Earl of Sussex

“ His master of ordnance, one Captain Coffin, had sent him some strange news of the fleet.
To the amazement of them both came the Earl of Sussex, with his scarred brow drawn and his soldierly bark: “Madam, you must to the Tower. The Queen's pleasure. A barge waits, and you must go with the tide, which tarries for no one.”
Elizabeth answered him haughtily. He must be blundering. She had but just seen her good sister, who was—— Sussex showed her the warrant in the Queen's hand. She lost her temper; she had been so sure that Mary was conquered. “Here are the practices of my enemies!” she cried. ”

“ The third Earl of Sussex had a company, which proved one of the most long-lived of the theatrical organizations of Elizabeth’s time and held together, now in London and now in the provinces, under no less than three earls. It first makes its appearance at Nottingham on 16 March 1569, at Maldon in 1570, on 28 January 1571, and on 20 August 1572, at Ipswich in 1571–2, at Canterbury and Dover in 1569 and 1570, and in 1569–70 at Bristol, Gloucester, and Ludlow, where it was of six men. ”

“ The men of war averred that the face of the Sovereign was a whetstone to the soldier's sword; while the men of state were not less of opinion that the light of the Queen's countenance was a lamp to the paths of her councillors; and the ladies agreed, with one voice, that no noble in England so well deserved the regard of England's Royal Mistress as the Earl of Sussex—the Earl of Leicester's right being reserved entire, so some of the more politic worded their assent, an exception to which Elizabeth paid no apparent attention. ”

“ His [128] co-rival was Thomas Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex, who in his constellation was his direct opposite, for indeed he was one of the Queen’s martialists, and did her very good service in Ireland, at her first accession, till she recalled him to the Court, whom she made Lord Chamberlain; but he played not his game with that cunning and dexterity as the Earl of Leicester did, who was much the fairer courtier, though Sussex was thought much the honester man, and far the better soldier, but he lay too open on his guard ”

“ The recent occurrences in Scotland had procured Elizabeth some respite from the importunities of her subjects relative to the succession; but it was not the less necessary for her to take some steps in discharge of her promise respecting marriage. Accordingly the earl of Sussex, in this cause a negotiator no less zealous than able, was dispatched in solemn embassy to Vienna, to congratulate the emperor Maximilian on his coronation, and at the same time to treat with his brother the archduke Charles respecting his long agitated marriage with the queen. ”

“ As the autumn approached, there were repeated rumours of rebellion in the north, which alarmed the court of Elizabeth. On inquiry, however, no trace of such a thing could be discovered, and the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, when questioned, gave such apparently honest and satisfactory answers, that the Government was perplexed. Suddenly, however, in the commencement of October, the two earls received a summons to York on the queen's business, and the Earl of Sussex was instructed when he once had them, to forward them to London. ”

“ In later life Roydon seems to have entered the service of Robert Radcliffe, fifth earl of Sussex, a patron of men of letters. Robert Armin [q. v.] , when dedicating his 'Italian Taylor and his Boy' (1609) to Lady Haddington, the Earl of Sussex's daughter, refers to Roydon as 'a poetical light ... which shines not in the world as it is wisht, but yet the worth of its lustre is known.' Armin expressed the hope that 'that pen-pleading poet, grave for years and knowledge, Maister Mathew Roidin,' may 'live and die beloved' in the Earl of Sussex's service. ”

“ Robert, Earl of Sussex, his son and heir, who, in the 37th of Elizabeth, was sent into Scotland by the Queen, to stand in her stead as a godfather at the christening of Prince Henry; in the 39th of that Queen he was in the voyage with Robert Earl of Sussex to Cadiz; and in 1621, was installed Knight of the Garter, and often resided here; he had two sons and two daughters, which all died in his lifetime, without issue; Henry Ratcliff Lord Fitz-Walter, his eldest son, married Jane, daughter of Sir Michael Stanhope, Knt. but died a young man. ”

“ The son (b. 1647) succeeded him as second Earl of Sussex, and died without issue in 1671, when the honour became extinct; the daughter married Lord Francis Brudenell, younger son of Thomas, first earl of Cardigan, and was mother of George, third earl of Cardigan, and grandmother of George Brudenell Montagu, duke of Montagu [q. v.] ”

