Earl Salisbury

“ On the death of his father in 1867, he entered the house of lords and took rank as the foremost debater in the upper chamber. In 1878 he acted as joint plenipotentiary of Great Britain at the Congress of Berlin, and two years later became secretary of state for foreign affairs. When the Earl of Beaconsfield died in 1881, Lord Salisbury became the recognized leader of the Conservative party. ”

“ Of the proceedings subsequent to the Plot we are told: "In passing these laws for the security of the Protestant Religion, the Earl of Salisbury exerted himself with distinguished zeal and vigour, which gained him great love and honour from the kingdom, as appeared in some measure, in the universal attendance on him at his installation with the Order of the Garter, on the 20th of May, 1606, at Windsor." (Birch, Historical View, p. 256.)
[71] This belief is so notorious that one instance must suffice as evidence for it. ”

“ In 1225 he went on an expedition to Gascony, being wrecked on the Isle of Ré on the return voyage. The hardships of this adventure undermined his health, and he died at Salisbury on the 7th of March 1226, and was buried in the cathedral there. The eldest of Longsword’s four sons, William (c. 1212–1250) did not receive his father’s earldom, although he is often called earl of Salisbury. In 1247 he led the English crusaders to join the French at Damietta and was killed in battle with the Saracens in February 1250. ”

“ With hard rowing they got beyond the power of their assailants and made their way into the city; but the queen and her friends insisted on imputing the outrage to the earl himself, and demanded his arrest. The earl found it politic to retire to Warwick, and afterwards to his former post at Calais. On this the queen and her council turned their machinations against his father, the Earl of Salisbury, whom Lord Audley was commissioned to arrest and bring prisoner to London. ”

“ In his last moments he said, “Ease and pleasure quake to hear of death; but my life, full of cares and miseries, desireth to be dissolved.” It was this nobleman who exchanged his mansion of Theobalds, with the king, for Hatfield. On his death, his title and estates descended to his only son, William Cecil, who became second Earl of Salisbury; and, dying in 1688, was succeeded by James Cecil, as third Earl of Salisbury. The fourth Earl of Salisbury, also named James, died in 1694, and his great grandson, James Cecil, the seventh Earl, was created Marquis of Salisbury by George III., in 1789. ”

“ I have seen the statement in a letter of the Earl (who was one of the most scientific men of his age) which he wrote after the discovery of the Plot. The letter is in Collins’ “Peerage.” The Earl of Salisbury was Northumberland’s enemy, as Northumberland was looked up to by the popish recusants as a sort of natural leader, though the Earl, on his own335 avowal, was no papist. Salisbury’s native perspicacity, however, told him that Northumberland, from every point of view, was alike to the Royal House of Stuart and to the noble house of Salisbury dangerous. ”

“ The death of the earl of Salisbury is, as has just been noticed, stated in the Cottonian MS. to have taken place in the preceding year. “This yere [Ao. vij. Hen. VI.] about Midsommer, the Cardenal seilid over the see with a feire compeigny wagid for to have, and werred upon the Lollards in Prage: but a litel before the departyng of the Cardenal out of England, therle of Suffolk, the lord Talbot, the lord Scalis, and many other lordes, knyghts, and squyers, were taken and slayne at the sege of Orliaunce, and the sege broken.” ”

“ The earl of Salisbury at last approached the place with an army, which consisted only of ten thousand men; and not being able, with so small a force, to invest so great a city, that commanded a bridge over the Loire, he stationed himself on the southern side towards Sologne, leaving the other, towards the Beausse, still open to the enemy. ”

“ At this moment the Earl of Salisbury made an effort to save his comrades from the destruction on which they were about to rush.
'My lord,' said he, addressing the Count of Artois, 'I implore you to listen to the wholesome counsel of the grand masters. They have been long in this country, and learned by experience the craft as well as the strength of our foes. We, being strangers, [130] are ignorant of the perils ”

“ I was a mere lad, a page in the Earl of Salisbury’s house. A good man was he, but the jealousies and hatreds of the nobles had begun long ago, and the good King hoped, as he ever hoped, to compose them. So he brought about a compact between my father and the Dacre of Whitburn for a marriage between their children, and caused us both to be bred up in the Lady of Salisbury’s household, meaning, I trow, that we should enter into solemn contract when we were of less tender age ”

