong to dispute her author itj^ 
 
 A DISMAL PROSPECT. 
 
 It is no wonder that she lingered in her northern 
 capital contemplating her journey southward with 
 
QUEEN AND CONVOY. 213 
 
 some temerity. Slie had courageously rebuked 
 her ladies' tears during her voyage over the stormy 
 ocean, bidding them remember that a Queen of 
 England might not be drowned ; she had inspired 
 her army with the belief that her presence insured 
 victory, but in the loneliness of her private chamber 
 seasons of dejection sometimes visited her, as she 
 considered on the outstretched map, the great 
 crescent of hostile territory that separated her from 
 her desired destination. The eastern maritime 
 and midland counties were overawed by Essex's 
 army; a rebel garrison under Colonel Hutchinson 
 held Nottingham Castle ; Lord Grrey of Groby 
 still maintained his influence at Leicester; Gell's 
 troopers dominated Derbyshire ; and Cromwell 
 hovered about the neighbourhood of Belvoir Castle 
 and Nottingham, eager to block her advance. 
 Neither could her entreaties prevail upon the 
 Marquis to extend his operations beyond Newark. 
 But the welcome news of the capture of Lichfield 
 Close decided her to commence her journey, and 
 before the end of June she reached Newark in 
 safety, from which toAvn she wrote the King : — 
 
 " That his messenger Lord Saville had arrived, 
 who found her ready to go away, staying but for 
 one thing, for which you may well pardon me two 
 days' stop, it is to have Hull and Lincoln. Young 
 Holtham having been put in prison, by order of 
 Parliament, is escaped and has sent to the Marquis 
 of Newcastle, that he should cast himself into his 
 arms, and that Lincoln should be rendered. Young 
 Holtham hath gone to his father and the Marquis 
 waits for your snswer. I think that I shall go 
 hence on Friday or Saturday. I shall sleep at 
 Weston, and from thence to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 
 where we will resolve which way to take, and I will 
 
214 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 stay there a day, because the march of the day 
 before will have been somewhat great, and also to 
 learn how the enemy marches ; all the forces of 
 Nottingham at present being gone towards 
 Leicester and Derby, which makes ns believe that 
 they intend to intercept onr passage. As soon as 
 we have resolved I will let yon know. Have a care 
 that no troops of Essex incommode us." 
 
 COURT AT NEWARK. 
 
 Her Majesty established a brilliant court at 
 Newark. After the capture of the town, the 
 Marquis of Newcastle had appointed his cousin 
 young Charles Cavendish to the governorship; a 
 selection that highly gratified the Lincolnshire 
 gentry, who esteemed him both on account of his 
 relationship to Newcastle, and of his great bravery ; 
 indeed, no Cavalier of the expedition enjoyed a 
 wider popularity. When the Queen, with whom 
 he was a great favourite, would have carried him 
 to Oxford, the Newarkers petitioned her to allow 
 him to remain. Amongst the distinguished 
 Cavaliers who frequented the Court may be 
 instanced the Marquis of Montrose, Robert Legge, 
 Harry Jermyn, Gerald, Sir Alexander Lesley, and 
 Henry Hastings, all stout fighting men as well ac 
 courtiers, who composed her Majesty's council 
 The ladies of Lincolnshire heartily embraced the 
 opportunity of the Royal visit to wait upon the 
 Queen, and were received graciously. In ordinary 
 circumstances many of them would have been 
 denied audience by court officialism, but under the 
 prevailing conditions of Royal necessity, not pride 
 of birth, or social rank, but generous devotion and 
 cheerful self-sacrifice, attracted her Majesty's 
 approving smile. In the fulness of their satisfac- 
 
QUEEN AND CONVOY. 215 
 
 tion they implored her to remain with them longer, 
 but she naively informed them that she was under 
 the command of the King to proceed. 
 
 METHOD OF ADVANCE. 
 
 The Council discussed long and anxiously the 
 serious question, whether it would be desirable for 
 the Queen and convoy to journey in company, or 
 apart. The magnitude of the Queen's train, as 
 her troopers described the convoy, had perceptibly 
 diminished since leaving Burlington, when 250 
 wagons had been required to carry the contents of 
 her transport ships. After the munificent liberality 
 of the Marquis of Newcastle, that had expressed 
 itself in arming whole regiments at his own 
 personal expense, for the King's service, the Queen 
 had willingly assented, when he had begged for 
 supplies, and her own army had required equip- 
 ment; yet notwithstanding these deductions 150 
 loaded wagons remained. Prudential methods are 
 always imperative in war, but in the Queen's 
 present expedition special precautions were 
 necessary. Miscalculation of possible hostile 
 opposition would have involved her personal peril, 
 and the ruin of the King's army. But indignant 
 solicitude for her Majesty's personal safety out- 
 weighed every other consideration before the 
 Council. Its members could not forget that 
 Parliament had impeached her, as they did 
 Strafford, in her case " for assisting her husband 
 the King with arms and ammunition in the 
 prosecution of the war against them." The brutal 
 incident at Burlington had illustrated the unmer- 
 ciful treatment she would be likely to receive at 
 their hands in the event of her capture. It was 
 accordingly determined that the supreme thought 
 
216 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 of the Council must be tlie preservation of her 
 Majesty's personal safety. It was felt that whilst 
 the combined army constituted a formidable escort, 
 yet in the event of attack the wagons would prove 
 an inconvenient encumbrance, and that even after 
 the assignment of 1,000 foot and several troops of 
 horse to the duty of guarding the convoy, the army, 
 animated by an unconquerable chivalry, and 
 charged with the single task of protecting the object 
 of its devotion, would still be able to overcome any 
 opposition the Derby and Leicester forces recruited 
 from IS^ottingham would be able to offer. 
 
 In accordance with this view, the care of the 
 convoy was committed to Henry Hastings, who 
 already held the King's commission as Colonel- 
 General of the Midlands ; with instructions to keep 
 the route clear over which the Queen would travel, 
 and to proceed at an uniform pace of about tAvo 
 days' journey in advance of the Royal escort. 
 
 Hastings accepted the commission with deliber- 
 ate resolution, fully appreciating the portentous 
 nature of his task. From a man of his high strung 
 nervous temperament, and passionate loyalty and 
 familiarity with the strength and depositions of the 
 enemy's forces in the counties to be traversed, such 
 a task promised the exactment of a sleepless vigil- 
 ance of about a fortnight's duration, until both 
 Queen and convoy reached their several destina- 
 tions. Undoubtedly the Castles of Belvoir, Ashby- 
 de-la-Zouch, and Tamworth, and Lichfield Close 
 dominated the proposed route, but many localities 
 offered facilities for hostile attack. While others 
 rode gallantly in gay attendance on their Eoyal 
 mistress through the stages of the journey, confi- 
 
QUEEN AND CONVOY. 217 
 
 dent ill the security of numbers, it would be his 
 duty to advance forward of their progress, con- 
 trolling and directing a picked corps of expert 
 scouts, who knew the turnpikes and by-lanes of the 
 several counties almost as familiarly as a farmer 
 knows his fields ; despatching patrols in every 
 direction ; and skirmishing with any advanced 
 posts of the enemy that might be encountered. No 
 commander in the Royal army could boast a choicer 
 company of horsemen adapted to such a service 
 
 THE BLUE COATS. 
 
 than he, a company consisting of three troops, with 
 a numerical strength of upwards of one hundred, 
 and known from Edge Hill to Naseby as Hastings' 
 Blue Coats. These men invariably accompanied 
 their Colonel on his most hazardous expeditions, 
 and their fidelity and sagacity extricated him in 
 many a perilous dilemma. He had drafted them 
 into a separate corps from various troops, because 
 of their excellent intelligence and superb horse- 
 manship, had armed them to the teeth with the 
 costliest weapons in the Castle arsenal; clothed 
 them in stout blue cloth coats, overlaid and under- 
 laid with leather in vulnerable parts; and 
 mounted them upon the fleetest horses procurable. 
 Each man understood the general purpose of his 
 commander, and could be relied upon to intelli- 
 gently execute his orders. Except in military 
 pageants they carried no banner or bannerets, and 
 affected no formation, but obeyed, and even antici- 
 pated, their leader's wishes, as the lithesome limbs 
 of an athlete respond to his will. In obedience 
 exact, in physique well formed, and in judgment 
 shrewd, they constituted the mind and hand of the 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch garrison. The Council did not 
 
218 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 attempt to fix a definite route for the convoy, 
 leaving Hastings discretionary powers ; it being 
 considered that the condition of the roads, as well 
 as the latest information about the depositions of 
 the Roundhead forces, would naturally affect his 
 plans. They simply named the destination, 
 stipulating that it must be Banbury or Oxford. 
 
 THE CONVOY STARTS. 
 
 After a careful inspection of horses, harness, and 
 vehicles, on the first day of July, with a mighty 
 cracking of whips, and amid the cheers of the loyal 
 ISTewarkers, the convoy started. The Queen, her 
 face suifused with smiles, and her heart palpitating 
 with anxious interest, surrounded by a bevy of 
 ladies, and waving her dainty handkerchief in 
 token of her good wishes, watched her long train of 
 waggons until it became lost in the blue mists of 
 the horizon. For four long months she had 
 retained the precious waggons under her own 
 immediate care. They were the product of twelve 
 weary months of exile, and had been purchased 
 with her jewels and her tears ; she had grown to 
 regard them as the means by which her husband 
 would recover his Kingly power; and they were 
 gone, but in the care of a leal friend and faithful 
 knight, who would, if needs be, shed his blood in 
 their defence. 
 
 THE ROYAL JOURNEY. 
 
 Three days later, after granting a farewell audi- 
 ence to the noble Marquis of Montrose, afterwards 
 the hero of that meteoric campaign in Scotland that 
 filled the King's heart with delusive hopes, in the 
 sunset of his fortunes ; and bidding good-bye to her 
 reluctant sympathisers in Lincolnshire, the Queen 
 
QUEEN AND CONVOY. 219 
 
 commenced tlie first stage of her journey, reaching 
 the Castle of Ashby-de-la-Zouch on July 6th. Her 
 Majesty's high-minded clemency had already com- 
 pelled the admiration of the Yorkshire people; 
 her amiability had stirred the enthusiasm of the 
 Lincolnshire Royalists ; and her courageous spirit 
 was about to capture the devotion of the Mid- 
 landers. From Newark to Stratford-on-Avon her 
 progress became a triumph. At the various halting 
 places loving supporters presented themselves to 
 do homage, and to offer welcome contributions of 
 the plate and money to the war exchequer. 
 
 Petite and charming in person, condescending 
 and gracious in deportment, yet Royal in mien, her 
 presence with the army rendered it invincible. 
 Sometimes she journeyed in her coach, sometimes 
 she rode on horseback, but always surrounded by 
 her guards, a selected escort, composed of gentle- 
 men of rank and birth, commanded by Harry 
 Jermyn. In her own words to the King, she 
 carried with her 3,000 foot and thirty companies of 
 horse and dragoons (from which, however, a draft 
 of fully 1,200 had been deducted for the convoy), 
 six pieces of cannon, and two mortars. Sir 
 Alexander Lesley commanded the foot under 
 Jermyn, Gerald the horse, and Robert Legge the 
 artillery, while her extremely diligent she Majesty 
 generalissimo held the chief authority over all. 
 With rythmic movement the great cavalcade 
 advanced through the villages and towns. Its 
 silken bannerets fluttered, and its bright accoutre- 
 ments glittered in the summer sunshine, giving the 
 country people a passing glimpse of Royalty in its 
 native stateliness. 
 
