Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Radcliffe, Thomas
RADCLIFFE, THOMAS, third Earl of Sussex (1526?–1583), eldest son of Sir Henry Radcliffe, second earl of Sussex [see under Radcliffe, Robert, first Earl of Sussex], by his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Howard, second duke of Norfolk, was born about 1526 (Dugdale, Baronage, ii. 286). He was educated apparently at Cambridge (Cooper, Athenae Cantabr. i. 462), and was admitted a member of Gray's Inn on 22 Jan. 1561 (Foster, Admission Register, p. 29). Known by the title of Lord Fitzwalter from 1542, when his father succeeded to the earldom, he took part in the expedition against France in the summer of 1544 (Rymer's Foedera, vol. vi. pt. iii. p. 121). He was probably knighted by Henry VIII at his departure from France on 30 Sept., and was one of the six lords who bore the canopy at his funeral on 14 Feb. 1547 (Strype, Eccl. Mem. II. ii. 298). He commanded a number of demi-lances at the battle of Pinkie Cleugh on 10 Sept., but was unhorsed during the fight, and only escaped with difficulty (Holinshed, Chronicle). He accompanied the Marquis of Northampton to France in 1551 to arrange a marriage between Edward VI and Elizabeth, daughter of Henry II (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. i. 123), and was elected a knight of the shire for the county of Norfolk to the parliament which assembled on 1 March 1553. His name appears among the witnesses to the will of Edward VI, whereby the crown was settled on Lady Jane Grey; but he soon gave in his adhesion to Queen Mary, and rendered her essential service in the suppression of Wyatt's rebellion, for which he was apparently rewarded by a grant of land worth 50l. a year (Journal of Queen Jane and Queen Mary, pp. 99, 187).
In February 1554 he was sent on a mission to Brussels relative to the proposed marriage between Mary and Philip (Lodge, Illustrations, i. 235), and on his return was associated with John, earl of Bedford, in an embassy to the court of Spain for the purpose of obtaining Philip's ratification of the articles of marriage (Instructions in Cott. MS. Vesp.C. vii. f. 198). The envoys returned to England laden with presents, in time to receive Philip on his landing near Southampton on 20 July (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. ii. 74, 77, 106; Wiffen, House of Russell, i. 390). Radcliffe was present at the marriage and at the subsequent festivities at court; and having, apparently during his absence, been summoned to the upper house as Baron Fitzwalter, he took his seat in that assembly on 22 Nov. He was present, with other noblemen, at the consecration of Reginald Pole [q. v.] as archbishop of Canterbury in the church of the Grey Friars, Greenwich, on 20 March 1557 (Strype, Eccl. Mem. in. i. 474), and a day or two afterwards was sent on a mission to the emperor Charles V at Brussels, for the purpose apparently of soliciting Philip to return to England (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. ii. 220, Venetian vol. vi. pt. i. p. 399).
Fitzwalter returned to England early in April 1557, and on the 27th he was appointed lord deputy of Ireland, in place of Sir Anthony St. Leger [q. v.] In the instructions given to him (Cal. Carew MSS. i. 252-7) he was specially admonished to advance the true catholic faith and religion, to punish and repress all heretics and lollards, to have due regard to the administration of justice, to repress rebels, and not to grant pardons too freely, and to make preparations for a parliament 'which is thought right necessary to be forthwith called.' To these were added certain other instructions (Cott. MS. Titus B. xi. ff. 464-7) relative to the projected settlement and plantation of Leix and Offaly. Accompanied by his wife, Sir Henry Sidney [q. v."], Sir William Fitzwilliam (1526-1599) [q. v.], and others, he arrived at Dublin on Whit-Sunday, 24 May. The next day he visited St. Leger at Kilmainham, where he was hospitably entertained, and on the day following he received the sword of state in Christ Church, Dublin. The month of June was passed in arranging the necessary details of his administration; but on 1 July he conducted an expedition into the north for the purpose of expelling the Hebridean Scots from their recently established settlements along the Antrim coast. At Coleraine, hearing that a large body of redshanks supported by Shane O'Neill [q. v.], who had lately ousted his father from the chieftaincy of Tyrone, and was endeavouring to make himself master of Ulster, was lurking in the woods of Glenconkein. Fitzwalter prepared to attack them. He encountered them on the 18th at a place called Knockloughan (? Knockclogrim, near Maghera), and, having slain two hundred of them, put the rest to flight. Retracing his steps to Coleraine, he advanced through the Route and the Glynnes to Glenarm. James MacDonnell, the chief of the Antrim Scots, and elder brother of Sorley Boy MacDonnell . [q. v.], had already escaped to Scotland, but his creaghts were captured; and so, after a journey through the country, which at that time was practically a terra incognita to Englishmen, he returned to Newry, and, after receiving the submission of Shane O'Neill, disbanded his army on 5 Aug.
