chief counsellors, though he was a Yorkshire commissioner of array against the Scots and receiver of crown lands on 25 and 30 Sept. 1485, when he had received knighthood. He was employed to receive the rebels to allegiance (18 May 1486), having a little before this date (2 May) been appointed steward of Middleton. In February 1491 he laid claim to the Durham manors of Hert and Hertlepool. His descendant, the Countess of Pembroke, speaks of him as 'a plain man, who lived for the most part a country life, and came seldom to court or London, except when called to parliament,' to which, according to Nicolas, he received summons from 15 Sept. 1485 to 16 Jan. 1497. He was, however, at London on 30 Oct. 1494, when Prince Henry, afterwards Henry VIII, was made a knight of the Bath. He aided the Earl of Surrey at the relief of Norham Castle in 13 Henry VII, and fought with the central vanguard against the Earls of Crawford and Murray at the battle of Flodden, whence he seems to have carried off three pieces of James IV's famous ordnance, 'the seven sisters,' to grace his castle at Skipton, where they were still to be seen in 1572. He was frequently commissioner of array for the three Yorkshire ridings, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, of which last county he was hereditary sheriff. In 1522 he lent Henry VIII a thousand marks for that king's French expedition—almost the largest sum on the list. On 8 Sept. 1522 his son, Henry de Clifford (1493-1542) [q. v.], had to lead the Clifford force against the Scots, as his father was sick. Next year he died, 23 April 1523, leaving orders for his burial at Shap in Westmoreland or Bolton in Craven (Whitaker, pp. 322-7, 405; Letters of Richard III and Henry VII, 99, 389; Dugdale, i. 344; Calendar of State Papers, ed. Brewer, vols. i. &c.; Mat. for History of Henry VII, pp. 63, 117, 224, 420; Hall, pp. 424, 481).
Clifford seems to have been a man of studious habits, and, according to Whitaker, was specially devoted to astronomy and astrology. Whitaker mentions an Old-French 'Treatise on Natural Philosophy' given by him to Bolton Priory, on the dissolution of which establishment it reverted to the family. He seems to have resided chiefly in a half retirement at Barden, where he is said to have constructed a tower, and where, with the aid of the neighbouring canons of Bolton, he amused himself by studying the heavenly bodies (Whitaker, 334). This feature in his life, and the romantic story of his early years, form the basis of one of Wordsworth's poems, 'Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle,' and of what is perhaps the finest passage in the 'White Doe of Rylstone.'
Clifford married, first, Anne, daughter of Sir John St. John of Bletsho, Bedfordshire, knt., cousin-german to Henry VII, by whom he had three sons—Henry [q. v.], first earl of Cumberland, Sir Thomas Clifford (married to Lucy, daughter of Sir Anthony Brown), who figures in the 'State Papers' of Henry VIII's reign, and Edward and four daughters. Clifford's second wife was Florence, daughter of Henry Pudsey of Barfoot, Yorkshire, by whom he had two or three sons, who died young, and a daughter.
[For general authorities on the family see Clifford, Robert de; see also Letters of Richard III and Henry VII, ed. Gairdner (Rolls Series); Materials for the History of Henry VII, ed. Campbell (Rolls Series); Calendar of State Papers, ed. Brewer, vols. i. and ii.; Hall's Chronicle, ed. Ellis, 1809-10.]
CLIFFORD, HENRY de CLIFFORD, fifteenth Lord Clifford, first Earl of Cumberland, eleventh Baron of Westmoreland, and second Baron Vesci (1493–1542), was the eldest son of Henry de Clifford, tenth Baron of Westmoreland [q. v.], by his first wife, Anne, daughter of Sir John St. John of Bletsho (Dugdale, 344; Whitaker, 327). He is said to have been brought up with Henry VIII. He seems at one time to have been on bad terms with his father; and a letter is still preserved written by the old lord to one of the privy councillors, complaining of the 'ungodly and ungudely disposition of my sonne Henrie Clifforde, in such wise as yt was abominable to heare yt.' The father proceeds to accuse his son of open robbery and violence, 'in such wyse as some whol townes are fayne to kepe the churches both nighte and daye, and dare not come att ther own housys,' as well as of apparelling himself and his horse in cloth of gold and goldsmith's work, 'more lyk a duke than a pore baron's sonne as hee is' (Whitaker, 327-8).
In his father's lifetime he appears as Sir Harry Clifford. He was one of the gentlemen of Yorkshire originally chosen to be present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold; but his name, for some reason or other, is struck out of the list. In 1522 he was sheriff of Yorkshire. From 1522 to 1526 he was actively engaged in border warfare. In the latter year (October 1525, according to Doyle) he seems to have been appointed lord warden of the marches, an office which he held for fully two years. He was succeeded by William, lord Dacre (before 26 June 1528), with whom he had a long contention about the castle of Carlisle. Both nobles were summoned before the council of the north on 16 Oct. 1528, after the Earl of Northumberland had vainly striven
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