 But if a mere vision of Royalty impressed spec- 
 tators, the Queen's personal intercourse with her 
 
220 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 soldiers inspired them with emotional devotion. 
 She would eat her meals in their presence ; accord 
 a smile of recognition to the troopers ; and deign 
 to converse with the officers. The meanest trooper 
 would have freely laid do\\Ti his life to defend her. 
 The advance guard trotted by the mile stones with 
 triumphant songs upon their lips, in which they 
 lampooned their rebel foemen,and proclaimed their 
 own invincibility. One of the early Cavalier lays 
 composed before the fight at Edge Hill furnishes an 
 example of the strong rhythm and forceful metre of 
 their songs. It was a great favourite during the 
 Queen's progress. 
 
 "God save the King, the Queen, the Prince also, 
 With all loyal subjects, both high, and both low ; 
 The Roundheads can pray for themselves, we know, 
 Which nobody can deny. 
 
 Plague take Pym and all his peers, 
 Huzzah for Prince Rupert and his Cavaliers ; 
 When they come here, these hounds will have fears 
 Which nobody can deny. 
 
 God sarve Prince Rupert, and Maurice withal, 
 For they gave the Roundheads a great downfall. 
 And knocked the noddles against Worcester wall. 
 Which nobody can deny." 
 
 QUEEN AT ASHBY. 
 
 At the great Gateway of Ashby-de-la-Zouch the 
 Golden Earl, and his son Henry, received the 
 Queen. The apartments once occupied by Mary 
 Queen of Scots had been prepared for her use, 
 because of their situation in the Castle proper, and 
 of the privacy and protection they would afford. 
 The army encamped in and about the town. The 
 first half of the journey had now been completed 
 
QUEEN AND CONVOY. 221 
 
 without misadventure ; it remained for her Majesty 
 to settle the route for the remaining portion. 
 Hastings was able to give her satisfactory assur- 
 ances about the convoy. It had already passed 
 with safety through the more hazardous localities. 
 No movement had been made by Lord Grey and Sir 
 John Gell to intercept it; indeed, Grey hiul mani- 
 fested a disposition to retire to the neighbourhood 
 of Derby, with the object of keeping in close touch 
 with Gell, in accordance with his usual policy of 
 timerity in the handling of armed forces. Hastings 
 had calculated upon turning the presence of the 
 Royal army to account for the plunder of Derby, 
 as a means of avenging the insults of Gell, and 
 enriching the King's revenue. But the concentra- 
 tion of the Leicester and Derby forces in and 
 around the town, together with their re-enforce- 
 ment by a Nottingham contingent, had thwarted 
 his design. An attack upon Derby had become 
 plainly impracticable. The army had set out from 
 Newark under the impression that resistance would 
 be encountered on the march to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 
 and the Queen herself ardently desired to meet her 
 husband, crowned with a wreath of victory, gained 
 in some gallant fight with the enemy; but the 
 King's orders were peremptory. Urged by solici- 
 tude for his wife's personal safety, and yearning 
 for her companionship, in repeated messages he 
 implored her to proceed without delay to Oxford. 
 It was evident that any offensive operations must 
 be conducted in the direct route, and under the 
 circumstances Burton-on-Trent, a persistently 
 unfriendly town, invited attention. From the out- 
 break of the war Hastings had contemplated the 
 plunder of that town, but had been prevented from 
 putting his purpose into execution by his difficul- 
 
222 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 ties at Lichfield. Her Majesty accordingly decided 
 to advance her army against Burton, whilst 
 Hastings, taking his leave, hastened after the 
 convoy. 
 
 THE PLUNDER OF BURTON. 
 
 The defences of Burton were not formidable, but 
 the soldiers of the garrison were reputed to be stout 
 fighters, and the Governor, Colonel Houghton, an 
 able commander. The Cavaliers hailed the pros- 
 pect of a fight. The attack proved short, deadly, 
 and successful. Nehemiah Wellington describes 
 the assault in his collection of memorials, and after 
 allowing for his habitual disregard of chronological 
 accuracy, and his partisan bias, his account may be 
 accepted as fairly reliable. 
 
 " It is creditably informed that the Queen's 
 army, a most filthy crew, in her march to Oxford, 
 made it their care to free the inhabitants of Burton- 
 on-Trent, who were generally well affected, to Par- 
 liament, and sent 27 colours of foot and about 17 
 colours of horse, to do execution on the Parliament- 
 ary forces residing there. They faced it July 13th 
 first with their horse, about break of day, who were 
 forced to retreat, but after about five or six o'clock 
 returned with their foot. Then the service grew 
 very hot, the town having been twice summoned 
 by a trumpeter to yield, but bravely resolved to 
 fight it out, which they did till six o'clock at night. 
 But at last our men being weary with the whole 
 day's service, and oppressed by an over daring 
 multitude of the enemy, they were driven from 
 their guards, and soon left the town. Brave 
 Colonel Houghton, his lieutenant Colonel Saunders, 
 Captain Watson, and divers other commanders, all 
 men never enough to be honoured, after quarter 
 
QUEEN AXD CONVOY. 223 
 
 demanded, were grievously wounded and killed. 
 Our foot, after quarter promised, they put up in the 
 tower of the church, where the bells hanged, and 
 then blew up the tower with gvmpowder, the Queen 
 causing the chief master gunner to be brought 
 before her, and killed or cut to pieces before her 
 face. They tied some men back to back, and threw 
 them into the Trent. Of the towns people they 
 wounded many, they killed many, they plundered 
 all ; pillaged the town of all that was worth carry- 
 ing away, and thev set the whole town on fire and 
 left it." 
 
 Leaving Burton- on-Trent desolate and wrecked 
 behind, the Queen set out for Walsall, a friendly 
 town under the authority of Tutbury, and Dudley 
 Castles, where she passed a night, lodging in a 
 commodious house that afterwards became a hostel, 
 known as the E-ed Lion Inn. The following day, 
 by a detour, she avoided the rebellious atmosphere 
 of Birmingham, and reached King's Norton on the 
 8th in safety. 
 
 Her Majesty had now entered the zone of the 
 King's supremacy, and the dangers of her journey 
 were at length over and passed. Henceforth there 
 remained a delightful excursion through the green 
 lanes of Warwickshire to Stratford-on-Avon. 
 
 A COMPLETED TASK. 
 
 By that time the convoy was nearing Banbury. 
 A letter from Edwarfd Nicholas, the King's 
 secretary, dated Oxford, July 10th, refers to its 
 approaching arrival. " The munitions of war will 
 be at Banbury this night, there are to come with it 
 1,000 foot and five troops of horse, besides those of 
 Lincolnshire, Rutland, and Colonel Hastings, 
 which are to be dismissed (viz., relieved), and sent 
 
224 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 back to their quarters from Banbury." Brave 
 Henry Hastings, and his intrepid Blue Coats, bad 
 accomplished their anxious task, in ten arduous 
 days. Hitherto Hastings' efforts bad proved 
 uniformly successful. In the face of dishearten- 
 ing difficulties, he had recovered the Leicester town 
 magazine ; be had established the King's authority 
 in Belvoir, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Tamworth, and 
 Tutbury Castles ; he had driven the Roundhead 
 horse in wild confusion from Hopton Heath, and 
 wrested Lichfield Close from the possession of one 
 of the sturdiest officers of the Parliamentary 
 service ; and lastly he had by skilful management 
 of the convoy enabled the King to equip his un- 
 armed soldiery at Oxford. Even Cromwell bears 
 testimony to his indefatigable energy in his letter 
 of May 3rd to the Committee of Lincolnshire, " My 
 Lord Grey hath now again failed me of the rendez- 
 vous at Stamford, notwithstanding that both he and 
 I received letters from his Excellency, command- 
 ing us both to meet, and together with Sir John 
 Gell and the Nottingham forces to join with you. 
 My Lord Grey sent Sir Edward Hartopp to me, to 
 let me know that he could not meet me at Stamford, 
 according to our agreement, fearing the exposing 
 of Leicester to the forces of Mr. Hastings, and 
 some other troopers drawing that way. 
 
 " Believe it, it were better in my poor opinion, 
 Leicester were not, than that there should not be 
 found an immediate taking of the field by our 
 forces, to accomplish the common ends. Wherein 
 I shall deal freely with him, when I meet him, as 
 vou can desire. I perceive Ashby sticks much with 
 him." 
 
 He may have been unconscious of it, at the time 
 he received congratulations of his brother Cavaliers 
 
QUEEN AND CONVOY. 225 
 
 at Banbury ; but bis f aitbf ul services bad alreaxly 
 won for bim tbe King's gratitude, and decided bis 
 Majesty to confer upon bim tbe exceptional reward 
 of a peerage. 
 
 SLIPPERY RUPERT. 
 
 Meanwbile Prince Eupert bad carried out bis 
 instructions witb brilliant ability. After tbe 
 Queen's departure from York, tbe King bad 
 ordered bim to keep Essex employed m tbe south, 
 and by a series of well-planned manoeuvres be bad 
 fulfilled bis task. On bearing of bis Royal aunt s 
 arrival in tbe vicinity of Stratford-on-Avon, be 
 ^ave Essex tbe slip at Brickbill, galloping witb bis 
 Cavaliers into tbat town and establisbmg bimselt 
 and bis staff at tbe Red Horse Inn to await ber 
 coming. 
 
 THE QUEEN AT STRATFORD. 
 
 Her met ber Majesty outside tbe town, receiving 
 an affectionate greeting, and tbe combined army 
 marcbed into Stratford, " according to Sir William 
 Dugdale's diary on July lOtb," witb banners flymg, 
 and a park of artillery, amid tbe entbusiastic 
 acclamations of tbe townspeople. Several fine 
 mansions were available for tbe Queen's accommo- 
 dation, Clopton House and Cbarlcote Hall, for 
 example ; but it is significant tbat sbe elected to 
 lodge in Sbakespeare's bouse. Tbe poet's daugbter, 
 Mrs. Hall, tben a widow, still resided tbere, and 
 for tbree days ber Majesty accepted ber Puritan 
 bospitality. New Place was a fitting lodging for 
 tbe wife of a sovereign, wbo loved books and art, 
 and wbo bad stood beside bis fatber's cbair in boy- 
 bood, watcbing tbe immortal poet take part in tbe 
 representation of bis dramas for tbe King's amuse- 
 
 16 
 
226 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 ment. Shakespeare had lain sleeping for a quarter 
 of a century and more, in the glorious fane beside 
 the rippling Avon ; but the table at which he 
 penned King Lear, the chairs on which he had sat, 
 and the books he had loved to finger, remained still 
 in the old home ; and it is pleasant to contemplate 
 the charming Queen, wandering in the cool of 
 eventide in the garden, by the mulberry tree, 
 plucking the flowers that recalled Ophelia's mad 
 song. With fetes and gaiety the Cavaliers 
 celebrated the Queen's arrival. She was the 
 heroine of the passing hour, the object of 
 extravagant congratulation, and enthusiasm spread 
 to classic Oxford, where medals were struck in her 
 honour, and the University poets composed 
 commemorative songs. 
 