Returning to Dublin, Fitzwalter prepared to carry out his instructions in regard to the plantation of Leix and Offaly. After a fruitless attempt at conciliation, war was proclaimed against the O'Conors of Offaly in February 1557, and before long Conel O'More's body was dangling from Leighlin Bridge, and Donough, second son of Bernard or Brian O'Conor Faly [q. v.], grew weaker day by day as he was hunted from one fastness to another. It was under these circumstances that the parliament which Fitzwalter had been authorised to summon assembled at Dublin on 1 June. He had already, in consequence of his father's death on 17 Feb., succeeded to the earldom of Sussex, and was appointed about the same time warden of all the forests south of the Trent, and captain of the band of gentlemen pensioners (Dugdale, Baronage). On 1 June, immediately before the opening of parliament, he was invested with the order of the Garter, to which he had been elected on 23 April, by the Earls of Kildare and Ormonde (Machyn, Diary, p. 133). Before parliament was prorogued on 2 July acts had been passed declaring the queen to have been born in just and lawful wedlock, reviving the statutes against heretics, repealing all statutes against the see of Rome since 20 Henry VIII, confirming all spiritual and ecclesiastical possessions conveyed to the laity, entitling the crown to the countries of Leix, Slievemargy, Iregan, Glenmalier, and Offaly, erecting the same into shire ground by the name of King's and Queen's County, and enabling the Earl of Sussex to grant estates therein,, and finally rendering it penal to bring in or intermarry with the Scots. It was, however, easier to dispose of Leix and Offaly by act of parliament than to take actual possession; and parliament had scarcely risen when Sussex was compelled to take the field against Donough O'Conor, who had captured the castle of Meelick. Meelick was recaptured and garrisoned in July, but O'Conor managed to escape, and, after proclaiming him and his confederates traitors, Sussex returned to Dublin. A few weeks later Sussex, who thought it a favourable opportunity to punish Shane O'Neill for his underhand dealings with the Scots, again marched northward on 22 Oct., and, having burned Armagh and ravaged Tyrone with fire and sword, forcibly restored the aged Earl of Tyrone and his son Matthew, baron of Dungannon. He returned to Dublin on 30 Nov., and four days later sailed for England, entrusting the government during his absence to Archbishop Curwen and Sir Henry Sidney. He spent Christmas at court.
Sussex left London on 21 March, but he did not arrive at Dublin till 27 April. His former services were warmly commended by the English government, and he was specially instructed to travel about continually, to which end the castles of Roscommon, Athlone, Monasteroris, Carlow, Ferns, Enniscorthy, and the two forts of Leix and Offaly were placed at his disposal 'either for his pleasure or recreation, or for defence of the countries, punishment of malefactors, or ministration of justice' (Cal. Carew MSS. i. j 273). On 14 June he set out towards Limerick to the assistance of Conor O'Brien, third earl of Thomond [q. v.] The latter was waging an unequal conflict with his uncle Donnell, who had succeeded in getting himself inaugurated O'Brien. He reached Limerick on the 20th, and received the formal surrender of the city. Donnell O'Brien alone of the chieftains of Munster and Thomond failed to pay his respects to the representative of the crown. He was thereupon proclaimed a traitor, and Sussex reinstated his nephew, Conor O'Brien, in his possessions. On 12 July Sussex set out for Galway, and, having confirmed the city charters, shortly afterwards marched to Dublin by way of Leighlin.
After a brief sojourn in the metropolis, he prepared to carry out his instructions for checking the incursions of the Hebridean Scots, and, thinking the best way to attain ' his object was to attack them in their own country, he shipped his army on board the fleet at Lambay, and sailed from Dublin on 14 Sept. Five days later he reached Cantire, 'where I londed and burned the hole countrye.' 'From thens I went to Arren and did the lyke there, and so to the Isles of Cumbras, which I also burned.' His intention of landing on Islay was frustrated by a storm, which drove him to seek shelter in Carrickfergus Haven. Here he landed his men, and made a sudden inroad on the Scots in the Glynnes and Route, and, having burned several villages, returned laden with plunder to Carrickfergus, and thence, on 8 Nov., to Dublin. His expedition had not proved as successful as he had expected, but he begged the queen not to impute his failure to lack of zeal.
On the arrival in Ireland of the news of Queen Mary's death, Sussex placed the government in the hands of Sir Henry Sidney and sailed for England on 13 Dec. By the late queen's will he had been appointed one of her executors with a legacy of five hundred marks, but there was considerable doubt in the minds of the chiefs of the catholic party as to his sympathy with her religious policy (cf. Cal. Simancas MSS. Eliz. i. 25). At the coronation of Queen Elizabeth on 15 Jan. 1559 he officiated as chief sewer by hereditary right. He was one of the peers who sat in judgment on Thomas, lord Wentworth, for the loss of Calais on 22 April, and his name appears as a witness to the signatures to the treaty of Cateau Cambresis. On 3 July he was reappointed lord deputy of Ireland. His instructions closely resembled those formerly delivered to him, but in consequence of the debts incurred by the crown under Mary, he was required to be chiefly careful 'to stay that our realm in quiet, without innovation of anything prejudicial to our estate;' especially he was to try and patch up matters with Shane O'Neill and Sorley Boy MacDonnell (Cal. Carew MSS. i. 284-8). He landed near Dalkey on Sunday, 27 Aug., and three days later he took the oath and received the sword of state in Christ Church. The litany and Te Deum were sung in English, and in this way the protestant ritual was quietly reintroduced by him. Parliament met on 12 Jan. 1560, and was dissolved on 1 Feb., but before it separated acts were passed for restoring the spiritual supremacy of the crown, for uniformity of common prayer and service in the church, for restitution to the crown of first-fruits and twentieths, for confirming and consecrating archbishops and bishops within the realm, for repealing the recent laws against heresy, and for the recognition of the queen's title to the crown of Ireland.
