this was one of those counties that associated for the maintenance of the cause of the latter, and were placed under the command of the Earl of Manchester, Sir Edward Barker, Sir John Petty, and other loyal gentlemen of this county, endeavored, it is true, to raise a force to secure it for the king; but Cromwell surprized and reduced them to obedience. In 1782, when England was involved in a war with France, Spain, Holland, and America, the principal inhabitants of Suffolk, at a meeting held at Stowmarket, agreed to open a subscription, in order to raise a sum sufficient to build a seventyfour gun ship, to be presented to government. Notwithstanding the zeal and efforts that were employed to forward this design, it appeared at the conclusion of the year that no more than 20,0001. had been subscribed. A general peace following very soon afterwards, the plan was dropped, and consequently the subscribers were not called upon for the sums for which they had pledged themselves. HONORIAL HISTORY.---Previously to the Norman conquest, and for nearly two centuries afterwards, the honors of Suffolk and Norfolk were united in one person. The former never conferred a separate title till the 11th Edward III. when, on the decease of Thomas Plantagenet de Brotherton, without issue, ROBERT, son of Robert de Ufford, steward of the royal household, by Cicely de Valoines, was created earl of Suffolk, and had an annuity of 201. per annum granted him sub nomine et honore comitis. He was much employed by his sovereign in important affairs of state till his death, in the 43d year of the same reign, when he left his honor and possessions to his son WILLIAM DE UFFORD, who was snatched away by sudden death, as his four sons had been before him. Ascending the steps to the house of lords to represent to them what the commons, in parliament assembled, considered of the greatest importanee for the welfare of the realm, he fell down and expired, leaving his possessions to Sir William de Eresby, Roger Lord Scales, and Henry Lord Ferrers of Groby, the issue of his three sisters. The The title thus became extinct in this family, and lay dormant four years, when king Richard II. in the ninth year of his reign bestowed it on MICHAEL DE LA POLE, whom he had before made chancellor and keeper of the great seal, assigning him at the same time a grant of 1000 marks per annum to be paid out of his exchequer. Of this nobleman Walsingham observes, that being the son of a merchant, and brought up in the mercantile line himself, he was better versed in commercial matters than in affairs of state. His father was William de la Pole, mayor of Kingston-upon-Hull, who had the dignity of a banneret conferred upon him as part of his reward for lending Edward III. large sums of money, without which he could not have prosecuted his designs against France. The king also promised to pay him 10001. a year on the recovery of his rights in that country. Of his son, the earl of Suffolk, Camden adds, that wanting a mind capable of bearing such a flow of prosperity, he was guilty of some misdemeanor, for which reason he was forced to quit the court, and died in exile at Paris. His large estate was confiscated, so that a small portion only descended to his son and heir. MICHAEL DE LA POLE, who, having married Catharine, daughter of Hugh, earl of Stafford, had certain manors settled upon him and his wife, in the lifetime of his father, for their better support. Those he enjoyed, with the addition of 501. per annum granted upon his petition by the king, and the title of a knight, till the death of Richard I. Soon after the elevation of his successor, to which de la Pole materially contributed, he presented a statement of his case in a petition to parliament, and with the assent of the peers was made capable of inheriting all the lands and lordships of his ancestors, and allowed to enjoy the title and honor of earl of Suffolk to him and his heirs. He died of a flux in 1415, at the siege of Harfleur in France. MICHAEL DE LA POLE, son and heir of the preceding, fell within a month after his father's decease, at the glorious battle of Agincourt, and furnished our inimitable bard with the subject of those pathetic pathetic lines, in which the duke of Exeter, uncle to the king, describes the death of his own brother the duke of York :-- Suffolk first died: and York, all haggled over So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck He threw his wounded arm and kiss'd his lips; WILLIAM DE LA POLE, brother to the gallant earl, succeeded him in his honors and possessions. He was a brave and skilful officer, and being left in France after the death of Henry V. he rendered such eminent services in preserving the conquests there, that he was rewarded with the dignity of marquis, and various additional privileges and emoluments, In the 22d of Henry VI. he was sent over to France, apparently to settle the terms of a truce, which had then been begun, but in reality to procure a suitable match for