 " When gallant Glanville stoutly stood, 
 And stopped the gap up with his blood ; 
 When Hopton led his Cornish Band, 
 Where the sly Conqueror durst not stand, 
 We knew the Queen was nigh at hand. 
 
 When great Newcastle so came forth. 
 As in nine days he scoured the North, 
 When Fairfax's perfidious force, 
 Was shrunk to five invisible horse, 
 When none but Lady — staid to fight, 
 We knew our Queen was come in sight. 
 
 When with Carnarvon who still hit. 
 With his keen blade and keener wit. 
 Stood Wilmot, Bryon, Crawford, who 
 Struck yesterday a glorious blow, 
 When Waller could but bleed and fret, 
 Then, then the sacred couple met. " 
 
QUEEN AND CONVOY. 227 
 
 Tliere remained but that meeting the sacred couple, 
 long deferred, but the consummation of all the 
 Queen's sufferings and triumphs. The King 
 waited at the head of his troops upon the field of 
 Edge Hill, his first battlefield, and as he claimed 
 his first victory, to receive his wife, and on her 
 arrival led her to Sir Thomas Pipe's mansion at 
 Wroxton. It was the last scene of the epic of the 
 war. 
 
DISASTEOrS NASEBY. 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 JULY 1643 TO JUNE 1645. 
 A DISMAL ADVENTURE. 
 
 THE successful conveyance of the convoy to 
 Banbury may be regarded as tiie exploit that 
 marked the culmination of Hastings' military 
 career. Hitherto his exertions in the King's 
 interest had invariably accomplished his designs ; 
 but within two months of his return to Ashby-de- 
 la-Zouch, an urgent call from Lord Cappell reached! 
 him, that resulted in the most dismal and painful 
 adventure of the war. Lord Cappell had under- 
 taken the task of raising supplies for the support of 
 the Royalist garrisons of Lichfield Close, Tutbury, 
 and Dudley Castles, by plundering Roundhead 
 landowners and levying requisitions in Stafford- 
 shire, and the neighbouring counties. To put a 
 stop to his depredations Sir William Brueton 
 advanced southward from Cheshire, and with his 
 superior numbers practically surrounded him. A 
 Parliamentary document states that '' from 
 
DISASTROUS NASEBY. 229 
 
 Staffordshire it is certified that Sir William 
 Brueton with forces from Cheshire, entered that 
 county but now garrisoned by cow stealers — Lord 
 Cappell and his forces. Cappell, brought to dis- 
 tress, sent for Hastings to assist him, or he would 
 be lost. Hastings made haste to respond, with a 
 considerable force, but proved unsuccessful. 
 Brueton understanding the design prepared for 
 him, and placing an ambuscade behind the hedges, 
 on his approach faced the Colonel with his whole 
 force of horse. After skirmishing awhile he made 
 a seeming retreat, which induced hot Hastings 
 eagerly to pursue confident of victory. But on 
 his passing the ambuscade Brueton wheeled round 
 with his force, and with the assistance of the 
 ambuscade put Hastings to absolute rout, with the 
 loss of 100 of his horse slain and an equal number 
 taken prisoners. He himself received a grievous 
 wound, but with his ragged troops very nearly 
 escaped, and fled to Tutbury Castle, closely pursued 
 by his victorious foes to the very gates." 
 
 Many of Hastings' ablest commanders were 
 with him. Lord Grey of Groby with his Leicester- 
 shire forces, and Major Freton with some 
 Nottingham Dragoons, hastened to Tutbury for the 
 purpose of assisting Brueton to make a complete 
 investiture of the fortress. The allied Roundhead 
 commanders at length caught their arch enemy in 
 a trap. The sudden influx of so many troopers 
 threatened to exhaust the food supply of the castle 
 in less than a week, and no supplies could reach the 
 garrison from Cappell' s cow catchers ; Hastings 
 and most of his officers were incapacitated by their 
 wounds, and no course appeared open to the 
 besieged Royalists but surrender. A resolute 
 
230 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 Roundhead commander would liave certainly 
 captured the castle. But the three leaders were 
 divided in council. Major Freton declined to 
 remain so far distant from his Nottingham base. 
 Brueton and Grey had ample forces for the 
 prosecution of a successful siege. It is true they 
 were destitute of artillery, but hunger would have 
 subdued the beleaguered Royalists within a space 
 of a few days, without the assistance of a single 
 gun. Freton' s Dragoons, however, retired in the 
 night, and had scarcely passed into the darkness 
 beyond the camp fires, before the Cheshire and 
 Leicestershire forces began to pack their tents and 
 baggage. When the day broke the watchmen on 
 the castle battlements discovered that the army of 
 besiegers had melted away like snow in summer, 
 and hastened to communicate the joyful intelli- 
 gence to their wounded leader. Hastings had 
 never before suffered so severely at the hands of his 
 enemies. The various apartments of the castle 
 resembled wards of a modern infirmary; most 
 of his officers were wounded ; and he himself 
 suffered acute physical pain; but he at once 
 decided to return to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Taking 
 with him every trooper who could sit his horse he 
 set out. The appearance of his forces on their 
 march through the villages of vStaffordshire and 
 Derbyshire, awakened the derision of Roundhead 
 sympathisers, and led them to contemptuously 
 describe them as Hastings' ragged rascals. The 
 greater number of them were bandaged, and their 
 clothes were torn, but no hostile force dared to 
 oppose their retreat. 
 
 A contemporaneous letter describes the condition 
 of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch garrison at this period. 
 
DISASTROUS NASEBY. 231 
 
 ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH GARRISON. 
 
 " Leicester, November 14tli, 1643. 
 " Sir — Our forces are gone with the Derby 
 Horse towards Ashby-de-la-Zouch ; but the 
 enemy are very strong; and their works are 
 good; they have vaults under the ground 
 through which they can go from one fort to 
 another at their pleasure. Provisions they have 
 good store, hung beef round about their kitchen 
 within, and have lately been killing and salting 
 more. The Earl is in the garrison, but the Lord 
 Loughborough is not here. They are as debased 
 wicked wretches there, as if they had been raked 
 out of hell, as we are informed by some that have 
 come from thence. They have invented a new 
 kind of compliment, for a kind of protestation ; 
 and if they affirm or deny anything it is usual to 
 do it with this saying — ' The Devil suck my soul 
 through a tobacco pipe,' if such a thing be so or 
 not so, in their ordinary speech. And this is no 
 wonder, for they have three malignant priests 
 there, such as will drink and roar as well as ever 
 a cabb of them all, and end and begin one health 
 after another, and swear and domineer, so as 
 would make one's heart ache to hear the common 
 people relate what they have heard of them. The 
 cabb will cozen and cheat one another most 
 wonderfully, and steal one another's horses, and 
 ride out and sell them, and sometimes come 
 again, sometimes run away, as if they were even 
 at their wits' end ; there are also many Irish 
 there, who have late made a new fort (Mount 
 House), a very strong work, and it is called the 
 Irish fort, who have been bold upon some 
 clashing between them and those that profess to 
 be Protestants in Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle. 
 
232 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 " The Irish rebels have told them to their faces 
 that they fight for the old true Catholic religion, 
 which is better than ours, and puts them in better 
 condition than they that are heretic, and swear 
 that if ever they be straitened in a siege they 
 will burn the town down to the ground, but our 
 forces have gone to try what they can do. 
 
 ''We are advertised that the Derby forces, 
 
 consisting of four troops of horse, have united 
 
 themselves to the Leicestershire forces, and that 
 
 being engrossed into one body, they are now 
 
 advancing to besiege Ashby-de-la-Zouch, which 
 
 is one of the strongest and most considerable 
 
 holds that the enemy hath, and the better to 
 
 effect their enterprise, they are now fortifying a 
 
 great house not far from it, a very defensible 
 
 place of itself, which commands one of the 
 
 chiefest passages thereunto." 
 
 Immediately after his adventure in Staffordshire, 
 
 Henry Hastings received his patent of nobility 
 
 from Oxford, and elected to revive the barony of 
 
 Loughborough, originally created by Queen Mary 
 
 to reward the services of Edward Hastings, the 
 
 third son of the first Earl, whose intercession 
 
 procured the liberation of Earl Francis from the 
 
 Tower of London. 
 
 But while Lord Grey of Groby was collecting a 
 combined force at Bradgate and fortifying Collorton 
 with a design to assault the castle, the old Earl died 
 at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. 
 
 DEATH OF THE EARL. 
 
 He had survived the golden age, and those other 
 two noble personages, his gracious Countess, and 
 Arthur Hildersham, who by their beautiful and 
 high toned lives, had made it golden, to die amid 
 
DISASTROUS XASEBY. 233 
 
 the clash of arms. Altlioug^li not unexpected, his 
 death was generally deplored, and silenced for the 
 time the dogs of war. 
 
 In the strife of the w^ar he had taken no personal 
 part, even the King had excused his attendance at 
 the Oxford Parliament on account of his broken 
 health, and the Roundheads suffered his obsequies 
 to be conducted in peace. Hitherto the opposing 
 leaders in Leicestershire, with the invidious 
 exception of Sir John Gell, had fought out their 
 quarrel like gentlemen. The brutal callousness of 
 Cromwell had not commended itself to Grey or 
 Hastings. They remembered that they had sat on 
 the same judicial bench at Quarter Sessions ; had 
 hunted with the same pack of hounds; had 
 worshipped in the same churches ; and that the 
 termination of the war would re-unite them in 
 legislative duties and sporting pleasures. 
 
 Brueton's victory over Lord Loughborough had 
 revived Lord Grey's spirits, and decided him to 
 make another attempt to capture the castle. His 
 expedition had actually started, when the 
 intelligence reached him of the Earl's death, and 
 caused him to temporarily abandon his design. At 
 Collorton the dull thud of the muffled bells of St. 
 Helen's Church could be heard, and the drooping 
 flag could be discerned. It was the last Hunting- 
 don funeral from the castle, for when the next Earl 
 died that historic fortress had become a desolate 
 ruin. The feud between the Stamfords and the 
 Huntingdons was bitter and irreconcilable, 
 stimulated by personal resentment, and religious 
 and political antagonism, but it is pleasant to 
 remember the amenities that paid deferent homage 
 to the sorrow of death, and the abiding memory of 
 the mystic young Lord of Groby is the thought of 
 
234 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 tliat kindly disposition that prompted Mrs. 
 Hutcliinson to describe him, as a young man of 
 ridiculous good nature. 
 
 After his father's funeral Lord Loughborough 
 visited the King at Oxford; and Grey embraced 
 the opportunity of his absence to deliver the 
 postponed attack on the castle. About the 26th of 
 November he advanced with a strong body of horse, 
 driving back Loughborough's advance posts to the 
 immediate vicinity of the fortress, and for the 
 second time since the outbreak of the war Eound- 
 head soldiers found their way into the town and 
 plundered the houses. The garrison had several 
 abattoirs in the town where carcases of beef were 
 hanging. These the enemy placed in requisitioned 
 wagons and conveyed to Collorton. 
 