A fortnight later Sussex repaired to England, leaving the government to Sir William Fitzwilliam. He met with a gracious reception from the queen, and was one of the brightest and gayest of the youthful noblemen that thronged her court. On 28 April he jousted in company with Lord Robert Dudley, the Earl of Northumberland, Lord Hunsdon, and others. His commission as viceroy of Ireland was renewed on 5 May. As a special mark of her esteem the queen constituted him lieutenant-general, instead of, as formerly, lord deputy, 'being our cousin in nearness of blood, and an earl of this our land.' His instructions touched, with other matters, the speedy plantation of Leix and Offaly, the recognition of Sorley Boy MacDonnell's claims on condition of his becoming an 'orderly subject' and being willing to hold his lands from the English crown, and the reduction, by fair means or by foul, of Shane O'Neill (ib. i. 291-6). The situation was critical. The generally disturbed state of Ulster, the threatened combination between Shane O'Neill and the Scots, the escape of Brien O'Conor from Dublin Castle, the uncertain attitude of the Earl of Kildare, the return of Teige and Donough O'Brien, and the defeat recently inflicted by them, with the assistance of the Earl of Desmond, on Conor at Spancel Hill, led people to anticipate a universal insurrection of the Irish. Nor did Sussex's detractors spare to insinuate that he was a main cause of the general dissatisfaction, charging him with breaking his word towards the Irish, and with putting to death those who had surrendered under protection, insinuations which he thought he could trace to Shane O'Neill (State Papers, Ireland, Eliz. ii. 21).
He arrived in Ireland in June, and found the country fairly tranquil. Shane O'Neill, however, when called upon to acknowledge the queen's authority, proved recalcitrant, and flatly refused even to meet Sussex unless hostages were given for his safety. Eventually he condescended to repair to Dundalk, but his terms were considered so preposterous that on 15 Aug. Elizabeth authorised his subjugation by force (cf. Cal. Carew MSS. i. 300-4). Shane, seeing Sussex to be in earnest, made a specious offer of submission. In January 1561 Sussex was summoned to London for consultation. Easter was spent at court, and on '1 June he returned to Dublin. Meanwhile Shane had practically established himself as master of almost the whole of Ulster. On 12 June the lord lieutenant marched to Armagh, which he fortified and garrisoned with two hundred men in the cathedral. But his efforts to bring Shane to a general engagement proved futile, and, after laying waste Tyrone, he was compelled to retire to Newry on 31 July. Exasperated at his ill-success, insulted by Shane's demand for an alliance with his sister the Lady Frances, and burning to avenge the aspersions cast by him, and reiterated by his enemies at home, on his government, he tried to bribe Shane's secretary, one Niall Gary or Gray, to assassinate his master, while holding out to Shane delusive proffers of his sister's hand. The attempt, if made at all, failed; but some rumour of Sussex's intention apparently reached Shane's ears.
Compelled to resort to more legitimate methods of warfare, Sussex, about the middle of August, led an unusually large force to Armagh. From Armagh he made a rapid march across Slieve Gullion to the edge of Glenconkein. He met with no opposition, and four thousand head of cattle, with a number of ponies and stud-mares, were captured. An attempt to penetrate into Tyrconnel was frustrated, owing to the loss or delay of victuals which were to have been sent round to Lough Foyle; he retired to Newry. Undeterred by his failure, he was engaged in preparations for another campaign when the Earl of Kildare arrived with a commission to treat with Shane. Sussex felt bitterly humiliated at being thus superseded (State Papers, Ireland, Eliz. iv. 62, 68). The upshot was a treaty whereby Shane promised to go to England and submit his case personally to the queen. Shane on his way through Dublin was entertained by Sussex, who likewise repaired to London on 16 Jan. 1562. He was no doubt present at Greenwich when Shane submitted to Elizabeth.
Quitting London shortly afterwards, he arrived in Dublin on 24 June. Shane's behaviour proved as lawless as before. Convinced that nothing but forcible measures would bring him to reason, Sussex addressed a long, important, and luminous memorial on the state of Ireland to Elizabeth (Cal. Carew MSS. i. 330, 344). The gist of his argument was that 'no government was to be allowed in Ireland where justice was not assisted with force.' The first thing to be done was to expel Shane, to divide Tyrone into three parts, to build a strong town at Armagh, and 'to continue there a martial president of English birth, a justice and council with one hundred English horsemen, three hundred English footmen, two hundred gallowglasses, and two hundred kerne in continual pay.'