“ Along with his eldest son, now Earl of Warwick and his colleague as warden of the western marches of Scotland, Salisbury helped to persuade York at Dartford to lay down his arms (Paston Letters, i. cxlviii) . But the continuance of Somerset in power, in defiance of the arrangement Salisbury had helped to mediate, must have irritated him, and he seems to have ignored the orders of the government in regard to the war which now broke out between the Neville and Percy clans in Yorkshire. ”

“ Who were the parties you suspected?”
“As I wrongfully suspected them,” replied Tresham, evasively, “your lordship must excuse my naming them.”
“Was Catesby—or Winter—or Wright—or Rookwood—or Sir Everard Digby concerned in it?” demanded Mounteagle.
“Not one of them,” asseverated Tresham.
“They are the persons I suspect,” replied Mounteagle; “and they are suspected by the Earl of Salisbury. But you have not told me what you are doing in this strange habitation. Are you ferreting out a plot, or contriving one?” ”

“ This was a court intrigue to get his money, but an urgent appeal to Lord Chancellor Ellesmere and the earl of Salisbury, prime minister, appears to have put an end to trouble in the matter. He died on the 12th of December, 1611, at the age of seventy-nine, leaving immense wealth, and on the 12th of December, 1614, his body was brought on the shoulders of his pensioners to Charter-House Chapel, and interred in a vault ready for it there, beneath the huge monument erected to his memory.
"The death-day of the founder is still kept solemnly by Cistercians. ”

“ Nicholas Longespée (1292-1297) was fourth and youngest son of the first Earl of Salisbury, and Countess Ela.
[106] Simon of Ghent, or de Gand (1297-1315) , first empowered the mayor and citizens to fortify the city. According to a document printed in the "Rolls Chronicles," 1891, the visitation of many of the churches, about 1300, compares badly with a similar record for 1220; ignorance of the clergy, gross neglect of the fabric, insufficient and dilapidated books and vestments, with other evidences of lack of energy, are very frequent. ”

“ Still more overwhelming news met the fugitive king on reaching Conway. Instead of a fine army, there lay Salisbury with only 100 men, and destitute of all provisions. While Richard had delayed his coming, adverse influences had been brought to bear on Salisbury's host; disheartening rumours were circulated amongst the troops, and, in spite of Salisbury's tears and entreaties, they rapidly dispersed. ”

“ Reginald Windsor Sackville-West, seventh Earl Delawarr and Baron Buckhurst; the Hon. Mortimer Sackville-West, married to Charlotte, daughter of Major-General William Dickson, and is a claimant for the barony of Buckhurst, the present owner of Knole; the Hon. Lionel Sackville-West; the Hon. William Edward Sackville-West, married to Georgiana, daughter of George Dodwell, Esq.; the Lady Elizabeth, married to the present Duke of Bedford; the Lady Mary Catherine, married first, in 1847, to the second Marquis of Salisbury, and second, in 1870, to the fifteenth (present) Earl of Derby ”

“ In the Continental wars and domestic struggles in which Englishmen indulged during the fifteenth century, Salisbury was recognized as a man of military prowess and political influence. But almost ere reaching middle age his fame grew pale before that of his eldest son, Richard Neville, who espoused the heiress of the Beauchamps, who, in her right, obtained the earldom of Warwick, and who, as time passed on, became celebrated throughout Europe as the king-maker. ”

“ Both were a great deal happier in their house-parties at Hatfield, where they could receive their personal friends. Here they could be in close touch with every one, and enjoy the play of minds which was the favourite entertainment of both. Lady Salisbury herself was a brilliant talker, quick, spontaneous, and epigrammatic, without any suggestion of premeditation. ”

“ If we think it feeble, it will be because we cannot see strength where it has been brought to perfect poise and ease. If our verdict is 'banal,' it will be because we cannot tell the commonplace from the simply and exactly right, or we do not know how rare the latter is—because we long for eccentricity as a proof of personality, and need what the French call emphase to impress us; there is no over-emphasis about Salisbury, neither in its effect as a whole, nor in any of its parts, neither in its design, nor in its treatment. ”