 The success of their attack, and the information 
 they had gathered in the town of the disorder 
 prevailing in the castle, stimulated Grey to renew 
 his attack on the last day of December. Reinforce- 
 ments were drawn to Collorton, and the lines 
 advanced until the Collorton side of the town was 
 blockaded. At this juncture the Roundheads con- 
 fidently expected an early surrender. But to their 
 great disappointment Lord Loughborough returned 
 with his blue coats, and re-established discipline. 
 Nevertheless the enemy daily became more aggres- 
 sive, preventing those predatory expeditions upon 
 which the Castle depended for its food supply. 
 
 AN ATTACK OX THE CASTLE. 
 
 Watching Collorton from the Keep on December 
 31st, Loughborough noticed an unusual activity, 
 and scouts returned to the Castle with information 
 that preparations were in course for a determined 
 
DISASTROUS NASEBY. 
 
 235 
 
 assault. Loughborougli hacl little time for prepara- 
 tion, and the attack was made with a preponderate 
 force, that hopelessly outnumbered the Eoyalists. 
 The Roundheads swarmed into Ashby. The old 
 town had begun to taste the horrors of war. 
 Nestling as it did under the Castle walls its resi- 
 dents had hitherto been able to follow the course of 
 the war with equanimity, for the two previous sur- 
 prise visits of the enemy had been brief and timid, 
 and no real harm had befallen them. But now the 
 Roundhead soldiers roughly entered and plundered 
 their homes, eating their food, drinking their beer, 
 terrifying their women and children, and robbing 
 them of their money, under the very eye of their 
 Lord. Neither did the Castle escape, for the 
 enemy surmounted the low wall connecting the 
 brick forts on the Packington side, and plundered 
 the Manor House, carrying away family documents, 
 and pressing the defenders into the Keep. For the 
 first time in its existence of nearly two centuries, 
 the Great Tower was put to the defensive purpose 
 for which the founder designed it, a last refuge in 
 the time of stress and storm, and well and truly it 
 answered to the test. While the garrison immured 
 themselves within the Keep the Roundheads made 
 their way to the very windows of the fortress. 
 Meanwhile Loughborough pointed guns through 
 the embrasures, and in response to his command 
 the Old Tower vomited fire. He had realised his 
 ability not only to resist attack, but to harass an 
 enemy's retreat. On discovering the futility of his 
 design Lord Grey ordered a hasty retreat, but 
 although the Roundheads retired in confusion 
 under Loughborough's fire, they still managed to 
 convey a considerable booty to Collorton. 
 
236 romance of ashby-de-la-zouch castle. 
 
 fortuxe's low ebb. 
 The ruinous damage inflicted upon the Castle and 
 its defences required immediate attention, draining 
 Lord Loughborough's resources. His fortunes had 
 truly fallen to a low ebb. The skirmish in Staf- 
 fordshire had cost him a hundred men and horses, 
 besides an equal number of stands of arms, but the 
 two recent attacks on the Castle had inflicted a 
 more serious blow, in lowering his military prestige 
 by rendering retreat before the enemy a familiar 
 experience to his men. Still his reverses had justi- 
 fied his pride and confidence in the impregnability 
 of the Castle, and in the assurance of a secure base, 
 he resolved to prevent demoralisation by delivering 
 an immediate attack on Collorton, in the hope of 
 recovering his lost horses and arms. But his 
 adventure failed, with an additional loss of eighty 
 horses. The following week, whilst plundering in 
 the neighbourhood of Burton-on-Trent, in company 
 with Colonel Bagot, with whom he still maintained 
 cordial relations, he encountered Sir John Gell, 
 who routed him, capturing 120 of his horses, and 
 two days later Sir William Brueton attacked a body 
 of his men conducting a drove of cattle to Ashby- 
 de-la-Zouch, putting them to flight with the loss of 
 six men and horses and the whole herd of cattle. 
 The loss of the men did not trouble him, for they 
 invariably found their way back to the Castle, but 
 the loss of horses and arms was irremediable. 
 Besides the continuous successes of the Round- 
 heads rendered them exultant. One of their 
 pamphlets declares that " Hastings is put on his 
 trumps, and plays the after game badly. He has 
 made the country poor by robbery and pillage 
 without enriching himself. He had hoped to get 
 away with a lump of wealth, but his soldiers spend 
 
DISASTROUS NASEBY. 237 
 
 as fast as lie gets. He only came to Ashby-de-la- 
 Zoucli with, three men, and would be glad to get 
 away with, as many." 
 
 But the garrulous pamphleteer had misjudged 
 his man. Loughborough had laid his all upon the 
 altar of his loyalty, and in the days of disaster had 
 no mind to flinch. Leaving stout Ben Scudamore 
 in charge of the Castle, he had hurried to Oxford 
 to second the appeal of Sir John Henderson, the 
 besieged Governor of Newark, for relief. The dis- 
 tress of ISTewark and Ashby-de-la-Zouch but 
 emphasised the depreciation of royal authority in 
 the North of England, since the Queen's trium- 
 phant supremacy seven months agone. Fairfax 
 had inflicted a crushing defeat on Colonel Bellasis 
 at Selby, and had proceeded to Nantwich, where he 
 had almost annihilated the Irish forces, taking 
 1,800 prisoners, a host of oflicers, and the whole of 
 the cannon and baggage, and obliging Lord Byron 
 to retire to Chester. Byron's retreat had left Lord 
 Derby in great straits in Lancashire, necessitating 
 his retiral from the neighbourhood of Manchester. 
 
 In Yorkshire the Scottish army watched the 
 Marquis, and moved him to look carefully to the 
 defences of York. The battle of Selby had resulted 
 in a southward movement of Parliamentary troops 
 and the investment of Newark, Belvoir Castle, and 
 partially of Ashbv-de-la-Zouch Castle, the loss of 
 which would have completely blocked communica- 
 tion between York and Oxford. 
 
 RELIEF OF NEWARK. 
 
 In the King's dilemma Hupert, who was recruit- 
 ing in the West, came to his assistance, and 
 planned one of the most brilliant campaigns of the 
 war, that dumbfounded his enemies. It was the 
 
238 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 montli of March — tke frosts were exceedingly 
 severe, and the way to Newark was infested with 
 Roundheads, but the Prince collected a body of 
 dashing horsemen, and set off. In view of the 
 uncertain dispositions of the enemy no definite 
 route could be settled upon. No cumbrous trans- 
 ports were permissible, and food supplies had to be 
 collected in rough and ready fashion. Lord 
 Loughborough set out from Oxford, accompanied 
 by Sir Charles Lucas ; and on his journey encoun- 
 tered opposition at Cotes Bridge, near Lough- 
 borough, where Sir Edward Hartopp, assisted by 
 Lord Grey's regiment, attacked the Royalists, and 
 discharged a great piece upon them, which forced 
 them to retreat. The Parliamentarians then gained 
 the bridge, which was half a mile in length, whilst 
 the Royalists remained in a great meadow adjoin- 
 ing, drawn up in five bodies, until night, when they 
 retreated. 
 
 From Cotes Bridge, Loughborough and Lucas 
 made their way to Ashbourne, for John Bright, of 
 that town, writing to Fairfax, states " that about 
 the end of March, 1644, Colonel Hastings on this 
 day came to Ashbourne, and with those forces which 
 removed from Bakewell (they are about 1,000 or 
 1,200 strong) resolves to march to Chesterfield, 
 there to join Colonel Fretchville^ and that strength 
 with the forces that are at Doncaster intend to 
 raise the siege of Newark. This I have from a 
 gentleman who was taken prisoner by them last 
 night, and upon some small composition was set at 
 liberty, and since gave me this notice." 
 
 The Prince's plan was to gather reinforcements 
 at previously arranged places on the route, thus 
 
DISASTROUS NASEBY. 239 
 
 lessening Lis transports. On combining with 
 Loughborougli and Fretcliville, lie made a dask for 
 Newark. 
 
 Meanwhile the Roundheads regarded the capture 
 of Newark as a foregone conclusion. Sir John 
 Meldrum, their leader, anticipated no interference, 
 certainly none from the direction of Oxford, and 
 accordingly drew his cordon close round the town, 
 waiting patiently for famine to reduce the garrison. 
 In his great confidence he even neglected to hold 
 the approaches, and the Cavaliers had but five 
 milestones to pass, when he became aware of their 
 approach. Before he could make his depositions 
 they were attacking him, for while his soldiers 
 were buckling on their sword belts, they could hear 
 the ring of horses' hoofs upon the frozen ground. 
 The Royalist horse had spread panic in the host of 
 4,000 besiegers, when their foot were yet four miles 
 distant. The garrison sallied out of the town with 
 shouts of joy, and the Roundheads were quickly 
 surrounded. Rupert indulged in no unnecessary 
 bloodshed. He allowed the surrendered army to 
 disband, retaining the arms and baggage. Claren- 
 don states that the plunder amounted to 4,000 
 stands of arms, eleven brass cannon, two mortars, 
 and fifty barrels of gunpowder. 
 
 RAISING SUPPLIES. 
 
 The relief of Newark and Belvoir Castle, and the 
 temporary disorganisation of the Rutland, Notting- 
 ham, and Leicester Parliamentarian forces, left 
 Loughborough free to requisition the districts sur- 
 rounding his castle. The revenue of the earldom 
 was totally inadequate to nourish the garrison. 
 Its continuance depended upon systematic levies, 
 which were made under the authority of the Com- 
 
240 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 mission of Array and in substitution of taxes. 
 '' Perfect Occurrences," a contemporary newspaper, 
 mentions a copy of the warrant Loughborough 
 usually served upon the various parishes. 
 
 " To the Constables of the parish of Seckington, 
 these haste, poste haste: — These are to warn you 
 that you forthwith upon the sight hereof send in 
 what provisions your parish will afford, to the 
 garrison of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, for the use of his 
 Majesty's army, and if you fail therein you must 
 expect to be exposed to the plunder of the hungry 
 soldier." 
 
 Warrants were not only served upon parishes, 
 but upon private individuals, who manifested 
 reluctance to contribute. A letter is extant, 
 written by a gentleman who complains that his 
 daughter has been compelled to pay a blackmail 
 of £100 per annum to Lord Loughborough, to 
 enable her to enjoy peacefully the rents of her 
 farms. 
 
 A FIGHT AT BOSVTORTH. 
 
 Disregard of Loughborough's warrant led to the 
 skirmish at Bosworth in July 1644. According to 
 the information contained in a pamphlet : " At a 
 distance of 160 years Bosworth field again becamo 
 a theatre of war. Fairfax reports that a party of 
 Hastings' men were plundering about Hinckley, 
 when his noble friend. Lord Grey, being ever ready 
 to any opportunity to serve his country, sent out a 
 well resolved party, under the command of Captain 
 Babington, consisting of eighty good horse. They 
 marched towards Bosworth Field, where they over- 
 took 120 of Hastings' horse, and there fought with 
 them in the very place where King Richard was 
 slain. The Royalists were embarrassed by their 
 
DISASTJROUS NASEBY. 
 
 241 
 
 plunder, and at the first charge fled, our men pur- 
 suing them for three miles, killing six, wounding 
 some, and taking forty prisoners. I believe, upon 
 further examination, there will be found a greater 
 number of officers than are here named, for the 
 habits and postures of many of the prisoners give 
 just cause to suspect their condition to be far above 
 common troopers. We have not lost one man. 
 Captain Babington is shot in the hand. Sir Edward 
 Hartopp is shot in the thigh, and a common soldier 
 or two are slightly wounded. We attribute all to 
 the Griver of Yictories. The Eoyalists lost a score 
 of horses, 100 cattle, besides sheep and other goods. 
 The same pamphlet contains an extract from a copy 
 of a letter sent from the Lord Fairfax to the Mayor 
 of Hull, and by him sent to the Committee of both 
 Kingdoms, concerning the great victory of Marston 
 Moor, obtained against Prince Rupert, about 
 raising the siege of Hull. 
 