Fitzwilliam was despatched to obtain Elizabeth's consent to his proposals, and in the meanwhile Sussex acted on the defensive, occupying himself in carrying out his instructions for the relief of the Pale and for completing the arrangements for the plantation of Leix and Offaly. As regards the former, he was obliged to confess (20 Aug.) that his scheme for the redemption of crown leases would not work. The plantation project proved more successful. A number of estates were made over that year to settlers of English origin, irrespective of religious creed, and, though many years had still to elapse and much blood to be shed on both sides before they could enjoy them peaceably, the credit of permanently extending the influence of the crown beyond the narrow limits within which it had been restrained for more than two centuries undoubtedly belongs to Sussex. But dispirited by his failure in other respects; annoyed by the persistent attacks of his enemies at court, especially by a scurrilous book (State Papers, Irel. Eliz. vi. 37) which he attributed to John Parker, master of the rolls, who had taken a prominent part in agitating the grievances of the Pale; and sick both in body and mind, he wrote, on 21 Sept., desiring to be released from his thankless office. Early in February 1563 Fitzwilliam returned, bearing the welcome intelligence that Elizabeth was prepared to proceed energetically against Shane O'Neill. A hosting was accordingly proclaimed to start from Dundalk on 3 April, and on 6 April the army encamped in the neighbourhood of Armagh. On the 8th Sussex moved to Newry. Shane declined an engagement, and Sussex crossed the Blackwater into Henry MacShane's country, where two hundred head of cattle were captured. Returning once more to Armagh, he set his men to intrench and fortify the cathedral; but his provisions being exhausted, he was enforced to return to Dundalk, where he disbanded his army on the 25th. Preparations were immediately begun for a fresh expedition, and Sussex a month later again took the field. Leaving Armagh on 1 June, he marched directly by Dungannon to Tullaghoge, where Shane was discovered to have concentrated his forces in a strong natural fastness. He was instantly attacked, and, after three or four hours' skirmishing, put to flight. Next day a small herd of his cattle was captured on the edge of Lough Neagh and several of his men killed, after which Sussex returned to Armagh. But his failure to subdue Shane, coupled with his ill-health, at last induced Elizabeth to listen to his request to be relieved of his office. On 20 Oct. a commission was issued to Sir Nicholas Arnold and Sir Thomas Worth (Cal. Carew MSS. i. 359-62), with secret instructions to inquire into his administration before accepting his resignation. Though greatly irritated by the appointment of Arnold and Worth, Sussex did not obstruct their inquiries, but he declared that the attempt to investigate all the charges and vacancies that had occurred in his own company was impossible and monstrous, never having before been required of any deputy. Worth, who seems to have felt for him, wrote on 16 April 1564 to Cecil, using the words of entreaty to Henry VIII for Latimer on his behalf. 'Consider, sire,' said he, 'what a singular man he is, and cast not that awaie in one owre which nature and arte hath been so manye yeres in breeding and perfectinge.' In May he received the welcome intelligence that the queen had yielded to his entreaties, and on the 25th he sailed for England.
It is easy to disparage Sussex's efforts to reduce Ireland. But, considering the inadequate resources at his command, the general indifference of those who might have been expected to co-operate with him, the intrigues, more or less proven, of his enemies at the council table, and the total ignorance of Elizabeth and her ministers of the difficulties to be coped with in dealing with a terra incognita such as Ireland then was, and with such an enemy as Shane O'Neill, it is rather to be wondered that he accomplished anything at all. That his general view of the situation and the means to be taken to reduce Ireland to the crown were in the main sound no reader of his despatches can for a moment doubt. Despite his dastardly attempts to assassinate Shane, he left behind him a reputation for statesmanship which grew rather than diminished with succeeding years.
Sussex accompanied the queen to Cambridge in August, and was created M.A. In October he officiated as principal mourner at the funeral service at St. Paul's in honour of the Emperor Ferdinand. On 5 March 1565 he took part in an entertainment given by the Earl of Leicester to the queen; but the relations between the two earls had already become strained in consequence of certain insinuations dropped by the former in regard to Sussex's conduct in Ireland. Their retainers took up the cause of their respective masters, and from words speedily came to blows. The queen's injunction to keep the peace had little result. At a meeting of the council in the summer of 1566 Leicester accused Sussex of responsibility for Shane O'Neill's rebellion, to which Sussex replied by stating that Leicester had frequently written letters of encouragement to Shane with his own hand (Cal. Venetian MSS. iv. , 382). Sussex, who accompanied the queen to Oxford in September, resisted with especial vehemence the proposal that Leicester should become Elizabeth's husband, and warmly advocated, on political as well as on personal grounds, an alliance with the imperial house in the person of the Archduke Charles. Negotiations with the archduke had begun in 1565. By the middle of November 1566 matters had advanced so far that Sussex was ordered to hold himself in readiness to proceed to Vienna. During the winter the queen's ardour cooled, but revived in the spring, and in April 1567 Sussex was again ordered to prepare for his journey. But the earl, who had seen enough of Elizabeth's vacillation to doubt her real intention, insisted first of all on having an explicit decision in regard to the religious difficulty between Elizabeth and the archduke. After successfully claiming that he should exercise full discretion apparently in reference to the religious difficulty, he embarked at Gravesend with Roger, lord North [q. v.], on 26 June, and reached Vienna on 5 Aug. Three days later he had an hour's interview with the Emperor Maximilian. The archduke, though manifesting a natural reluc- tance to visit England otherwise than as an accepted suitor, referred himself in all things, except his conscience, to the emperor, and Sussex, who was royally entertained, wrote to Elizabeth in glowing terms of his personal appearance. On 27 Oct. Henry Cobham was sent to London for further instructions (cf. ib. vii. 408). On 31 Dec. Cobham returned, bringing Elizabeth's answer, practically breaking off negotiations, and Sussex, having on 4 Jan. delivered his letters, and invested the emperor with the order of the Garter, prepared to ret urn home. He reached England on 14 March 1508. Elizabeth's refusal of an alliance with the house of Habsburg deeply disappointed him. He believed that England was powerless to stand alone in the conflict which he foresaw to be imminent, and was anxious at almost any cost to secure the friendship of the most powerful military nation in Europe.
