DUDLEY 487 wife Alice, by a patent,(') dat. at Oxford, 23 May (1644) 20 Car. I, in which [inler a/ia] the creation as a Duke of the Holy Empire of her said husband (then settled at Tuscany) by the Emperor Ferdinand II is recited, was cr. "DUCHESS DUDLEY, for her life, in England and other of our realms and dominions with such precedencies (^) as she might have had, it she had lived in the dominions of the sacred empire as a mark of our favour unto her and out of our Prerogative Royal which we will not have drawn into dispute," with the grant to her daughters " Lady Katharine and Lady Anne" of " the places, titles, and precedencies C") of the said Duke's daughters, as from that time of their said father's creation," i.e. 9 Mar. 1620. He d. 6 Sep. 1649, aged 75. Elizabeth Southwell, who, from 1620, had been received abroad as his Duchess, d. 13 Sep. 1631. The Duchess Dudley d. s.p.m., at Dudley House, St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, 22 or 23 Jan., on 1 6 Mar. following "was carried out of the town in a stately hearse attended with a numerous train of coaches," and was bur. 20 Mar. 1668/9, ^g^d 90, at Stoneleigh, co. Warwick. M.I. On her death her life peerage became extinct. She left many charitable bequests. Will dat. 2 Nov. 1668, pr. 9 Mar. 1668/9 DUDLEY AND WARD OF DUDLEY VISCOUNTCY. I. John Ward,^ s. and h. of William W., of Sedgley Park, co. Stafford (M.P. co. Stafford 17 10-13 I. 1763. and 1715-20), by Mary, sister of Harry, 3rd Earl of Stamford, da. of the Hon. John Grey, of Enville, co. Stafford, was b. about 1700; M.P. (Tory) for Newcastle-under-Lyne, {*) This remarkable patent is given in extenio in Dugdale, vol. ii, p. 225 ("ex autogr. penes Cath. D. Leveson, an. 1670"), and reference is made therein to the extraordinary order of the Star Chamber that the depositions of Douglas, mother of the said Sir Robert, that she was the lawful wife of the Earl of Leicester as also those of " divers persons of quality and credit who were present at the marriage " were " sealed up " and no copies allowed to be taken. The King goes on to say that his " dear father not knowing the truth of the lawful birth of the said Sir Robert granted away the titles of the said Earldoms [Leicester and Warwick] to others which we now hold not fit to call in question," though " having a very deep sense of the great injuries done to the said Sir Robert Dudley and the Lady Alice Dudley," is'c. See further remarks regarding the genuineness of this patent iuh Glamorgan and Worcester. (*>) This is the last case of a warrant of precedency of higher date than the creation of the Peerage. See vol. i. Appendix C, as to Precedency of Peers by Royal Warrant. J. H. Round, however, does not accept this as a creation ot an English dignity (though it has been so supposed), and deems it merely the concession of such precedence in England, ^c, as her Imperial title would give her "in the dominions of the sacred Empire," implying clearly that her title was not an English one. Moreover, the phrase "the said Duke's daughters" clearly implies, he holds, that the King purports to recognize the Imperial creation. (■=) For the alleged humble origin of this and other peerage families see vol. iii, p. 501, note "d." V.G.