 HASTINGS AND THE CLERGY. 
 
 Like a true son of the House of Hastings, Lord 
 Loughborough, even amid the alarms of war, by no 
 means rebated his interest in religion and its 
 established officials, manifesting his sympathy or 
 indignation, according to circumstances. During 
 the autumn of the previous year. Parliament had 
 seen fit to adopt the Solemn League or Covenant of 
 Scotland, as a means of consolidating the Scottish 
 Alliance against the King, and to enforce it upon 
 the clergy, who were not prepared to adopt it with 
 enthusiastic unanimity. Perhaps no class of the 
 community in the unfoldment of national progress 
 has been called upon to swallow objectional 
 nostrums more repeatedly than the ecclesias- 
 tical order, and has consented more meekly, when 
 
 17 
 
242 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 the strong liand of tKe law lias insisted. So late as 
 February 1644, large numbers of the divines of 
 Leicestershire had still procrastinated, causing 
 official Puritanism in Leicester to promulgate a 
 decree that at the Easter services at St. Martin's 
 Church, all county beneficiaries who had hitherto 
 held back should attend and take the Covenant 
 Vow. This regulation caused a considerable flutter 
 in the country manses, and whilst some ministers 
 maintained an irreconcilable attitude, others more 
 compliant decided to obey. On Easter Eve a 
 goodly company started on horseback, clad in bands 
 and gowns, for Leicester, but a troop of Lough- 
 borough's horsemen met them, and respectfully 
 conducted them to the Castle, where they found no 
 reason to complain of their host's hospitality 
 during Eastertide. 
 
 But where clamorous orthodoxy provoked his 
 resentment, the noble cavalier scrupled not to adopt 
 more violent measures. One of the latest acts of 
 patronage of the Golden Earl had been the pre- 
 sentation of the benefice of Loughborough to the 
 Eev. Nicholas Hall, B.D., of Emmanuel College, 
 Cambridge, a refined and scholarly clergyman of 
 congenial views. On the 10th of June, 1643, the 
 House of Commons had commanded him to appear 
 before its bar for delinquency, and had ejected him, 
 substituting the Rev. Oliver Bromskill, a man of 
 approved Parliamentary views. Lord Lough- 
 borough had from the first resented the deposition 
 of his friend, and took care to render his successor's 
 life intolerable. At length, deeming that the 
 parish would be better served by Mr. Bromskill' s 
 involuntary residence at the Castle, he despatched 
 a company of troopers to convey him there. A 
 party of Hastings' horsemen came to Lough- 
 
DISASTROUS NASEBY. 243 
 
 borougL. an Lord's T)iij, riding into tlie cliurcli in 
 sermon time, and wonld liave pulled the preacher 
 out of the pulpit, but the women rescued him, and 
 proved themselves more valiant than their hus- 
 bands or Hastings' men. The grateful rector 
 recorded their providential aftection in the church- 
 warden's accounts as a fitting memorial of their 
 piety. 
 
 The happy auguries that the sanguine tempera- 
 ment of Lord Loughborough had led him to asso- 
 ciate with the brilliant campaign for the relief of 
 Newark, were doomed to disappointment. From 
 that date through the succeeding winter the trend 
 of the fighting in Leicestershire proved adverse, 
 whilst the disastrous defeat of Rupert at Marston 
 Moor liberated Roundhead forces in Yorkshire for 
 service in the Midlands. February, 1644 (ne^v 
 date) had proved a disastrous month for his arms, 
 and JFebruary, 1645, opened with continued diffi- 
 culty, whilst February, 1646, may be described as 
 the most dismal month of his life, because in its 
 early days he was compelled to surrender the 
 Castle. 
 
 His letter to Prince Hupert, written on February 
 6th, 1645, describes his position, and relates how 
 his numerous misfortunes had impoverished his 
 armoury. 
 
 APPEAL FOR ARMS. 
 
 ■*' May it please your Highness, — 
 
 " Some part of these forces I have the honour to 
 command are daily in action, and that with many 
 alarms in the consumption of much ammunition. 
 If I can make good what I am now master of, til] 
 May, I doubt not to appear serviceable to his 
 Majesty, but without arms and ammunition I 
 
244 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 cannot. Two passes I have fortified upon the 
 River Trent are now by the rebels straitly 
 beseiged, but I fear them not, and am drawing 
 what home I have not in Cheshire, to relieve them. 
 I hear your Highness intends a journey into those 
 parts, and if his Majesty will furnish me with 
 some arms and ammunition, which I beseech you 
 to move him for, I can leave the garrison here in 
 safety, and shall be happy to wait upon your 
 Highness' s commands, and make the horse I now 
 have there full 1,500 upon ten days' warning. But 
 Sir, if his Majesty's service suffer, and I lose my 
 reputation for want of what others obtain, I must 
 account that my misfortune, though myself happy 
 if you still honour me with the title of 
 
 " Your humble and faithful servant, 
 
 " Loughborough." 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 
 
 February 6th, 1644 (old date). 
 Having despatched his appeal to the Prince, Lord 
 Loughborough resumed his predatory expeditions. 
 On February 18th he sent out warrants, under the 
 authority of the Commission of Array, for car- 
 riages to fetch hay to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, whilst 
 the Parliamentarians issued counter warrants on 
 behalf of the Collorton garrison. Loughborough, 
 however, was too quick for them, compelling the 
 countrymen to load hay, which, under a strong 
 guard, he proceeded to convey towards Leicester. 
 But Colonel Temple, receiving notice of his move- 
 ment, obtained a reinforcement of three troops of 
 the Derby horse, and intercepting the Royalists, 
 after a stubborn fight, routed and pursued them, 
 capturing forty prisoners, sixty horses, and the 
 whole of the hay. 
 
DISASTROUS NASEBY. 245 
 
 A week later a party of Ashby men made a deter- 
 mined attack on Collorton, hoping to surprise and 
 plunder the town, but the attempt failed, and they 
 were compelled to retire with an additional loss of 
 eighty of their horse. 
 
 THE NASEBY CAMPAIGN. 
 
 But while the Parliamentarian forces at Collor- 
 ton daily increased and grew more aggressive, and 
 the difficulties of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch garrison 
 increased, circumstances urged the Sovereign to 
 make that fatal move upon the chess board of war, 
 that finally destroyed his chance of winning the 
 game. Lying at Oxford, he considered his chance. 
 With the exception of one or two castles, his forces 
 occupied the whole of Wales ; in the North he had 
 garrisons in the Castles of Scarborough, Carlisle, 
 and Pontefract, the three strong places of the Mid- 
 lands were harassed by northern Parliamentarian 
 forces, while south of his headquarters the ever 
 active Cromwell had dashed across Oxfordshire, 
 leaving a red trail of blood at Hislip Bridge, Bletch- 
 ington House, and Radcot Bridge. At length the 
 King marched northward, ostensively to relieve 
 Chester, expecting Fairfax to follow him, but that 
 general advanced to Oxford, with the view of taking 
 the city. The intelligence of the royal advance 
 relieved Chester automatically, and the King 
 gravely considered a project of marching north- 
 ward to join Montrose, which, however, he reluc- 
 tantly abandoned, owing to the presence of the 
 Scotch army in Yorkshire. He, therefore, sud- 
 denly marched into Leicestershire. For two years 
 Loughborough had urged the plunder of Leicester, 
 assuring both the King and the Prince that its 
 defences were despicable, and its wealth consider- 
 
246 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 able. He now pressed liis scheme witk renewed 
 vigour, and his Majesty consented. The Royal 
 army swept over Staffordshire and Derbyshire, like 
 a plague of locusts, leaving everywhere in its wake 
 desolation and distress. 
 
 A letter published in " Perfect Occurrences " 
 describes the terrors attending its advance. 
 " Sir,— 
 
 " Lichfield forces being about 300 horse and foot 
 did lately in the night attempt to plunder Notting- 
 ham. They entered the town, and fell to plunder- 
 ing, but we beat them back with shame and loss. 
 On the present day Rupert and Maurice, with about 
 2,000 horse and foot, came into Burton-on-Trent. 
 Rupert quartered at Mr. Clarke's house, a clothier, 
 and Maurice at Appleby's, a butcher. This day 
 there came a party of horse to Seckington, two 
 miles from Tamworth, to take up quarters for the 
 King's forces ; the parishioners and some of the 
 adjacent villages gave the quartermaster, as they 
 agreed, <£5, that they should not be troubled neither 
 for quarter money nor be plundered ; yet so cruel 
 and faithless are their promises, for no sooner were 
 they quartered at a town near thereunto but war- 
 rants were sent out." 
 
 THE king's ITINERARY. 
 
 A consideration of the King's itinerary during 
 the days of Whit-week reveals how influentially 
 Lord Loughborough's constant attendance upon 
 him affected the details of his Majesty's plan of 
 campaign. On Whit Sunday and Monday Lough- 
 borough entertained the King at Tutbury Castle, 
 the army meanwhile resting at Burton-on-Trent, 
 and on Tuesday his Majesty visited Ashby-de-la- 
 Zouch, attended by Loughborough, sleeping at the 
 
DISASTROUS NASEBY. 
 
 247 
 
 Castle. On Wednesday, riding proudly through 
 Collorton, he took up his quarters for the night at 
 Sir Harry Shipworth's mansion at Coates, and on 
 Thursday he slept at Elstone, where the army 
 rested two days, preparatory to the storming ot 
 
 TiPi pester. 
 
 The Committee for Leicester made diligent pre- 
 parations to resist a Royalist assault. The line ot 
 defences, three miles in length, that encircled the 
 town, was repaired; cannon were sent Irom 
 London ; the tradesmen were ordered to close their 
 shops; and the Mayor made out a list of about 
 1,000 men capable of bearing arms. Besides these, 
 the garrison numbered about 1,200 regular troops 
 and 150 recruits from the country. The governor- 
 ship was held by Colonel Grey. 
 
 STORMING OF LEICESTER. 
 
 On May 29th, the Royal army, consisting of 
 6 000 men, approached the town in three divisions. 
 The King established his tent in the meadows out- 
 side the Newark Fort, surrounding himself by his 
 foot guards. The Prince's black colliers mounted 
 a battery before the Newark Tower, assisted by 
 Loughborough's Blue Coats, and the firelocks com- 
 manded by Colonel John Russell. Colonel Tertia s 
 troops, with ladders and ropes, stationed themselves 
 before the drawbridge, and Sir Bernard lertia 
 drew up his men near the Abbey mansion, while 
 the Earl of Northampton's dragoons waited an 
 opening to enter the to^Ti. Early in the afternoon 
 of the 30th, Prince Rupert hurled two cannon balls 
 into Leicester, after which he sent a trumpet to the 
 fort promising pardon to the Mayor and Corpora- 
 tion, in the event of surrender, and ^^^P^^'^sf ^^^^^"^^^^ 
 fact that the King's army now numbered 10,000. 
 
