to understand why he was nominated to bear the sceptre before the queen at her coronation.
Early in 1485–6, however, he escaped northwards, raised a dangerous revolt with the two Staffords in Worcestershire and Yorkshire, and nearly succeeded in capturing the king while he was at York [cf. art. Henry VII]. When the rising was put down Lovell fled to Lancashire, and passed some time in hiding with Sir Thomas Broughton. He then managed to reach Flanders. Early in May 1487, in company with John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln, and Martin Schwartz, he followed Lambert Simnel to Ireland, and in June crossed to Lancashire, taking part in the battles of Bramham Moor (10 June) and Stoke (16 June). He was reported to have been killed at Stoke, but was seen trying to swim the Trent on horseback, and seems to have escaped to his house at Minster Lovel, Oxfordshire, where he lived for some time in a vault, and probably died of starvation. In 1708, when a new chimney was built at Minster Lovell, a vault was discovered in which was the skeleton of a man (supposed to be the remains of Lord Lovell) who had died seated at a table whereon was a book, paper, and pen. All crumbled to dust when air was admitted. The uncertainty felt about the place and time of his death is shown by the ‘inquisitio post mortem’ (26 Henry VIII, No.110), in which the jurors found that he had escaped beyond sea and died abroad. He had been attainted in 1485, and most of his Northamptonshire estates were given to Henry's mother, the Countess of Richmond. Lovell married in boyhood, before 14 Feb. 1466–7, Anne, daughter of Henry, thirteenth lord FitzHugh, but does not seem to have left issue. On 15 Dec. 1489 Henry granted his widow an annuity of 20l.
[Oman's Warwick, p. 91 (where 1470 should read 1460); An English Chronicle, ed. Davies (Camden Soc.), p. 95; Three Fifteenth-Century Chron., ed. Gairdner (Camden Soc.), p. 73; Anderson's Hist. of the House of Yvery, i. 289–90; Burke's Extinct Peerage; Doyle's Official Baronage; Grants of Edward V, ed. Nichols (Camden Soc.), xxv. 15 et seq.; App. ii. 9th Rep. Dep.-Keeper of Public Records (Patent Rolls of Richard III); Rymer's Fœdera, xii. 118, &c.; Gairdner's Richard III, pp. 205, 237, 263, 308; Letters and Papers, Richard III and Henry VII, ed. Gairdner (Rolls Ser.), i. 234, ii. 371; first three books of Polydore Vergil's Hist. of England, ed. Ellis (Camden Soc.), p. 225; Continuator of Croyland in Gale's Rerum Anglicarum Script. Vet. i. 572; Rutland Papers, ed. Jerdan (Camden Soc.), p. 12; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. i. 230, 401, 443, 5th ser. x. 28, 72; Rolls of Parliament, vi. 254–6, 276, 502; Stubb's Lectures on Med. and Mod. Hist. 347; Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 5530 f. 98, 5758 f. 184, 6032 f. 40, 6113 f. 125, 6670 f. 397.]
LOVELL, GEORGE WILLIAM (1804–1878), dramatic author, born in 1804, was for many years secretary of the Phœnix Insurance Company, but devoted his leisure to writing plays. His first play was the ‘Avenger,’ produced at the Surrey Theatre in 1835, when Samuel Butler represented the chief character. This was followed by the ‘Provost of Bruges,’ with Macready as the hero, at Covent Garden 10 Feb. 1836. The play was founded on ‘The Serf,’ a story in Leitch Ritchie's ‘Romance of History,’ and attained great popularity. A novel called ‘The Trustee,’ which appeared in 1841, further advanced Lovell's literary fame; ‘Love's Sacrifice, or the Rival Merchants,’ a five-act drama, was brought out at Covent Garden on 12 Sept. 1842, under Charles Kemble's management, and the comedy of ‘Look before you Leap,’ at the Haymarket 29 Oct. 1846. Lovell's most famous play, the ‘Wife's Secret,’ was purchased by Charles Kean for 400l. before a line of it was written. It was originally produced at the Park Theatre, New York, 12 Oct. 1846 (Ireland, New York Stage, 1867, ii. 466), and was brought out at the Haymarket, London, 17 Jan. 1848, when it ran for thirty-six nights, and has kept the stage. Lovell's last drama, the ‘Trial of Love,’ acted at the Princess's Theatre 7 Jan. 1852, ran twenty-three nights, with Mr. and Mrs. Kean in the principal characters. He died at 18 Lyndhurst Road, Hampstead, 13 May 1878, in his seventy-fifth year. The majority of his dramatic pieces were printed.
Lovell's wife, Maria Anne Lovell (1803–1877), actress and dramatist, whom he married in 1830, was daughter of Willoughby Lacy, patentee of Drury Lane, who died 17 Sept. 1831, and was born in London 15 July 1803. She first appeared on the stage in 1818 at Belfast as Mrs. Haller, when her success was complete. In 1820 she played at Glasgow and Edinburgh in conjunction with Edmund Kean and Charles Young. On 9 Oct. 1822 she represented Belvidera at Covent Garden, which she followed with Isabella, and was then engaged by the lessee, Henry Harris, for three years. She excelled in pathetic parts (Mrs. C. Baron Wilson, Our Actresses, 1844, pp. 250–5). On her marriage she retired from the stage and employed herself in writing plays. Her drama ‘Ingomar the Barbarian,’ in five acts, was translated and altered from the German; on its production at Drury Lane in