At home other troubles awaited him. The Earl of Leicester had secured the presidentship of Wales for Sir Henry Sidney. Sussex, after bluntly reminding Elizabeth of her promise to confer the post on him, begged her either to comply with his request, or, if not, to give him leave to quit the kingdom for Italy or elsewhere. Eventually the death of Archbishop Young opened to Sussex an avenue to preferment, and in July he was created, in succession to the archbishop, lord president and lord lieutenant of the north. In October he assisted at the negotiations with Mary Queen of Scots at York, and shortly afterwards, in reference to the same subject, at Hampton Court and Westminster. In September 1569 he deplored the arrest of his friend and relative, the Duke of Norfolk, and begged Cecil to use his influence with the queen in his behalf. When the rumour of an intended insurrection reached him at the beginning of October, he treated it with incredulity, for which he was sharply reprimanded by Elizabeth, and ordered to send for the Earls of Westmorland and Northumberland to repair to court without delay. The queen's action no doubt precipitated matters, and on 15 Nov., when Sussex announced that the two earls refused to obey her commands, a warrant, was issued to him as lieutenant-general of the forces in the north to prosecute them with fire and sword. On the 19th he published the proclamation, and took instant measures for their prosecution. The total force at his disposal amounted to only three thousand men, whereof barely three hundred were horse, whereas the rebels were said to number twelve hundred horse and between five and six thousand foot. His weakness, especially in the matter of horse, compelled him to act on the defensive. His avowed preference for lenient proceedings, coupled with the fact that his half-brother, Sir Egremont Radcliffe [q. v.], had joined the rebels, caused him to be suspected, and Lord Hunsdon and Sir Ralph Sadleir were sent down to inquire into the situation. But Sadleir and Hunsdon easily convinced themselves of his loyalty, and wrote with enthusiasm of his devotion and prudence.
Early in December Sussex was joined by reinforcements under Lord Warwick and Lord Clinton. Together they marched to Northallerton, and between Darlington and Durham they heard that the rebels had fled across the borders into Liddesdale, but had been forced to go into the debateable lands between Riddesdale and England. He deprecated a continuance of active hostilities, unless the queen deemed it necessary owing to 'foreign matters' of which he was ignorant. ' Policy will do more service than force this winter' (Cal. State Papers, Eliz. Dom. Add. p. 162). He cashiered the new levies except such horse as he conceived necessary to guard the borders. To Cecil's remonstrances he replied that he had not promised pardon to any one person of quality, nor protection to any one that was an offender. The queen, however, was not well pleased, and his enemies insinuated that his lenity was due to his sympathy with the rebels.
When he visited the court in January 1570, his reception by Elizabeth was more favourable than her letters had led him to expect. The news that Lord Dacre had recently occupied a castle on the borders, and that the Earl of Westmorland, taking advantage of his absence, had entered England, destroyed forty villages, and plundered the inhabitants, caused him to return post haste to York on the 16th, with instructions to punish the raiders and to enter Scotland to assist the queen's party there. On 10 April Sussex moved with his army to Newcastle, and the Scots having refused either to surrender the fugitives or to make restitution of the spoil captured by them, he prepared to invade Scotland. Accordingly, dividing his forces into two detachments, he with the one crossed the Teviot on the 19th and burnt the castles of Ferniehurst, Hunthill, and Bedrule, while the other did the like to Branxholm, Buccleugh's chief house on the other side. A similar course was pursued along the Bowbent and Caile. On the 20th Sussex lay at Kelso while Hunsdon went to Wark. For the rest, he thought, 'there be very few persons in Teviotdale who have received the rebels or invaded England, who at this hour have either castle standing for themselves or house for any of their people' (Cal. State Papers, Foreign, 1570, p. 228). A week later Home Castle was stormed and re-garrisoned, and on the 29th Sussex fixed his headquarters at Berwick, with the object of strengthening the hands of Morton and Mar. He himself was suffering from a serious cold contracted during the raid, but on 12 May he sent Sir William Drury [q. v.], with a. considerable force, to strengthen the queen's party in Edinburgh, and to persuade Lethington and Grange 'to a surcease of arms' on Elizabeth's terms. Failing in his object, Drury harried the valley of the Clyde, and razed the castles of the Duke of Châtelherault and his retainers, returning to Berwick on 3 June. Leonard Dacre and a number of the rebels were still at large in the western marches, where they were openly maintained by Herries and Maxwell, and, though still far from well, Sussex was anxious to obtain the queen's permission to adopt forcible measures for their expulsion. His plan was approved, but no money was forthcoming, and it was only by pawning his own credit that he was able eventually to take the field by the middle of August. A outbreak of the plague at Newcastle, which compelled him to disperse 'his company,' added to his embarrassment, and it was not till 18 Aug. that he found himself at Carlisle. His demand for the surrender of the fugitives not having been complied with, he invaded Scotland on the 22nd, though in consequence of the extreme foulness of the weather, which delayed his march, the rebels had been able to withdraw with their goods into safety. Advancing as far as Dumfries, he raided the country for twenty miles round about, leaving not a single stone house standing 'to an ill neighbour' within that limit, though, in order 'to make the revenge appear to be for honour only,' he carefully avoided plundering the inhabitants and abstained from burning Dumfries. Early in September he returned to Newcastle, and Châtelherault, Huntly, and Argyll having shortly afterwards submitted to the queen, he advised a partial disbandment of the border forces.
In October Sussex received permission to repair to court, of which he availed himself in November, and on 30 Dec. he was sworn a member of the privy council. In the summer of the following year the queen paid him a visit at his house in Bermondsey; but later in the year his familiarity with the Duke of Norfolk caused him to be suspected of complicity in that nobleman's treasonable proceedings, and from De Spes it appears that there was some danger of his being sent to the Tower (Cal. Simancas MSS. ii. 346). He was one of the peers who sat in judgment on the Duke of Norfolk in January 1572, and the duke, in anticipation of his execution, bequeathed him his best George and Garter. In June he accompanied the queen on a two months' progress, and on 13 July he was created lord chamberlain of the household, being superseded in October as president of the council of the north by the earl of Huntingdon. On 14 April 1573 his name occurs in a commission of gaol delivery for the Marshalsea, and on the 29th of the same month in another relative to the commercial relations between England and Portugal. He accompanied the queen during a progress in Kent in August, and on 23 May following received a grant to himself and his heirs of New Hall in Essex, to which were added, on 31 Dec., the manors of Boreham, Walkfare, Oldhall, and their dependencies, commonly known as the honour of Beaulieu. He again attended the queen on one of her progresses in September and October 1574; but in the following spring he was compelled by reason of ill-health to retire for a time from court. On hearing the news of the 'fury of Antwerp,' he publicly declared that, 'if the queen would give him leave, he would go over with such a force as to drive the Spaniards out of the States.' Nevertheless, neither he nor Cecil was regarded as hostile to Spain, and De Mendez actually believed it possible, by judiciously bribing them 'with something more than jewels,' to attach them firmly to Spanish interests (ib. ii. 586).