248 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOIJCH CASTLE. 
 
 The trumpeter was detained an hour, and uncertain 
 of liis fate, the Prince opened his batteries on the 
 walls, pounding them with dull, monotonous thud. 
 During the bombardment the herald returned with 
 a defiant message. Meanwhile an incident occurred 
 that accentuated the Prince's anger. His Majesty- 
 was dining in the meadows, and this becoming 
 known to the burghers, a man named Dent, the 
 tenant of the Castle mills, who had learnt artillery 
 practice in the Eoundhead army, and been pro- 
 moted to the rank of a chief gunner, pointed a field 
 piece at the Royal tent, and succeeded in landing 
 a ball, the wreckage produced by which knocked 
 off his Majestj^'s hat. 
 
 About two o'clock a town trumpet appeared with 
 a request for a truce until Sunday, to give the Com- 
 mittee leisure for deliberation, a suggestion the 
 Prince abruptly rejected, seeing that the town was 
 already doomed. He angrily commanded the rebel 
 to be gone, or he would lay him by the heels. In 
 half an hour the herald returned with his former 
 message, and the disgusted Prince at once handed 
 him over to the tender mercies of his Provost 
 Marshal. 
 
 A BREACH IN THE WALL. 
 
 At three o'clock the Royal batteries opened a 
 murderous bombardment, which continued until 
 seven o'clock in the evening. Then a great cheer 
 arose in the Royalist ranks, for the Prince's guns 
 had at length accomplished their task. Amid the 
 clouds of smoke and dust a wide breach yawned in 
 the wall, and the word was passed from troop to 
 troop to prepare for an immediate assault. But 
 the indomitable defenders were seen to be dragging 
 three great Spanish cannon to a position that com- 
 
DISASTROUS NASEBY. 249 
 
 manded the breach, and it became apparent that the 
 assault must be postponed until the guns had been 
 dismantled. The bombardment recommenced. In 
 the breach, and on the hill the townsmen dropped 
 at their work. Until midnight and long after- 
 wards, the thunders of men's hate made noncom- 
 batant residents shudder. At length Eupert, peer- 
 ing through the darkness, gave the word for an 
 advance. Colonel Leslie rushed forward to meet 
 a resistance so resolute as to send him reeling back- 
 ward. At any cost of human life the breach must 
 be carried. His Majesty hurried to the spot to 
 watch the struggle, ordering his red footguards to 
 reinforce Leslie. In the meantime, the Royalists 
 had hurled hand grenades at the hornwork defences 
 before Belgrave Gate, until the defenders retired in 
 confusion. Clambering over the hornwork, they 
 let down the drawbridge for the admission of Lord 
 Northampton's dragoons. Xo defence, however 
 obstinate, could now avail, for the dragoons were 
 galloping madly through the streets, pistolling and 
 hacking all persons they encountered, and from 
 every side of the town angry assailants were follow- 
 ing. No human authority, royal or military, could 
 stem the awful tide of murder and pillage. Half 
 a hundred dead lay outside the breach, and as m.any 
 within. In every street mute corpses lay upon the 
 ground. Never in its history had Leicester wit- 
 nessed such a sight. The death roll eventually 
 numbered upwards of 700. Undoubtedly the rash 
 obstinacy of the townsmen provoked needless 
 slaughter. The Committee still occupied a house 
 in the Market Place. As the soldiers crowded into 
 the square some imprudent and over zealous citi- 
 zens fired at them from the windows of a house, 
 killing eight dragoons, and wounding some others. 
 
250 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 This incicleut aroused bitter resentment. The 
 Royalists beat in the door of the house and put 
 every occupant to the sword. A rumour resulted 
 that passed from lip to lip, and spread through the 
 country that the Committee had been slaughtered 
 in cold blood. A number of defenders sought 
 refuge in the Xewark fort, who repeatedly prevari- 
 cated with the King's clemency, drawing upon 
 themselves when they actually surrendered the 
 buffets of the victors, but quarter was granted. 
 
 THE king's grief. 
 
 The King's personal behaviour during the Friday 
 midnight and Saturday commands respect. Hum- 
 phrey Brown's oath before Bradshaw, at his 
 Majesty's trial, that he heard the King declare, as 
 he stood watching the maiming of some prisoners 
 without reproof, "I do not care if they cut them 
 more, for they are mine enemies," does not accord 
 with his known character, and may be dismissed 
 as a perjury. 
 
 Clad in glittering armour, he passed from post to 
 post. Through the hideous night he did not sleep. 
 Rupert constantly burst into fits of passion, but he 
 remained calm, never giving way to angry or 
 vengeful feeling; and commiserating the suffer- 
 ings of the townspeople. 
 
 The Rev. William Bickers has recorded a tradi- 
 tion that lingered to his own day in his mother's 
 family, that Charles rode about in absolute distress 
 during the storming operations, and continuously 
 cried : '' Dear and loving subjects, cry quarter.'^ 
 Immediately upon the establishment of his 
 authority in the town he took up his quarters at the 
 Abbey mansion. He appointed Lord Lough- 
 borough to be governor of Leicester, as successor to 
 
DISASTROUS NASEBY. 251 
 
 the deposed Roundhead Grey, who lay sorely 
 wounded in a house in the Market Place. The 
 governorship may he regarded as the most impor- 
 tant commission hitherto entrusted to Hastings, 
 and he accepted it with the intention of fortifying 
 the town, as he had already fortified the Castle of 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The King stayed two days at 
 Leicester, for the purpose of exacting a levy of 
 £2,000 from the Corporation. On June 2nd, after 
 assigning 1,200 men to the Governor for the repair 
 and defence of the fortifications, he left the town. 
 He had no sooner gone than Hastings proceeded to 
 burn down the Abbey Mansions as an expression 
 of his dislike for the Cavendish family. The 
 course of events allowed him little opportunity to 
 make good the defences of the town, for on the 
 14th of June his Majesty engaged the forces of 
 Cromwell and Fairfax at Naseby, and received a 
 defeat that crushed his cause. On the evening 
 of that day, to the surprise and consternation of 
 the Governor, Charles galloped up to the gates of 
 Leicester a fugitive, and accompanied by a body 
 of horse in a wild rout. Tradition indicates the 
 route from Naseby to Leicester. 
 
 THE FLIGHT FROM NASEBY. 
 
 At Turlington the villagers point out to 
 strangers a spring just off the road, where they 
 state that his Majesty stopped to drink and water 
 his horse. From thence he proceeded through 
 Kibsworth, Oadby, and down the London Road. 
 Sir John Gell, with his forces, was in the neigh- 
 bourhood of his retreat, and might have intercepted 
 him, but failed to do so, a neglect that afterwards 
 drew upon him the severe censure of Parliament. 
 Fairfax and Cromwell pursued to the neighbour- 
 
252 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 hood of Leicester, but returned to Market Har- 
 borough to spend the night, and write despatches. 
 It is said that the King rode through Leicester 
 without drawing rein. Declining the highway by 
 Bradgate, he took the less frequented by-lanes to 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch. A story of an old man who 
 died in 1818, who remembered his grandfather 
 speaking of the King riding through Hugglescote, 
 on his flight from Naseby, with a party of horse, 
 is recorded in one of the County histories. 
 
 They drew rein at an inn kept by Robert Hall, 
 who combined the occupation of farrier. It was 
 probably the " Three Horse Shoes." The troopers 
 formed in a line before the inn door, calling loudly 
 for refreshment. The evening was wet and close, 
 and they had ridden far and long, over muddy 
 and ill-kept roads. A servant maid brought out 
 ale in milk pails, which were carried down the line 
 for the mounted horsemen to help themselves with 
 
 An officer left the company and made his way 
 to the smithy. The farrier, in lifting the horse's 
 foot to examine the faulty shoe, noticed the royal 
 arms and initials stamped upon it, and suspected 
 the officer to be the King. Lifting his head, he 
 inquired of the rider whether he had the honour 
 of shoeing his Majesty's horse. Whereupon he 
 assented and informed him that he himself was 
 the King. On hearing this the farrier fell upon 
 his knees, but his Majesty bade him rise and shoe 
 the horse well, speaking affably and graciously to 
 him. When he had performed his task the whole 
 party rode up as if pursued. They had, how- 
 ever, no cause for fear. Only a short gallop of 
 six miles separated them from the security of 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The rain fell steadilv, their 
 
DISASTROUS NASEBY. 253 
 
 cloaks were sodden, their horses covered with mud 
 and foam, for in many places their feet sank to 
 the fetlocks, but they passed swiftly through the 
 villages of Heather and Normanton, while the 
 astonished rustics stood at the open doors of their 
 cottages to gaze and comment on the tragedy of 
 defeated and fugitive Majesty. 
 
 " Towards night on that dismal Saturday they 
 reached Ashby-de-la-Zouch, for they had left 
 running." 
 
 THE LAST ROYAL VISIT. 
 
 It was the King's last visit to the Castle, and 
 although his flag fluttered proudly on the keep, 
 no member of the family met him with loyal words 
 of welcome at the great gateway. Only memories 
 of happier times flitted across his mind, as he sat 
 lonely and depressed bp the wide fireplace in the 
 Earl's private chamber. Such memories covered 
 the whole period of his life, his boyish visit on his 
 way from Edinburgh to London to a new and 
 strange home, and his later visits first with his 
 father King James, and afterwards with his 
 queenly consort, who had again left him to never 
 more rejoin him, unless in the Eternal City, where 
 every citizen is royal. The Castle had been the 
 last stage of his grandmother, the sad-hearted 
 Queen of Scots, on her journey to the scaffold. It 
 was a stage of his own journey to the same doom. 
 But what loneliness reigned in the fortress. The 
 familiar friends of other days were dead. The 
 Golden Earl, the gracious Countess, and the vener- 
 able rector had passed into the mysterious 
 unknown. The sole surviving member of the 
 family whose presence could have brought a flush 
 of pleasure to his pale cheek, the indomitable 
 
254 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 LoTigliborough, was at Leicester succouring his 
 fugitive soldiers and breasting the victorious pro- 
 gress of his enemies. Only the haunting memories 
 of the past visited him in his solitude during his 
 last night at Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle. About 
 ten of the clock on the following morning he left 
 the Castle, having rested ten hours, and while the 
 bells of St. Helen's Church chimed their melodious 
 invitation to the House of Prayer, he rode towards 
 Lichfield. 
 
T 
 
 SURRENDER OF THE CASTLE. 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 JUNE, 1645, TO FEBRUARY, 1646 (old date). 
 
 HE flight of the general body of the royal army 
 from Naseby does not appear to have been so 
 confused as the Parliamentary leaders asserted in 
 their despatches. Leicester is no great distance 
 from the scene of the conflict, and offered a ready 
 shelter for the defeated Royalists. Cromwell, 
 intent upon securing the person of his Majesty, 
 pursued to the vicinity of the town, but detached 
 bodies of Cavaliers, adopting various routes, not 
 only effected a successful retreat, but assisted the 
 foot, and conveyed large numbers of wounded. 
 The Leicester fortifications afforded an effective 
 temporary barrier to the Roundhead pursuit. 
 While the south-eastern district from the battle- 
 field lay at the mercy of the victorious cavalry, as 
 far as they were able to traverse it, the country 
 stretching beyond to the west in the direction of 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Lichfield remained open 
 and safe. The battle occurred on the Saturday, 
 and until the following Wednesday Lord Lough- 
 borough retained possession of Leicester, with the 
 object of furthering the dispersal of the Cavaliers. 
 
