revels. But in 1614 he became Lord Treasurer, and on 10 July the Chamberlainship was conferred upon the then reigning royal favourite, Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, much to the disappointment of Shakespeare's patron, William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, who had to content himself with a promise of the reversion.[1] This, however, fell in sooner than might have been hoped for. Somerset came to disaster for his share in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in 1615, and on 2 November, shortly before he was sent to the Tower, Lord Wotton, the Comptroller of the Household, came from the King to demand his seals and the white staff. He handed over the seals, says our informant, the Venetian ambassador, 'and as for the staff, which he pointed out to him in a corner of the room, he might take it'. Lord Wotton replied that the King did not order him to take it, but Somerset to give it, 'which he did'.[2] Pembroke was appointed on 23 December 1615 and remained Lord Chamberlain until 3 August 1626, when he was succeeded by his brother Philip Earl of Montgomery.[3]
The illness, or employment elsewhere, of a Lord Chamberlain sometimes rendered necessary the appointment of a deputy. Both Howard of Effingham and Hunsdon appear to have acted in this capacity during Sussex's tenure of office; Howard in 1574-5 and Hunsdon in 1582. Similarly Howard de Walden acted without having the white staff during the second Lord Hunsdon's illness in 1602, and again for a month before his own appointment in 1603.[4] There was indeed provision for the regular assistance of the Lord Chamberlain by a Vice-Chamberlain, an officer who had existed at least as far back as the fourteenth century, and is probably indeed the 'subminister' of the thirteenth.[5] Elizabeth's fee lists provide for a Vice-Chamberlain at a fee of £66 13s. 4d. and a table at court. But the post was not always filled up. Sir Edward Rogers held it from 1558 to 1559, Sir Francis
- ↑ Stowe, Annals, 936; Birch, James, i. 336; Wotton, Letters, ii. 40, 41.
- ↑ V. P. xiv. 65; Camden, James, 14.
- ↑ Birch, James, i. 382; Camden, James, 15; V. P. xiv. 100. Philip Herbert himself became Earl of Pembroke at his brother's death on 10 Apr. 1630. He took the parliamentary side in politics, and surrendered his staff on 23 July 1641. Robert Devereux, third Earl of Essex, although also a parliamentarian, succeeded him from 24 July 1641 to 12 Apr. 1642 (L. Ch. Records, v. 96).
- ↑ M. S. C. i. 34, 40. Howard of Effingham is described in the Revels Accounts (Feuillerat, Eliz. 238) as 'my L. Chamberlayne the L. Haward' on 5 Dec. 1574, and more precisely in the Chamber Order Book of Worcester as 'Lord Chamberlayn in the absence of the E. of Sussex' in Aug. 1575 (Nichols, Eliz. i. 533).
- ↑ Nicolas, P. C. vi. ccxxi; cf. p. 37.