When an alliance was first mooted between Elizabeth and the Duc d'Anjou in 1571, Sussex, for reasons similar to that which had influenced him in regard to the proposed marriage with the Archduke Charles, supported the proposal. The negotiations, broken off in consequence of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, were renewed in 1578, and again found a warm advocate in him. It was on the occasion of the visit of Anjou's messenger to England, during one of the queen's progresses, that the famous quarrel between Sussex and Roger, second lord North, occurred. According to Mendoza, it originated in a remark of Elizabeth's to the effect that the sideboard was badly furnished with plate, which North confirmed, laying the blame on Sussex. The earl thereupon 'went to Leicester and complained of the knavish behaviour of North; but Leicester told him that the words he used should not be applied to such persons as North. Sussex answered that whatever he might think of the words, North was a great knave' (ib. p. 606). On 26 Aug. he addressed a long and able letter to the queen on the subject of her contemplated marriage with Anjou. Nevertheless it seemed doubtful to Mendoza whether he really meant all he said. Mendoza told Philip that Sussex assured him he would never consent to it 'on condition of depriving your Majesty of the Netherlands . . . as his aim was not solely to gratify the Queen, but to preserve and strengthen her throne.' What either he or Burghley hoped to gain by the match the ambassador was at a loss to conjecture, unless they thought thereby to bring about the fall of Leicester, or perhaps in anticipation 'that if Frenchmen should come hither the country may rise, in which case, it is believed, Sussex would take a great position.' In any case, he thought it worth while to send them some jewels to the value of three thousand crowns or more apiece (ib. pp. 635, 662, 669).
The queen's predilection for Anjou gave Sussex (despite his ill-health, which obliged him frequently to leave court) an ascendency over Leicester, who opposed the match by every means within his power, and would possibly have found himself in the Tower had not Sussex generously interposed in his favour, saying, according to Lloyd (State Worthies), ' You must allow lovers their jealousie.' On 6 Nov. 1580 a commission was issued to him and others for the increase and breed of horses, particularly in Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Kent, and in April following he was appointed to treat with the French commissioners for the marriage with Anjou. It was probably this latter appointment which led in July to a renewal of hostilities between him and Leicester, and obliged the queen to command them both to keep their chambers, and to threaten stricter confinement in case of further disobedience (cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom. Eliz. ii. 22). On 1 Jan. 1582 he was one of the challengers in the royal combat on foot which took place before the queen and the Duc d'Anjou.
His malady rapidly increased during the following winter, and, having in vain sought relief from the baths at Buxton, he died, after a lingering illness, at his house at Bermondsey on 9 June 1583. His last hours were embittered by the reflection that his death would leave Leicester undisputed master of the situation: 'I am now,' he said, 'passing into another world, and must leave you to your fortunes and to the queen's graces; but beware of the gypsie, for he will be too hard for you all: you know not the beast so well as I do' (Naunton, Fragmenta Regalia). His bowels were buried in the church at Bermondsey, and on 8 July his body was taken to Boreham in Essex, where he had a magnificent funeral. His body was buried in a red brick building adjoining the church of Boreham, called the Sussex chancel, where also repose the remains of his father, mother, grandfather, and grandmother, which were removed thither, pursuant to his testamentary directions, from the place of their first sepulture, St. Laurence Pountney in London. On a large altar tomb in the Sussex chancel are recumbent figures in memory of Robert, Henry, and Thomas Radcliffe, successively earls of Sussex, with commemorative tablets.
Sussex made it his boast that he never faltered in obedience to his sovereign, and no doubt of his patriotism is permissible. A perfect courtier and diplomatist, he was at the same time a scholar saturated in the new learning, a patron of the drama in its infancy, and of rising literary genius, and was able to regard with tolerance those diversities of creed which were setting Europe by the ears. To men of sterner mould he at times appeared Machiavellian in the methods by which he sought to achieve his ends. His portrait was painted by Sir Antonio More and Zucchero. A third portrait, by an anonymous artist, is in the National Portrait Gallery (cf. Cat. Tudor Exhibition, No. 358, 1109; Cat. First Loan Exhibition of Portraits, 1866, Nos. 136, 139, 256).
Sussex married, first, Elizabeth Wriothesley, daughter of Thomas, earl of Southampton, who was buried at Woodham Walter on 16 Jan. 1555; and, secondly, on 26 April , 1555, Frances, daughter of Sir William Sidney (Chester, London Marriage Licenses), who died on 9 March 1588-9, leaving by her will 5,000l. for the foundation of a college at Cambridge' to be called the Lady Frances Sidney-Sussex College' (Willis and Clarke, Archit. Hist, of Cambridge, pp. lxxix et seq.) The bequest was carried out by her executors, and the foundation of the college was laid in 1596. It possesses an anonymous portrait of the foundress. He left no heirs of his body, and was succeeded by his brother.
