unpaid. Early in 1532-3, while Berners was very ill, Henry VIII directed his agents in Calais to watch over the deputy's personal effects in the interests of his creditors. On 16 March 1532-3 Berners died, and he was buried in the parish church of Calais by his special direction. All his goods were placed under arrest and an inventory taken, which is still at the Record Office, and proves Berners to have lived in no little state. Eighty books and four pictures are mentioned among his household furniture. By his will (3 March 1532-3) he left his chief property in Calais to Francis Hastings, his executor, who became earl of Huntingdon in 1544 (Chronicle of Calais, Camd. Soc. p. 164). Berners married Catherine, daughter of John Howard, duke of Norfolk, by whom he had a daughter, Joan or Jane, the wife of Edmund Knyvet of Ashwellthorp in Norfolk, who succeeded to her father's estates in England. Small legacies were also left to his illegitimate sons, Humphrey, James, and George.
The barony of Berners was long in abeyance. Lord Berners's daughter and heiress died in 1561, and her grandson, Sir Thomas Knyvett, petitioned the crown to grant him the barony, but died in 1616 before his claim could be ratified. In 1720 Elizabeth, a great-granddaughter of Sir Thomas, was confirmed in the barony and bore the title of Baroness Berners, but she died without issue in 1743, and the barony fell again into abeyance. A cousin of this lady in the third degree married in 1720 Henry Wilson of Didlington, Norfolk, and their grandson, Robert Wilson, claimed and secured the barony in 1832. The barony is now held by a niece of Henry William Wilson (1797-1871), the third bearer of the restored title.
While at Calais Berners devoted all his leisure to literary pursuits. History, whether real or fictitious, always interested him, and in 1523 he published the first volume of his famous translation of (1) Froissart's Chronicles. The second volume followed in 1525. Richard Pynson was the printer. This work was undertaken at the suggestion of Henry VIII and was dedicated to him. Its style is remarkably vivid and clear, and although a few French words are introduced, Berners has adhered so closely to the English idiom as to give the book the character of an original English work. It inaugurated the taste for historical reading and composition by which the later literature of the century is characterised. Fabian, Hall, and Holinshed were all indebted to it. E. V. Utterson issued a reprint of Berners's translation in 1812, and although Col. Johnes's translation of Froissart (1803-5) has now very generally superseded that of Berners, the later version is wanting in the literary flavour which still gives Berners's book an important place in English literature. But chivalric romance had even a greater attraction for Berners than chivalric history, and four lengthy translations from the French or Spanish were completed by him. The first was doubtless (2) 'Huon of Burdeux,' translated from the great prose French Charlemagne romance, about 1530, but not apparently published till after Lord Berners's death. It is probable that Wynkyn de Worde printed it in 1534 under the direction of Lord George Hastings, earl of Huntingdon, who had urged Berners to undertake it. Lord Crawford has a unique copy of this book. A second edition, apparently issued by Robert Copland in 1570, is wholly lost. Two copies of a third revised edition, dated 1601, are extant, of which one is in the British Museum and the other in the Bodleian. The first edition was reprinted by the Early English Text Society 1883-5. (3) 'The Castell of Love' (by D. de San Pedro) was translated from the Spanish 'at the instaunce of Lady Elizabeth Carew, late wyfe to Syr Nicholas Carewe, knight.' The first edition was printed by Robert Wyer about 1540, and a second came from the press of John Kynge about the same time. (4) 'The golden boke of Marcus Aurelius, emperour and eloquent oratour,' was a translation of a French version of Guevara's 'El redox de Principes.' It was completed only six days before Berners's death, and was undertaken at the desire of his nephew, Sir Francis Bryan [q. v.] It was first published in 1534, and republished in 1539, 1542, 1553, 1557, and 1559. A very definite interest attaches to this book. It has been proved that English 'Euphuism' is an adaptation of the style of the Spanish Guevara. Lyly's 'Euphues' was mainly founded on Sir Thomas North's 'Dial of Princes' (1558 and 1567), and the 'Dial of Princes' is a translation of an enlarged edition of Guevara's 'El Redox,' which was first translated into English by Berners. The marked popularity of Berners's original translation clearly points to him as the founder of 'Guevarism' or so-called Euphuism in England (Landmann's Euphuismus, Giessen, 1881).
Berners also translated from the French (5) 'The History of the moost noble and valyaunt knight, Artheur of Lytell Brytaine.' The book was reprinted by Utterson in 1812. Wood, following Bale, attributes to Berners a Latin comedy, (6) 'Ite ad Vineam,' which he says was often acted after vespers at Calais, and a tract on (7) 'The Duties of the Inhabitants of Calais.' Nothing is known now of the former work; but the latter may