the king. The princess selected to be the partner of his throne, was Margaret of Anjou, daughter of Regnier, titular king of Sicily. The treaty of marriage having been soon brought to a conclusion by Suffolk, he was sent as the king's proxy to espouse the princess, and conduct her to England. He enjoyed ever afterwards a high degree of favor with the queen, through whose means he was made lord chamberlain, lord high admiral of England, and raised to the dignity of duke of Suffolk, This nobleman is accused of having been concerned with the cardinal of Winchester, in the assassination of the good duke of Gloucester; and after the death of the cardinal, governed every thing with uncontrolled sway. His conduct soon excited the jea lousy lousy of the other nobility; and every odious or unsuccessful measure was attributed to him. So strong was the popular resentment against him, that the king, to skreen him as much as possible, sentenced him to five years' banishment. This was considered by his enemies as an escape from justice; the captain of a ship was therefore employed to intercept him in his passage to France. Being seized near Dover, his head was struck off on the side of a long boat; after which his remains were interred in the collegiate church of Wingfield, in this county. His son and heir, JOHN DE LA POLE, having married Elizabeth, sister to Edward IV. had the honors of marquis and duke confirmed to him and his heirs. He was much in favor with that monarch, and was made constable of Wallingford castle by Henry VII. At his death in 1491, his eldest son, JOHN, who, in his father's life-time had been created earl of Lincoln, succeeded him in his honors of Suffolk. He was made lord lieutenant of Ireland by Richard III. who, after the death of his son, caused him to be proclaimed heir apparent to the crown of England, passing by the daughters of his elder brother Edward. Being so eminent a branch of the York family, it is not surprising that he should be decidedly hostile to the pretensions of Henry duke of Richmond; on whose accession to the crown, he fled to his sister, the duchess of Burgundy, and entered early into the project formed in behalf of the impostor Simnel. As commanderin-chief of the force destined for its accomplishment, he fell, with 4000 of his followers, at the battle of Stoke-upon-Trent, in 1487. EDMUND, his next brother, succeeded him; and being a man of an enterprising and courageous spirit, was employed by the king in various commissions at home and abroad. Being, however, so nearly related to the crown, by his mother and brother, whose heir he was, king Henry VIII. conceived a strong jealousy of him, as a dangerous rival. He therefore ordered him to be secured and imprisoned in the Tower: till at length, previously to his expedition against France, fearing lest the people should, during his absence, release his victim, and make him king, he resolved resolved to remove this nobleman out of his way. He was accordingly beheaded in the Tower, leaving an only daughter, who embraced the monastic life: and thus this honor again became extinct, but was soon afterwards revived in another family, in the of person CHARLES BRANDON, son of Sir Thomas Brandon, who having been a firm adherent to Henry, duke of Richmond, was, on his accession to the throne, made a knight of the garter and marshal of the court of common-pleas. Charles, his son and heir, was endowed by nature with eminent qualities both of body and mind; and for his services in the campaign against France, was invested by Henry VIII. with the dignity of viscount Lisle and duke of Suffolk. This nobleman won the heart of the king's sister, the princess Mary, who was married to Louis XII. of France; and after her short-lived union with that monarch, became her husband. On the dissolution of the greater monasteries, he obtained a considerable share of their possessions. In the 36th of Henry VIII. he was appointed general of the army that was sent into France, and took Boulogne; and dying the year following, was interred in St. George's chapel, at Windsor Castle. By Catharine, daughter of Lord Willoughby de Eresby, he left two sons. HENRY, who succeeded him in his honors and estate, and Charles, both of them in their minority. These youths being at the house of the bishop of Lincoln, at Bugden, in IIuntingdonshire, were seized with the sweating sickness, which was then making great ravages, and died on the same day, July 14, 1551, without heirs. HENRY GREY, marquis of Dorset, having married Frances, eldest daughter of Charles Brandon, and the princess Mary, sister to Henry VIII. was now created duke of Suffolk, Oct. 11, 1551. By this union he had three daughters, the eldest of whom, Jane, being married to Guildford, lord Dudley, fourth son of the duke of Northumberland, was, through his artifices, appointed by the will of king Edward VI. his successor, to the prejudice of his sisters Mary and Elizabeth. The former having soon overcome all VOL. XIV. opposi⚫ Ꭰ |