Henry Radcliffe, fourth Earl of Sussex (1530?-1593), was knighted by the Earl of Arundel on 2 Oct. 1553, and sat in parliament as member for Malden in 1555. Next year he removed to Ireland, to aid his brother, in the civil and military organisation of that country. He was appointed a privy councillor in 1557, and commanded a band of horsemen. In 1558 he became lieutenant of Maryborough Fort, and was besieged there by the native Irish under Donogh O'Conor. He sat in the Irish parliament as member for Carlingford in 1559, and two years later was nominated to the responsible post of lieutenant of Leix and Offaly. He managed to keep the district quiet, but in 1564, when commissioners were sent from England to report on the condition of the Irish government, charges of corruption in dealing with funds appointed for the payment of the soldiers were brought against Radcliffe. He was ordered to refund at once 8,000l, and on his refusal was committed to prison (January 1565). His release was ordered by the home government, and he left Ireland permanently soon afterwards (cf. Cal. State Papers, Ireland, Eliz. i. 136, 253-4). In 1577 he was granted some property there, in cos. Kilkenny and Wexford (ib.; Morrin, Patent Rolls, 482, 539). In England he had already been appointed constable for life of Porchester Castle, and lieutenant of Southbere Forest (14 June 1560). In 1571, when he was elected M.P. for Hampshire, he received the office of warden and captain of the town, castle, and isle of Portsmouth, and he was actively employed in that capacity until his death. He succeeded his brother as fourth earl of Sussex on 9 June 1583, and on 5 Nov. 1589 wrote a piteous letter to the queen, stating that, unless she showed him some mercy, he was hopelessly bankrupt; his brother's estate brought in 450l., but was burdened with a debt to the crown which entailed the payment of 500l. a year (Lodge, Illustrations, ii. 319). In August 1586 he was tracking out an alleged catholic conspiracy at Portsmouth, and was watching suspicious vessels off the coast. During 1588 he was busy in furnishing with stores and gunpowder the ships commissioned to resist the Spanish Armada (Laughton, Defeat of the Spanish Armada, Naval Records Soc., passim). For such services he was made K.G. on 22 April 1589. He died on 14 Dec. 1593, and was buried at Boreham, Essex, beside his brother and his wife Honora, daughter of Anthony Pounde, esq., of Hampshire, whom he married before 24 Feb. 1561. His only son,
Robert Radcliffe, fifth Earl of Sussex (1569?-1629), was known as Viscount Fitzwalter from 1583 until he succeeded his father as fifth earl on 4 Dec. 1593. In August next year he was sent as ambassador-extraordinary to Scotland to assist at the baptism of James's eldest son, Henry, and to 'treat respecting the catholic earls, the Earl of Bothwell, and other matters ' (Cal. State Papers, Scotland, 1509-1603, ii. 657, 659, 661). In 1596 he served with the army sent against Cadiz as colonel of a regiment of foot, took a prominent part with Vere in the capture of the town, and was knighted there by the Earl of Essex on 27 June 1596. On 28 Nov. 1597 he appealed to Lord Burghley for military employment on the continent. 'He had much rather,' he said, 'make a good end in her majesty's service abroad than to live in a miserable poverty at home' (Ellis, Original Letters, 3rd ser. iv. 149). He acted as earl marshal of England during the parliaments which sat in the autumns of 1597 and 1601, and was colonel-general of foot in the army of London in August 1599, raised in anticipation of a Spanish invasion (Chamberlain, Letters, p. 58). He was one of the peers commissioned to try the Earl of Essex in 1601, and was made lord lieutenant of Essex on 26 Aug. 1603. He was also governor of Harwich and Landguard Fort. On 20 July 1603 he petitioned the queen to relieve him of some of the pecuniary embarrassments due to the debts to the crown contracted by the third and fourth earls (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Addenda, 1580-1625, pp. 426-7). In July 1622 he sold to the Marquis of Buckingham his ancestral estate of Newhall for 22,000l., and resigned to him the lord-lieutenancy of Essex. He was reappointed joint lord lieutenant in 1625. Sussex was frequently at court. He carried the purple ermined robe at the creation of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales, 4 Nov. 1616, and bore the orb at the coronation of Charles I on 2 Feb. 1625-6. He died at his house in Clerkenwell on 22 Sept. 1629, and was buried with his father and uncle in the church of Boreham.
Sussex was a patron of men of letters. In 1592 Robert Greene dedicated to him as Lord Fitzwalter 'Euphues Shadow,' by Thomas Lodge. Chapman prefixed to his translation of Homer's ' Iliad,' 1598, a sonnet to him, 'with duty always remembered to his honoured countess.' A sonnet was also addressed to the earl by Henry Lok, in his ' Sundry Christian Passions,' 1597, and Emanuel Ford [q. v.] dedicated to him in 1598 his popular romance 'Parismus' (p. 596). Sussex was twice married. His first wife, Bridget, daughter of Sir Charles Morison of Cassiobury, Hertfordshire, was, according to Manningham, 'a very goodly and comely personage, of an excellent presence, and a rare wit' (Diary, pp. 60-1). In her honour Robert Greene gave his 'Philomela' the subtitle of 'The Lady Fitzwa[l]ter's Nightingale,' 1592, 4to. To her was also dedicated a popular music-book, 'The New Booke of Tabliture,' 1596. Manningham reports in his 'Diary,' 12 Oct. 1602, that the earl treated her with great cruelty, owing to the demoralising influence of his intimate friend Edward Whitelocke, brother of Sir James, a man of notoriously abandoned life, who died when staying with Sussex at Newhall in 1608, and was buried in the earl's family tomb at Boreham. Before 1602 she, with her children, separated from Sussex, who thenceforth allowed her 1,700l. a year (Manningham, Diary, pp. 60-61). She died in December 1623. She bore Sussex four children, who all predeceased him: Henry, who married, in February 1613-14, Jane, daughter of Sir Michael Stanhope; Thomas; Elizabeth, who married Sir John Ramsay, earl of Holderness [q. v.]; and Honora. Sussex's second wife was Frances, widow of Francis Shute, daughter of Hercules Meautas, of West Ham. She died on 18 Nov. 1627 (Morant, Essex, ii. 568).