256 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 Thomas Thorsby, on hearing the news at his farm 
 at Ansty, had sufficient time to harness his teams 
 to his wagons, and reach Leicester early enough to 
 render effective service, in conveying the wounded 
 to places of security. 
 
 The victorious Eoundheads spent the Sabbath in 
 religious exercises and preparations for the re- 
 duction of Leicester on the following day. 
 
 SURREXDEB, OF LEICESTER. 
 
 On Monday, the 16th of June, Cromwell, 
 appearing at the gates, summoned Lord Lough- 
 borough to surrender, and received a deJ&ant 
 answer. The Roundheads were fully informed of 
 the difficulties of his position, whilst he himself 
 plainly intended to retain possession as long as 
 possible in the interests of the army. But during 
 the day Fairfax arrived, and immediately in- 
 structed his gunners to erect a formidable battery 
 for the bombardment of the defences, upon which 
 the Grovernor sent a trumpeter, with letters offering 
 to open negotiations for capitulation. 
 
 He was afterwards censured by his own party 
 for surrendering the town. While no royalista 
 impugned his personal honour and courage, many 
 condemned his action as injurious to his Majesty's 
 interest. But a consideration of the circumstances 
 of his position raises the question whether there 
 was any possibility of a successful resistance. The 
 late Parliamentary garrison of greater numerical 
 strength than his own, and assisted by a sturdy 
 and resolute populace, had utterly failed to resist 
 the royalist assault when the fortifications were 
 intact. 
 
 They were now but partially repaired. The 
 force assigned to Hastings by the King, numbering 
 
SURREXDER OF THE CASTLE. 257 
 
 1,200 men, had already proved barely sufficient 
 during the past fortnight to overawe the unfriendly 
 roundhead population. In the event of a siege, 
 great difficulty would have arisen from within. 
 Public opinion in the borough revolted at the mere 
 thought of a second assault. Thousands yet 
 suffered the immediate pangs of bereavement. 
 The terrible prospect of a second bombardment, 
 and of a second assault under the command of 
 Cromwell, blanched the faces of the puritans them- 
 selves. This sentiment the City Fathers, in their 
 representative capacity, urged upon Hastings with 
 all the weight of their official position. The 
 Governor had fully informed himself of the 
 disastrous character of the recent defeat. He had 
 witnessed the King's hurried flight; he had 
 questioned fugitive officers and men ; and had 
 received full reports from his own Blue Coats, who 
 participated in the conflict; and after summing 
 up the evidence he yielded to the Humanitarian 
 appeal. 
 
 HUMILIATION. 
 
 Throughout the whole of Tuesday the negotia- 
 tions proceeded. The terms conceded by the 
 roundheads were not generous, but humiliating, 
 the meagre privilege of withdrawal from the town. 
 At the surrender of the Parliamentary garrison of 
 Lichfield, Lord Loughborough had strained his 
 plenipotentiary aiithority, to mark his appreciation 
 of the valour of a resolute opponent; but the 
 farmer of St. Ives had no mind to spare the self- 
 respect of the high-born Cavalier of Ashby-de-la- 
 Zouch. On the following morning he surrendered 
 the keys of the town, and marched out of Leicester 
 at the head of his soldiers. Officers and men had 
 been deprived of their arms, and allowed to carry 
 18 
 
258 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 their staves only. At Ashby-de-la-Zoucli the 
 company divided into two portions, those who did 
 not belong to the garrison of the Castle continuing 
 their journey to Lichfield. 
 
 Reviewing the position of affairs at Ashby-de-la- 
 Zouch, Lord Loughborough found little cause for 
 encouragement. It is true that Newark, Belvoir, 
 and Tutbury still stood for the royal cause, and his 
 Majesty himself lingered at Lichfield. But under 
 the changed conditions of the war these strong 
 places, like his own Castle, had become as sandhills 
 in the path of the incoming tide. The fateful 
 defeat at Naseby had annihilated the Cavaliers in 
 the Midlands and the North. For the immediate 
 future he had no pressing misgivings. So long as 
 he could provision his fortress he could hold it in 
 the King's name. He had an ample force for 
 defensive purposes, and thanks to the plunder of 
 Leicester, he had a good store of both arms and 
 provisions ; but the inundation of Leicestershire 
 with roundheads threatened to prevent the levying 
 of future requisitions. 
 
 CROMVTELL AT COLLORTON. 
 
 He had also certain information of Cromwell 
 and Needham's advance towards Ashby-de-la- 
 Zouch. On Friday, watching Collorton from the 
 keep, he noticed an unusual activity amongst the 
 troops. Cromwell had arrived there for recon- 
 noitring purposes, and now gazed upon the famous 
 towers of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. He had complained 
 two years previously that the Castle stuck with 
 my Lord Grey of Groby, preventing him, in the 
 interests of Leicester town, from keeping his 
 rendezvous, and declaring that for his part he 
 would rather see the whole Puritan population of 
 Leicester wiped off the face of the earth, than the 
 
SURBENDER OF THE CASTLE. 259 
 
 cause suffer. Yet as tlie royal standard floated 
 proudly and defiantly in the June breezes before 
 his eyes, lie realised bis inability to haul it down ; 
 as with Lord Grey, so with himself, it stuck, and 
 he turned his charger reluctantly back towards 
 Leicester, leaving the task of subjugation to other 
 hands. After his departure no further attempt 
 was made to invest the Castle for some months. 
 General Fairfax committed the Governorship of 
 Leicester to Colonel Needham, with instructions 
 to watch the Castle garrison, and maintain the 
 blockade on the Collorton side. 
 
 HASTINGS AND BAGOT. 
 
 Lord Loughborough now determined to carry 
 out a project, that had remained uppermost in his 
 mind, since his brief and inconclusive interview 
 with the King, on his flight from Naseby. He 
 would wait upon his Majesty at Lichfield, and 
 ascertain his personal wishes. Committing the 
 defence of the Castle to his friend Colonel Perkins 
 he hastened to the Royal Court. At Lichfield he 
 found his former friend and recent opponent, 
 Colonel Bagot, dying in the Close from a wound 
 received at Naseby, a shattered bone in the arm, 
 the treatment of which baffled the surgical skill 
 of the period. The dispute between the two 
 valorous soldiers had agitated royalists' circles 
 for some months. Honest Sir Jacob Astley, always 
 outspoken, had written of it. " In all places 
 where I come, it is my misfortune to meet with 
 extreme trouble. I have met in Lichfield ex- 
 ceeding great trouble, the Commander and 
 Soldiers in the Close having shut out my Lord 
 Loughborough." Sir Jacob endeavoured and 
 failed to pacify the disputants, and after Colonel 
 Bagot's death, Eupert, seeking to sustain the 
 
260 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 Bagot faction, called upon himself tlie King's 
 rebuke, Lis Majesty manifestly sympathising with 
 Loughborough. The quarrel was plainly attribut- 
 able to incompatibility of temperament, and excess 
 of zeal on each rival's part, to distinguish himself 
 in the King's service, for Loughborough lucidly 
 informed Prince Rupert " that they were each too 
 high to acknowledge a superiority." It is to be 
 hoped at the last a reconciliation took place in the 
 death chamber, for both were noble, and the 
 presence of death dissipates anger. The sorrow- 
 ful King, his hair beginning to tinge with grey, 
 took a pathetic interest in his suffering follower, 
 visiting his sick chamber, sitting by his bedside, 
 and speaking comforting words to him. 
 
 A MALIGN AXT's DEATH. 
 
 All Lichfield mourned his approaching decease. 
 When the end came, he had just time to partake 
 of the Lord's Sacrament, and sank upon his pillow, 
 murmuring in a low voice, " Lord Jesus, forgive my 
 sins ; wash me thoroughly with thy Precious 
 Blood ; have mercy upon m.j friends and country ; 
 bless and preserve the King, Amen." So died a 
 Cavalier and a Malignant, at the early age of 27. 
 In the Cathedral his monument of black marble 
 may be seen, near Bishop Hacket's tomb, but even 
 into God's house men carried the bitter animosity 
 of the restoration period. 
 
 " Near this spot lieth 
 Richard Bagot, 
 youngest son of Sir Harvey Bagot, who, during the 
 raging of the late rebellion of the fanatics, being 
 Governor of this fortress, was mortally wounded 
 when bravely fighting in the fatal 
 Field of Naseby. 
 
SURREXDER OF THE CASTLE. 261 
 
 He died without issue on the seventh day of July, 
 1645." 
 
 THE PLAGUE AT ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH. 
 
 From the solemn scene at Lichfield, Lough- 
 borough returned to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, to battle 
 with a more relentless foe than the victorious 
 Roundheads, for at the end of August the plague 
 broke out in the Castle, and the town. The crowd- 
 ing of a uniform garrison of 500 men, in and around 
 the fortress, for a period of nearly three years, 
 without attention to the decency and cleanliness 
 essential for the maintenance of healthy living, 
 and in an age of primitive sanitation, produced the 
 epidemic. Extemporised slaughter-houses all over 
 the town had poured continuous streams of blood 
 and refuse into the streets, without any attempt 
 being made to convey them away. Horses and 
 cattle had been stalled in every available building. 
 Purple spots and large ulcers developed upon the 
 persons of the stricken, and death quickly super- 
 vened. The sickness prevailed for some weeks, 
 devastating the population both of the Castle and 
 the town. Many of the troopers deserted the 
 Castle, but the social habits of English life of the 
 seventeenth century discouraged nomadism, and in 
 consequence, the great majority remained. But 
 the infection spread from the afflicted to the able- 
 bodied, who voluntarily tended them, until it 
 became necessary to bury the dead hurriedly in 
 pits. A black panic of horror and desolation 
 reigned at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, preventing the corn 
 markets, and causing garrison and townspeople 
 alike to depend upon the stored provisions of the 
 Castle. From the Roundheads the Castle suffered 
 no molestation. They retired from CoUorton to 
 Leicester. 
 
262 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOCJCH CASTLE. 
 THE LAST FIGHT. 
 
 By the end of October, however, the plague 
 spent itself, and Loughborough bestirred himself 
 to collect reinforcements, until he raised the 
 number of his fighting men to his normal strength. 
 Proceeding to revictual the Castle, he now dis- 
 covered the necessity for extreme prudence, for the 
 field of operations had become painfully restricted, 
 and in every direction enemies of superior strength 
 were alert to lead him into a trap. Nevertheless 
 he achieved the last successful expedition of the 
 siege. The garrison of Belvoir Castle had fallen 
 into a condition of dire distress, and was suffering 
 acutely from scarcity of water, the beleaguering 
 force having diverted the supply. The Committee 
 of both Kingdoms, desiring to bring the siege to a 
 successful termination, had petitioned Parliament 
 to supply a huge mortar from E-eading, to be used 
 with that design. '' On January 15th, 1646, 
 by word of Parliament the mortar piece, with 
 shells and equipage thereunto belonging at Read- 
 ing, was sent to Belvoir Castle to be made use of for 
 the reducing of that Castle, for which the sum of 
 £350 was ordered to be spent. This added rein- 
 forcement did not reach its destination, for on the 
 19th of January, Colonel Hastings, with his Ashby- 
 de-la-Zouch horse, surprised a convoy of Parlia- 
 mentarians going to Belvoir Castle with the mortar 
 piece and grenades." Loughborough conveyed the 
 mortar piece to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. It was his 
 last service to Belvoir. He could extend to the 
 garrison there no longer his active protection, and 
 it surrendered on February 3rd. 
 
