Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 6.djvu/158

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144

ORMOND

England, 1509; Sheriff of Kent, 1511, and again, 1617; Constable of Norwich Castle, 1512; was on several important embassies, iz., to the Emperor, to the Low Countries, to France (where he arranged the famous interview called the field of the Cloth of Gold) and (1522-23) to Spain; P.C., 1518; Comptroller (1520), and Treasurer (1521-25) of the Household; K.G., 23 April 1523, being cr., 18 June 1525,(a)^[1] VISCOUNT ROCHFORD.(b)^[2] On 17 Feb. 1527/8, after reciting that "divers contentions and variances" had arisen between the daughters and heirs of the late Earl of Ormond and "Sir Pyers Butler, Knt. [the Earl's] cosyn and heir male," the said parties agree that the said Earldom "shall be from henceforth entirely at the disposition, pleasure, and will of our said Sovereyne Lord," the King. Accordingly a new Earldom (that of Ossory) was six days later conferred on the heir male while, within two years, the abeyance (so to speak) of the old Earldomn of Ormond was terminated in favour of the heir of one of the two coheirs, viz., the said Viscount Rochford who was cr., Dec. 1529, EARL OF WILTSHIRE, in England, with rem. to heirs male of his body and EARL OF ORMOND, in Ireland, with rem. ("heredibus suis in perpetuum") to his heirs general.(c)^[3] He was Keeper of the Privy Seal, 1530-36. He . before 1506 Elizabeth, 1st da. of Thomas (Howard), Duke of Norfolk, by his first wife, Elizabeth, da. and h. of Sir Frederick Tilney. She d. in childbed, 3, and was bur. 7 April 1537, in the Howard aisle at Lambeth church. Funeral certif. He (having survived some two years the execution of his only son and of his da., Anne, the Queen Consort), d. s.p.m.s., 13(d)^[4] March 1538/9, aged 61, at Hever, co. Kent, and was bus. there. M.I.(e)^[5] On his death the Earldom of Wiltshire and the Viscountry of Rochford became extinct, while the representation of the ancient Earldom of Ormond [I.] (as declared, in 1529, in his favour to the exclusion of Dame Anne St. Leger, the other coheir) devolved on his grandchildren,{f)^[6] the issue of his two daughters.

↑ (a) See vol. ii, p. 438, note "c," sub "Cumberland," for a list of those ennobled on that day.
↑ (b) The estate of Rochford had devolved on him thro' his mother, who was also one of the two coheirs to the Barony of Rochford er, in 1495.
↑ (c) "The charter of 8 Dec. 1529, was a double one, and while it granted the Earldom of Wiltshire in tail male (with an annuity of £20 out of the issues of Wilts and Devou) it conferred the Earldom of Ormond in Ireland (with the annuity of £10 out of the fee farm of Waterford) on Lord Rochford et hæeredibus suis in perpetuum. The varying destinations of the two dignities have been hitherto a crux to Peerage writers but the apparent anomaly is beautifully explained when the true facts of the case are no longer perverted or obscured. For, when we learn that this Earldom of Ormond is identified with that created in 1828 not only by retaining the same feodum (from which it had not been separated for an instant) but also by descending with the very same limitation, we see how exclusively these facts agree with our previous conclusion that it was the original Earldom of which the continuity had never been broken and which was now called out of abeyance in favour of a rightful heir." [Round's "The Earldoms of Ormond" as on p. 139, note "c."]
↑ (d) This date from a MS. in the Public Record office" is given in the "Nat. Biogr."
↑ (e) "The notices of him in State papers are frequent enough, but there is little to tell of his doings that deserves particular mention. What there is, certainly, does not convey a very high opinion of the man. [Nat. Biogr.]
↑ (f) These were (1) Elizabeth, afterwards (1558-1603) Queen Elizabeth (only child of the Lady Anne Boleyn), and (2) Henry Caryo, afterwards (1559-96) 1st Baron Hunedon, whose grandaughter and heir general, Elizabeth (da. and h. of George, 2d Baron Hunsdou), m. Sir Thomas Berkeley, ancestor of the Lords Berkeley. "On the death of Queen Elizabeth," says Nicolas, "the only issue of Anne Boleyn, the eldest coheir, became extinct, when, it is presumed, that the abeyance of the Earldom of Ormond (agreeably to the limitation) terminated and that consequently that dignity reverted to [i.e., became solely vested in the representative of the other coheir, the heir general, of whom is the present [1825] Earl of Berkeley (now, 1894, the suo jure Baroness Berkeley] who under the said limitation must probably be considered as Earl [now, 1894, suo jure Countess] of Ormond in Ireland. There is a doubt as to the seniority of Anne and Mary Boleyn. The seniority of the former is upheld by Mr. Round in his "Early Life of Anne Boleyn," and by Paul Friedmann, but is denied by Mr. Gairdner in his "Mary and Anne Boleyn." [See English Historical Review, Jan., 1893,]

[1] (a) See vol. ii, p. 438, note "c," sub "Cumberland," for a list of those ennobled on that day.

[2] (b) The estate of Rochford had devolved on him thro' his mother, who was also one of the two coheirs to the Barony of Rochford er, in 1495.

[3] (c) "The charter of 8 Dec. 1529, was a double one, and while it granted the Earldom of Wiltshire in tail male (with an annuity of £20 out of the issues of Wilts and Devou) it conferred the Earldom of Ormond in Ireland (with the annuity of £10 out of the fee farm of Waterford) on Lord Rochford et hæeredibus suis in perpetuum. The varying destinations of the two dignities have been hitherto a crux to Peerage writers but the apparent anomaly is beautifully explained when the true facts of the case are no longer perverted or obscured. For, when we learn that this Earldom of Ormond is identified with that created in 1828 not only by retaining the same feodum (from which it had not been separated for an instant) but also by descending with the very same limitation, we see how exclusively these facts agree with our previous conclusion that it was the original Earldom of which the continuity had never been broken and which was now called out of abeyance in favour of a rightful heir." [Round's "The Earldoms of Ormond" as on p. 139, note "c."]

[4] (d) This date from a MS. in the Public Record office" is given in the "Nat. Biogr."

[5] (e) "The notices of him in State papers are frequent enough, but there is little to tell of his doings that deserves particular mention. What there is, certainly, does not convey a very high opinion of the man. [Nat. Biogr.]

[6] (f) These were (1) Elizabeth, afterwards (1558-1603) Queen Elizabeth (only child of the Lady Anne Boleyn), and (2) Henry Caryo, afterwards (1559-96) 1st Baron Hunedon, whose grandaughter and heir general, Elizabeth (da. and h. of George, 2d Baron Hunsdou), m. Sir Thomas Berkeley, ancestor of the Lords Berkeley. "On the death of Queen Elizabeth," says Nicolas, "the only issue of Anne Boleyn, the eldest coheir, became extinct, when, it is presumed, that the abeyance of the Earldom of Ormond (agreeably to the limitation) terminated and that consequently that dignity reverted to [i.e., became solely vested in the representative of the other coheir, the heir general, of whom is the present [1825] Earl of Berkeley (now, 1894, the suo jure Baroness Berkeley] who under the said limitation must probably be considered as Earl [now, 1894, suo jure Countess] of Ormond in Ireland. There is a doubt as to the seniority of Anne and Mary Boleyn. The seniority of the former is upheld by Mr. Round in his "Early Life of Anne Boleyn," and by Paul Friedmann, but is denied by Mr. Gairdner in his "Mary and Anne Boleyn." [See English Historical Review, Jan., 1893,]

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