Sussex was succeeded by his cousin Edward (1552?-1641), son of Sir Humphrey Radcliffe of Elnestow, Bedfordshire, second son of Robert Radcliffe, first earl of Sussex [q. v.] He was member of parliament for Petersfield in 1586-7,for Portsmouth 1592-3, and for Bedfordshire 1598-9, 1601, and 1604-1612. The title expired at his death without issue in 1641. The subsidiary barony of Fitzwalter was claimed in 1640 by Sir Henry Mildmay of Moulsham, Essex, whose mother Frances was daughter of Henry, second earl of Sussex [see under Mildmay, Sir Walter.] The barony was granted in 1670 to Sir Henry's grandson Benjamin, but it fell into abeyance in 1756 (Collins, Peerage, ed. Brydges, ix. 449).
[There is a useful biography, very complete in personal details, in Cooper's Athenae Cantabr. i. 462-70. The principal authorities are Dugdale's Baronage; Burke's Extinct Peerage; Lloyd's State Worthies; ,Stow's Annals; Rymer's Foedera; Holinshed's Chronicle; Machyn's Diary; Tytler's England under the Reigns of Edward VI and Mary; Chronicle of Queen Jane (Camden Soc.); Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials; Morant's Essex; Wiffen's House of Russell; Suckling's Essex; Blomefield's Norfolk; Origines Parochiales Scotiae (Bannatyne Club); Gregory's Western Highlands; Hill's Macdonnells of Antrim; Statutes at Large (Ireland); Shirley's Letters; Collins's Sidney Papers; Cal. Carew MSS.; Cal. Fiants, Eliz. (Ireland); Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudors; Archaeologia, vol. xxxv.; Burgon's Gresham; Haynes and Mardin's State Papers; Sadler's State Papers; Wright's Elizabeth; Sharpe's Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569; Nicolas's Life of Sir Christopher Hatton; Ellis's Letters; Lodge's Illustrations; Leycester Corresp. (Camden Soc.); Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth; Howard's Collection of Letters; Cal. State Papers, Eliz. Dom., Foreign, Ireland, Simancas, and Venetian, passim. Sussex's handwriting is particularly crabbed, and more than once Elizabeth had to complain that she could not read it. Besides those preserved in the Public Record Office, there are numerous letters of his relative to state affairs in the British Museum, viz. Cotton MSS., Caligula B. ix., relating to the rebellion of 1569; ib. C. i., concerning the Duke of Norfolk's projected marriage with Mary Queen of Scots, and affairs in the north; ib. C. ii. iii., relating to Scottish affairs (mostly all printed in Wright's Elizabeth); ib. E. vi. fol. 315, to Leicester on French affairs, 7 April 1576; ib. Vespasian, F. xii., documents relating to his Irish government; ib. Titus B. ii., iii., miscellaneous documents; ib. B. vii., documents relating to the proposed marriage with Alençon; ib. xi. f.. 442 and xiii., on Irish affairs; ib. Faustina, ii. f. 144, porterage charges of his embassy to the Emperor Maximilian; Lansdowne MSS. iv. (50), letters patent for the stewardship of the queen's possessions in Essex; ib. xii. (67), xvii. (21), xxxvi. (8), xxxix. (18), his will, with a codicil, dated 21 May 1583; ib. (19), inventory of his jewels; Addit. MSS. 5822 f. 15 b, 26047 ff. 2086, 2076, 27401, miscellaneous, of no importance; Cal. Hatfield MSS. passim; Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. p. 124 (articles by, as lieutenant-general in the north, 1570); ib. iii. 185 (letters in the collection of the Marquis of Bath); ib. p. 428 (letters in the collection of the Marquis of Ormonde); ib. iv. 597, MSS. belonging to Trinity College, Dublin, containing the expeditions of Sussex in 1556-63; ib. vii., miscellaneous letters, chiefly of 1562, belonging to W. M. Molyneaux of Loseley Park, Guildford; ib. 530, ix.pt. i. 249.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.229–230
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 136 | ii | 2 f.e. | Radcliffe, Thomas, 3rd Earl of Sussex: for 20 March 1557 read 22 March 1555-6 |
| 137 | i | 7 | for 1557 read 1556 |
| ii | 2 | for 1557 read 1556-7 | |
| 4 f.e. | after 21 March insert 1557-8 | ||
| 140 | i | 32 37 42 |
for Worth read Wroth |
| 142 | ii | 23 f.e. | for the Duc d'Anjou read Henry, Duc d'Anjou (afterwards Henry III of France) |
| 17-16 f.e. | for renewed in 1578 and again read renewed in 1578 with Francis, Duc d'Alençon and d'Anjou, brother of the earlier suitor. The new French suitor again | ||
| 16 f.e. | for in him read in Sussex | ||
| 15 f.e. | for Anjou's read the French prince's | ||
| 143 | i | 1 | after Aug. insert 1578 |
