and Ipswich on 31 July 1567. Then it secured a footing in London, and appeared at Court during the Christmas of 1567-8, on 26 December 1568, and on 5 February 1570. On 2 February 1570 it played at the Lincoln's Inn Candlemas 'Post Revels'.[1] It was also at Canterbury in 1569, Saffron Walden in 1569-70, and Maldon in 1570. Presumably it was a later company to which Gabriel Harvey referred in 1579 (cf. p. 4), and the death of Lord Rich in 1581 might naturally have led to its disbandment or change of service.
iv. LORD ABERGAVENNY'S MEN
Henry Neville, s. of George, 3rd Lord Abergavenny; succ. as 4th
Lord, 1535; ob. 1586.
The only London record of this company is a civic licence
for it of 29 January 1572 (App. D, No. xxi), but it is found in
provincial records at Dover, Canterbury, Leicester, Bristol,
and Faversham in 1571 and 1572, and at Ludlow in 1575-6.
v. THE EARL OF SUSSEX'S MEN
Thomas Radcliffe, s. of Henry, 2nd Earl; nat. c. 1526; m. (1) Elizabeth,
d. of Thomas Earl of Southampton, (2) Frances, d. of Sir William
Sidney, 26 Apr. 1555; succ. as 3rd Earl, 17 Feb. 1557; Lord Chamberlain,
13 July 1572; ob. 9 June 1583.
Henry Radcliffe, s. of Henry, 2nd Earl; nat. c. 1530; m. Honora, d. of Anthony Pound, before 24 Feb. 1561; succ. as 4th Earl, 1583; ob. 14 Dec. 1593.
Robert Radcliffe, s. of 4th Earl; nat. c. 1569; m. (1) Bridget, d. of Sir Charles Morison, who ob. Dec. 1623, (2) Frances Shute; succ. as 5th Earl, 1593; acting Earl Marshal, 1597, 1601; ob. 22 Sept. 1629.
The third Earl of Sussex had a company, which proved
one of the most long-lived of the theatrical organizations of
Elizabeth's time and held together, now in London and now
in the provinces, under no less than three earls. It first
makes its appearance at Nottingham on 16 March 1569, at
Maldon in 1570, on 28 January 1571, and on 20 August 1572,
at Ipswich in 1571-2, at Canterbury and Dover in 1569 and
1570, and in 1569-70 at Bristol, Gloucester, and Ludlow,
where it was of six men. Sussex became Chamberlain in
July 1572 and in the following winter his company came to
the Court, whose Christmases it helped to enliven pretty
regularly until the death of its first patron in 1583. As I have
shown elsewhere (ch. vi), Sussex seems to have had occasional
- ↑ J. D. Walker, The Black Books of Lincoln's Inn, i. 374, gives the name as 'Lord Roche', but this is probably a mistake. Viscount Roche of Fermoy in Ireland is not likely to have had players in London.