 The capture of the mortar stirred the Parliamen- 
 tary forces in Leicestershire to renewed activity. 
 The fear of carrying the plague to Leicester had 
 
SITRRENDER OF THE CASTLE. 263 
 
 caused Colonel Needham to utterly suspend hos- 
 tile demonstrations, and to forbid liis troopers to 
 approach the neighbourhood of Ashby-de-la- 
 Zouch. So entirely was he ignorant of the state of 
 affairs in the plague-stricken town that the news 
 of the convoy affair was his first intimation of the 
 disappearance of the plague. But the affair had 
 also roused the Committee of both Kingdoms, 
 who at once forwarded imperative instructions to 
 their commander before Belvoir, and to Colonel 
 Needham, to take immediate and resolute steps for 
 the reduction of both castles. 
 
 A MIDNIGHT RAID. 
 
 In fulfilment of these instructions, Needham 
 organised a reconnoitring party of horse at 
 Leicester, under the command of Major Meeres, 
 and ordered it to proceed to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. 
 It started from Leicester at nine o'clock in the 
 evening of the 3rd of February, proceeding in the 
 darkness along the Bradgate highway. The 
 thought of possible dangers, of ambuscades, of the 
 plague, and the oppressive darkness, appealed to 
 the superstitious horsemen, and kept them in com- 
 pact formation. But they reached the turnpike 
 outside Ashby-de-la-Zouch without misadventure 
 about eleven of the clock. Coming silently and 
 suddenly upon Loughborough's sentinels, they sur- 
 prised and captured them. Then they rode into 
 the silent toT\Ti. The lights were extinguished, 
 and the townspeople had retired for the night. In 
 the great fortress all appeared quiet, but the 
 Roundheads avoided it. Knocking up the leading 
 townspeople, they quickly plundered them, search- 
 ing their stables. They collected one hundred 
 horses, half of which were saddled, nearly all Lord 
 
264 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 LoughborougL's mounts, together with a quantity 
 of arms. In some of the houses they found 
 prisoners, under guards, countrymen who had been 
 arrested and detained for ransom. These unfortu- 
 nates they liberated. During their operations the 
 garrison made no demonstration of resistance, and 
 when they had completed their task the Round- 
 heads returned in the darkness to Leicester. 
 
 In truth the weary Lord of the Castle had decided 
 that a protraction of the defence would incur a 
 wanton sacrifice of life and property, without 
 accomplishing any useful purpose. Messengers 
 had already informed him of the surrender of Bel- 
 voir Castle, and he was aware that Colonel Needham 
 awaited only positive information of the disappear- 
 ance of the plague to advance against the Castle 
 with an army reinforced by the captors of Belvoir 
 Castle, and provided with sufficient effective siege 
 artillery. His provisions were exhausted, and the 
 whole neighbourhood from which he had hitherto 
 drawn supplies was impoverished. But the most 
 dismal consideration that formed a factor of his 
 meditation was the consciousness that the* Royalist 
 cause as a military power no longer existed in the 
 Midlands and the North. 
 
 CAPITULATION. 
 
 Major Meeres returned to Leicester with a report 
 that the garrison had reached the limit of endur- 
 ance, on receiving which Colonel Needham pro- 
 ceeded to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where Lord Lough- 
 borough replied to his summons by an offer to 
 capitulate on honourable terms. In the negotia- 
 tions between the two commanders. Colonel 
 Needham reciprocated the chivalrous motives of 
 the defeated Cavalier. He was the representative 
 
SURRENDER OF THE CASTLE. 265 
 
 of General Fairfax, and in his official capacity and 
 private conduct refrained from raising humiliating 
 conditions, but he rather frankly and fully recog- 
 nised the gallant fight his defeated opponent had 
 made. The conditions under which Loughborough 
 surrendered are as follows: — 
 
 " Articles of rendition of the King's garrison of 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch, made between Colonel General 
 Hastings and Colonel Needham, Governor of 
 Leicester. Imprimis, that all the officers and sol- 
 diers now at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and under the 
 command of Colonel General Hastings, and that all 
 over and above the number herein specified shall 
 on Monday next, after the signing hereof, being 
 the 2nd day of March, depart and quit the garrison, 
 and march away without further stay or con- 
 tinuance. 
 
 Item : That upon the Tuesday following, Colonel 
 General Hastings shall begin to slight the works 
 and fortifications of the town and garrison of 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and to that end shall endeavour 
 and procure assistance from the county as well as 
 receive all such as be sent to that purpose, and not 
 forbear until the whole be slighted and unfortified. 
 
 Item : That at the end of three months hereafter 
 specified. Colonel General Hastings shall deliver 
 up Ashby-de-la-Zouch House itself, being now a 
 garrison of the King's, into the hands of his brother, 
 the Earl of Huntingdon. 
 
 Item : That sufficient hostages, and such as shall 
 be thought fit by Colonel Needham, shall be given 
 for the safe return of any convoy that shall be 
 granted to him. 
 
 Item : That Colonel General Hastings, with his 
 officers, gentlemen, and soldiers, shall have liberty 
 of their pleasure to march away to Bridgenorth, 
 
266 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 with their arms, horses, and ammTinition, bag and 
 baggage, trumpets sounding, drums beating, 
 colours flying, matches lighted on both ends, 
 muskets loaded, with brass gun and a case of sacks 
 in boxes, and have sufficient carriage allowed them, 
 and six days' liberty for their passage. 
 
 Item : That Colonel General Hastings, his officers 
 and gentlemen, and also all manner of persons, as 
 well soldiers as others, and that are now members 
 of that garrison, and now belonging to it, shall have 
 liberty to lay down their arms and have protection 
 to live at home, if they please, they submitting to 
 all ordinances of Parliament. 
 
 Item : That all the sequestrations of Colonel 
 General Hastings, the Earl, and Colonel Perkins, 
 Governor of Ashby-de-la-Zouch House, be taken 
 off, upon the slighting of Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
 House. 
 
 Item : That Sir Eichard Skeffington and Colonel 
 Keedham shall have liberty and power to compound 
 for the estates of such officers and gentlemen in the 
 list given in; whether of Leicestershire, Derby- 
 shire, oS'ottinghamshire, Staffordshire, or Warwick- 
 shire, or as. many as they shall think fit of them to 
 compound with, for their estates. 
 
 Item : That Colonel General Hastings, with the 
 said gentlemen, and their servants that desire to 
 stay with him, not exceeding the number of 100, 
 may have free liberty to stay at Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
 for three months after the signing of these articles, 
 and not to be molested during the said term for any 
 debts or engagements, or otherwise, by any of the 
 Parliament's party, they doing nothing prejudicial 
 to Parliament. 
 
 Item : That Colonel General Hastings, and the 
 said gentlemen, with their servants and horses, not 
 
SIIRRENDER OF THE CASTLE. 267 
 
 exceeding in number of horse 150, shall have a 
 sufficient convoy and pass to Hull or Bristol, and 
 therefrom by order of Parliament to have a ship 
 provided to transport them to France or Holland, 
 whither they please. 
 
 Signed the 28th day of February, 1646. 
 
 Henry Loughborough. 
 
 John Needham." 
 
 waiting and watching. 
 
 Lord Loughborough lingered at Ashby-de-la- 
 Zouch during the full limit of three months granted 
 him by the articles of rendition, enjoying with his 
 household of 100 followers complete protection 
 from molestation, and personal freedom. Although 
 the ban of impeachment had been pronounced in 
 the early months of the war against him, yet the 
 same articles, ratified by Parliament, accorded to 
 him if he chose to avail himself of the privilege, 
 the right to settle down in private life, free from all 
 penalties, on condition that he should abstain from 
 active opposition to Parliamentary domination. 
 In official circles, such a promise from him would 
 have been received with satisfaction, for at the 
 period of the capitulation, and later, when he placed 
 himself in graver circumstances of peril by actively 
 assisting in the defence of Colchester, the Indepen- 
 dent section of the Puritan party persistently pro- 
 tected him, going to the length of declaring when 
 he was a prisoner at Windsor Castle, after the sur- 
 render at Colchester, that any official design against 
 his life would be injurious to the interests of the 
 nation. At Ashby-de-la-Zouch he waited, hoping 
 that some change in the state of affairs might yet 
 
268 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
 
 enable him again to hoist the King's standard upon 
 the flag-staff of the Keep. He made no serious 
 move to slight the Castle, it was scarcely likely 
 that he would; indeed, the hope of saving the 
 home of his ancestors had been one of the strongest 
 inducements that prompted him to stipulate for a 
 personal occupation for three months after the 
 capitulation. But by the end of April it became 
 known to him that the King had actually decided 
 to give himself up to the Scots ; accordingly on May 
 18th, accompanied by Sir Aston Cockayne, and a 
 company of gentlemen and retainers, with drums 
 beating, colours flying, and matches burning, he 
 marched out of the town. 
 
 The Parliament utilised the fortress for the 
 incarceration of State prisoners captured at the 
 battle of Worcester, chief of whom was the Duke of 
 Hamilton, appointing Loughborough's old enemy, 
 Lord Grey of Groby, to be Governor. Probably it 
 would have been spared depletion but for the 
 clamorous agitation of middle class Puritanism, 
 through whose efforts the House of Commons 
 appointed a Committee to sit at Leicester on 
 Isovember 28th, 1648, for deliberation on the 
 matter. The Committee decided that Ashby-de-la- 
 Zouch Castle should be immediately slighted and 
 made untenable, and that James, Earl of Cam- 
 bridge, then a prisoner in the Castle, should be sent 
 to Windsor. Care was taken on this occasion that 
 the commission to cany out the design should not 
 again be entrusted to unwilling hands, not to the 
 Governor of Leicester or any Government official, 
 military or civil, but to one of themselves, a stern 
 and unflinching Revolutionist, William Bainbrigg 
 of Lockington, in the County of Leicester. 
 
SURRENDER OF THE CASTLE. 269 
 
 DEPLETION. 
 
 William Bainbrigg forthwith proceeded to 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where he established his head- 
 quarters at the Bull's Head Inn. An examination 
 of an engraving of the Castle, published in 1730, 
 shows that he erected his battery on the high 
 ground between Packington and Ashby-de-la- 
 Zouch, pointing his guns chiefly at the famous 
 Keep, and destroying the whole of it on that side. 
 The Chapel, the Earl's quarters, the Queen of Scots 
 apartments, and the kitchens suffered little injury, 
 but the Great Gate Way, the outer circle of the 
 fortifications, and the brick forts crumbled before 
 his bombardment. 
 
 When Bainbrigg returned to Leicester he left 
 the Fortress an untenable wreckage, the storms and 
 neglect of a quarter of a millenium have contri- 
 buted to the decay, and the wear and tear of two 
 future centuries may complete the ruin, but the 
 story of the illustrious lords who lived and ruled 
 within its walls is a contribution to the national 
 history of the English race that must abide. 
 
The "Journal" Press, 
 Birmingham. 
 
p 17 ^903