“ Absorbed in this train of thought, and admiring the perverse dexterity which could transmute the face of a sickly woman and a case of brain disease into the crude elements of romance, Salisbury strayed on through the dimly lighted streets, not noticing the gusty wind which drove sharply round corners and whirled the stray rubbish of the pavement into the air in eddies, while black clouds gathered over the sickly yellow moon. ”

“ But of Salisbury they have a very clear image: inexpressibly rich as it is in sights, in wonders, full of people—hundreds of people in the streets and market-place—they can take it all in and know its meaning. ”

“ Warning his mother by letter of his purpose, he took the road by Reading and Salisbury, in which city, arrived late at night, he heard what did but increase his desire to be at Royston, so that with moonrise he was again in the saddle, riding all that night alone; for his servant's horse had reached Salisbury clean foundered, and, nags being mighty scarce from the needs of two armies lately in the field at no great distance, he was forced to leave the man behind until he could be mounted. ”

“ The policy of the "Great Contract" had certainly broken down, and the King, under Cecil's guidance, had certainly not known how to manage an English parliament. In writing to the King he found it hard to satisfy himself. Several draft letters remain, and it is not certain which of them, if any, was sent. But immediately on Salisbury's death he began, May 29th, a letter in which he said that he had never yet been able to show his affection to the King, "having been as a hawk tied to another's fist;" ”

“ Yet he never attacked Disraeli personally, as Disraeli often attacked him. There was another of his opponents of whom he entertained an especially bad opinion, but no one could have told from his speeches what that opinion was. For Lord Salisbury he seemed to have no dislike at all, though Lord Salisbury had more than once insulted him. On one occasion (in 1890) he remarked to a colleague who had said something about the prime minister’s offensive language: “I have never felt angry at what Salisbury has said about me. ”

“ In the Berlin Conference days Bismarck described Lord Salisbury as “a lath painted to look like iron.” By the Nineties the sneer had lost point in every particular. To the dullest it was clear that Lord Salisbury had not painted himself or got himself painted; whatever the man might or might not be, he was genuine, incapable himself of pose, and equally incapable of inspiring others to spread a legend concerning himself. ”

“ The first matter of enquiry directly concerns us here. It was probably in the early part of 1155 that Reginald the precentor and Master Martin were sent to Salisbury on behalf of Dean Ivo and the chapter of Wells to enquire what was the 'dignity' and privilege of the dean of Salisbury, and in particular what 'dignity' and authority he had in the city of Salisbury. The answer was given in a letter of Robert Warelwast, then dean of Salisbury, who was consecrated to the see of Exeter on 5 June 1155. ”

“ When he died, amid national mourning, the late Lord Salisbury, after singling out his unquenchable zeal for the glory of Britain, lasting to a period when “the gratification of every possible desire negatived the presumption of any inferior motive,” adverted to his “patience, his gentleness, his unswerving and unselfish loyalty to his colleagues and fellow-labourers.” ”

“ The Earle of Salisbury had bene borne and bredd in Courte and had the Advantage of a descent from a Father and a Grandfather, who had bene very wise men, and greate Ministers of State in the eyes of Christendome, whose wisdome and virtues dyed with them, and ther children only inherited ther titles. ”

“ The news of her escape filled the King’s mind with rage and consternation; he pictured Arabella to himself making common cause with all his enemies on the Continent; the 186hue and cry became general. Salisbury, who must surely in his secret heart have prayed for the escape of his old favourite, was ordered to write to the Governor of Calais to intercept Seymour and his wife, (who were supposed to be together,) on their arrival in port. Every ship was to be searched, every means taken, for the apprehension of the fugitives. ”

“ It was à propos of insomnia that Lord Salisbury made his finest retort in the House of Lords. A new Liberal peer, to whom the leader was particularly acid, because, having been a whip in the House of Commons, he was rather conscious of his importance, was, in spite of the fact that his income arose chiefly from a brewery, advocating Local Option, because he said that the number of public-houses was a temptation to drink. ”