Baronage, 1886, i. 630; G. E. C.'s Complete Peerage, iii. 152; Collins's Peerage of England, 1812, ii. 178–9; Gent. Mag. 1744 p. 619, 1745 p. 45, 1763 p. 257, 1769 p. 54; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, iv. 1241; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, 1812–15, ii. 374, iii. 643, viii. 98; Nichols's Illustrations of Literary History, 1817–1858, iii. 145; Alumni Westmonast. 1852, pp. 235, 543; Haydn's Book of Dignities, 1890; Rogers's Protests of the Lords, ii. 89; Official Return of Lists of Members of Parliament, ii. 79, 92, 105, 131.]
SACKVILLE, Sir EDWARD, fourth Earl of Dorset (1591–1652), born in 1591, was the younger surviving son of Robert Sackville, second earl [q. v.] His elder brother, Richard, born 28 March 1590, succeeded as third earl on 28 Sept. 1609 and died on 28 March 1624. Edward matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, with his brother Richard, on 26 July 1605. He may have been removed to Cambridge; an ‘Edward Sackvil’ was incorporated at Oxford from that university 9 July 1616. He was one of the handsomest men of his time, and in August 1613 became notorious by killing in a duel Edward Bruce, second lord Kinloss (Cal. State Papers, 14 Jan. and 9 Sept. 1613; Winwood, Memorials, iii. 454). The meeting took place on a piece of ground purchased for the purpose two miles from Bergen-op-Zoom, which even in 1814 was known as Bruceland. Sackville was himself severely wounded. He sent, in self-justification, a long narrative from Louvain, dated 8 Sept. 1613, with copies of Bruce's challenges. The cover of this communication alone remains at Knole; but the whole was frequently copied, and was first printed in the ‘Guardian’ (Nos. 129 and 133) 8 and 13 Aug. 1713, from a letter-book at Queen's College, Oxford (cf. Archæologia, xx. 515–18). The quarrel may have arisen out of Sackville's liaison with Venetia Stanley, afterwards wife of Sir Kenelm Digby [q. v.] The latter after his marriage maintained friendly relations with Sackville, who is the ‘Mardontius’ of Digby's memoirs (Warner, Poems from Digby Papers, Roxburghe Club, app. p. 49; Aubrey in Bodleian Letters, ii. 326 sqq.). Sackville's life was attempted soon after his return to England (Cal. State Papers, 5 Dec. 1613).
In 1614 and in 1621–2 Sackville represented the county of Sussex in parliament, and was one of the leaders of the popular party. In 1616 he was visiting Lyons, when Sir Edward Herbert was arrested there, and he procured Herbert's release (Herbert of Cherbury's Autobiography, ed. Lee, pp. 168–171). He was made a knight of the Bath when Charles I was created Prince of Wales (3 Nov. 1616). He was one of the commanders of the forces sent under Sir Horatio Vere to assist the king of Bohemia, sailed on 22 July 1620, and was present at the battle of Prague, 8 Nov. 1620 (Rushworth, Collections, pp. 15, 16). The following March he was nominated chairman of the committee of the commons for the inspection of the courts of justice, but did not act. He spoke on Bacon's behalf in the house 17 March 1621, and frequently pleaded for him with Buckingham (Spedding, Letters and Life of Bacon, vii. 324–44). In July 1621 he was for a short time ambassador to Louis XIII, and was nominated again to that post in September 1623 (Hist. MSS. Comm., 4th Rep. app. p. 287). In November 1621 he vigorously defended the proposal to vote a subsidy for the recovery of the palatinate, declaring that ‘the passing-bell was now tolling for religion.’ To this occasion probably belongs the speech preserved by Rushworth (Collections, pp. 131–4) and elsewhere, but wrongly attributed to 1623, when Sackville was not a member of parliament. In April 1623 he was ‘roundly and soundly’ reproved by the king at a meeting of the directors of the Virginia company, having been since 1619 a leading member of the party which supported Sir Edwin Sandys [q. v.] (Cal. State Papers, April 1623). He was governor of the Bermuda Islands Company in 1623, and commissioner for planting Virginia in 1631 and 1634. On 23 May 1623 he received a license to travel for three years. He was at Rome in 1624, and visited Marc Antonio de Dominis [q. v.], archbishop of Spalatro, in his dungeon. At Florence he received the news of the death of his elder brother Richard, which took place on 28 March 1624. He thereupon became fourth Earl of Dorset.
The estates to which he succeeded were much encumbered; he was selling land to pay off his brother's debts 26 June 1626, and something was still owing on 26 Sept. 1650. He became joint lord lieutenant of both Sussex and Middlesex, and held many similar offices, such as the mastership of Ashdown Forest, and stewardship of Great Yarmouth from 1629. He was made K.G. on 15 May 1625, and installed by proxy 23 Dec. At the coronation of Charles I on 2 Feb. 1626 he was a commissioner of claims, and carried the first sword, and he was called to the privy council 3 Aug. 1626. His influence at court was fully established by his appointment as lord chamberlain to the queen on 16 July 1628.
As a peer and privy councillor Dorset showed great activity. He was a commiss-