“ In 1569 the Earl of Sussex sent him to assist the mayor in the fortification of Newcastle. In 1577 he is last mentioned in a letter sent to the council from the Earl of Huntingdon, enclosing a report from him on Kingston-upon-Hull, whither he had been sent to survey the castle and forts. He is spoken of as a ‘man well given in religion, and of good experience.’ By his first wife, Anne, daughter of James Mauleverer, esq., he left a son and successor, Edward. ”

“ In truth, the high rank which Sussex held in Queen Elizabeth's favour, and his known and avowed rivalry of the Earl of Leicester, caused the utmost importance to be attached to his welfare; for, at the period we treat of, all men doubted whether he or the Earl of Leicester might ultimately have the higher rank in her regard. ”

“ In consideration of this distinguished piece of service he was created earl of Nottingham; and the queen's partiality towards her relations increasing with her years, he became towards the end of the reign one of the most considerable persons at her court, where his hostility to Essex grew equally notorious with the better grounded antipathy entertained by Sussex, also a royal kinsman, against Leicester, the earlier favorite of her majesty. ”

“ Upon Sussex attempting to detach two chieftains, O'Reilly of Brefny and O'Donnell of Tyrconnel, who owed him allegiance, Shane flew into Brefny and Tyrconnel, completely overawed the two waverers, and carried off Calvagh O'Donnell with his wife, who was a sister-in-law of the Earl of Argyle. The following summer he encountered Sussex himself and defeated him, sending his army flying terror-stricken back upon Armagh. This feat established him as the hero of the North. No army which Sussex could again gather together could be induced to risk the fate of its predecessor. ”

“ John de Dreux, the father of this earl, had married in 1275 Beatrix, daughter of King Henry III, aunt to King Edward II. The earl, whose release from an imprisonment of five years by the Scots, is here announced, was forced to pay a large ransom, for which the king in vain endeavoured to persuade the parliament to levy a subsidy. He had been taken prisoner in 1321 by the Scotch invaders in Yorkshire, and had been equally unlucky in 1292 at Bordeaux, where the French had taken him, and King Edward I had then sent £1000 "to his beloved nephew" until better provision could be made. ”

“ Under the 1897 apportionment scheme, as perpetuated over 65 years later, Senate districts ranged in population from 4,177 to 64,820, resulting in a maximum population-variance ratio, between the most populous and least populous Senate districts, of about 15-to-1. Senatorial districts in Kent and Sussex Counties were consistently much smaller than those in New Castle County with the exception of one New Castle County district which, with a population of only 4,177, was the smallest senatorial district in the State. ”

“ Leicester bowed under the storm for a moment when Sussex showed him in his true colours; but Sussex had no gift of intrigue, the tide turned, and so he broke his heart, and died. But he left a message which I sometimes remember with my collects. ‘I am now passing to another world,’ said he, ‘and must leave you to your fortunes and to the Queen’s grace and goodness; but beware the Gipsy, for he will be too hard for all of you; you know not the beast so well as I do.’ But my Lord Sussex was wrong. One there is who knows him through and through, and hath little joy in the knowing. ”

“ They are perfect symbols of a power that has passed away. Nothing else so brings back the Roman occupation of Sussex, when on still nights the clanking of armour in the camp on the hill-top could be heard by the trembling Briton in the Weald beneath; or by day the ordered sounds of marching would smite upon his ears, and, looking fearfully upwards, he would see a steady file of warriors descending the slope. I never see a Sussex hill crowned by a camp, as at Wolstonbury, without seeing also in imagination a flash of steel. ”

“ Here, in a case, is a tiny bronze thimble that tipped the pretty finger of a Roman seamstress—one only among scores of tokens of the Roman occupation of the county. Flint arrow heads and celts in profusion take us back to remoter times. A Pyecombe crook hangs on one wall, and relics of the Sussex ironworks are plentiful. The highest room contains rubbings of our best brasses. Outside is an early Sussex plough. In a corner is a beadle's staff that once struck terror into the hearts of Sabbath-breaking boys; and near one of the windows is a little brass crucifix from St. Pancras' Priory. ”

