1578 (App. D, No. xl), but gave no play that winter. The Privy Council described it as the Earl of Essex's men, and it played under that name at Coventry in 1577-8 and at Ipswich in 1579-80; but at Oxford, Coventry, and Stratford-on-Avon in 1578-9, and at Oxford in 1579-80, it is still called the Countess of Essex's. It could hardly have borne that name after August 1579, when the Countess's secret marriage with Leicester was revealed to Elizabeth, and doubtless her disgrace debarred it from any further Court favour.
Robert Earl of Essex had a provincial company from 1581 to 1596. In 1581-2 it was at Exeter, in July 1584 at Ludlow, in 1583-4 at Leicester, Stratford-on-Avon, and Ipswich, and in 1584-5 at Bath. On 26 June 1585 it played at Thorpe in Norwich, in spite of a prohibition by the Corporation, and was sentenced to be excluded from civic reward in future. In 1585-6 it was at Coventry and Ipswich, in 1586 before 29 September at Leicester, and possibly about May at Oxford, on 27 February 1587 at York, on 16 July at Leicester, and in the course of the year at Stratford-on-Avon. In 1587-8 it was at Coventry, Ipswich, Saffron Walden, and Leicester, in 1588-9 at Bath, Saffron Walden, and Reading, on 7 September 1589 at Knowsley, on 31 October at Ipswich, and in the same year at Faversham. It was also at Coventry and Faversham in 1589-90, at Maldon in 1590, and twice at Faversham in 1590-1, and is last recorded at Ludlow in April 1596. Murray adds some intermediate dates. A company of Essex's men which appeared at Coventry in 1600-1 is probably distinct. The execution of Essex on 25 February 1601 must have brought it to a premature end.
xi. LORD VAUX'S MEN
William Vaux, 3rd Lord Vaux; nat. c. 1542; m. (1) Elizabeth
Beaumont, (2) Mary Tresham; ob. 20 Aug. 1595.
Edward Vaux, 4th Lord Vaux; nat. 1588; ob. 1661.
These companies are extremely obscure. Gabriel Harvey
mentions the first in 1579 (cf. p. 4); the second was at
Leicester in October-December 1601, Coventry in 1603-4 and
1608, and Skipton in 1609.
xii. LORD BERKELEY'S MEN
Henry FitzHardinge Berkeley, Baron Berkeley; succ. 1553; m.
Catherine, d. of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey; ob. 1613; father of
Thomas Berkeley, nat. 11 July 1575; m. Elizabeth, d. of Sir G.
Carey, afterwards 2nd Baron Hunsdon, 19 Feb. 1596; ob. 22 Nov. 1611.
The only London record of this company is in July 1581,
when some of them, including Arthur King and Thomas