“ Then the descendants of those who now own Brighton, Worthing, and the rest, the children of the men who build villas on Crowboro’ top, and the heirs of the new-comers who have purchased, one would think, at least a third of the great old houses under the Downs, will be worthy of the soil which their ancestors certainly did not understand, and the historical development of Sussex will continue. ”

“ Was every morning with the Queen, except Saturday and Sunday, and she read Cowper’s “Task.”
26th.—The King is certainly rather better; for he sleeps, takes nourishment, is not always so violent, and sometimes talks a little rationally, at least within the last three days. Great apprehensions have been entertained for the Duke of Sussex; and, though better, he is thought to be in a very bad way. All the family met to spend the Duke of Clarence’s birthday (the 21st) here. I was with the Queen and Princesses Mary and Elizabeth most mornings at Frogmore. ”

“ The duke of Sussex acknowledged the compliments paid to him, and stated, that the proudest day of his life was that upon which he had laid the first stone of the London University, surrounded as he was by gentlemen of as high rank, fortune, and character, as any in the kingdom. He was quite convinced that the undertaking must be productive of good. It would excite the old Universities to fresh exertions, and force them to reform abuses. His royal highness concluded, amidst the cheers of the assembly, by repeating that the present was the happiest day of his life. ”

“ Spenser was naturally distrustful of the king's safety and his own, had they put themselves within reach of his malice, so that ultimately the meeting of the two kings was abandoned, and the fatal compromise was adopted of sending to France the young Prince of Wales with the queen, instead of the king, a measure which, two years after, led to his dethronement.
Edward II had been principally residing at his palace of Westminster from the middle of June till he commenced his journey into Sussex. ”

“ The castle is now a farm; indeed, all Amberley is a huge stockyard, smelling of straw and cattle. It is sheer Sussex—chalky soil, whitewashed cottages, huge waggons; and one of the best of Sussex painters, and, in his exquisite modest way, of all painters living, dwells in the heart of it—Edward Stott, who year after year shows London connoisseurs how the clear skin of the Sussex boy takes the evening light; and how the Southdown sheep drink at hill ponds beneath a violet sky; and that there is nothing more beautiful under the stars than a whitewashed cottage just when the lamp is lit. ”

“ The Downs give it, and make you feel that a true man of Sussex would be frank, warm-hearted, simple and brave, with old-fashioned ways which, with a pleasant obstinacy, he would be loath to change. I heard Mrs. Tupper quote two or three quaint proverbs which were new to me, but Sir Lionel said they were old, almost, as the Sussex downs, and as racy of the soil. I always associated Brighton with Sussex, which made it seem a sophisticated county: but you see, true Sussex—the Downs—stands all independent and sturdy, between the pleasure-places by the sea and the snug Weald. ”

“ So far, we are in Sussex pure and simple; mangolds all around, cattle sheds in front, a Sussex farmer for a companion, the sky of Sussex over all, and the twentieth century in her nonage. Mr. Tupper turns the key, throws open the creaking door—and nearly two thousand years roll away. We are no longer in Sussex but in the province of the Regni; no longer at Bignor but Ad Decimum, or ten miles from Regnum (or Chichester) on Stane Street, the direct road to Londinum, in the residence of a Roman Colonial governor of immense wealth, probably supreme in command of the province. ”

“ Until that fashion sets in (and may it be far distant) the Downs will remain essential Sussex, and those that love them will exclaim with Mr. Kipling,
God gave all men all earth to love,
But since man's heart is small,
Ordains for each one spot shall prove
Beloved over all. ”

“ The Duke of Cumberland was probably the most unpopular man in England. Hideously ugly, with a distorted eye, he was bad-tempered and vindictive in private, a violent reactionary in politics, and was subsequently suspected of murdering his valet and of having carried on an amorous intrigue of an extremely scandalous kind. [9] He had lately married a German Princess, but there were as yet no children by the marriage. The Duke of Sussex had mildly literary tastes and collected books. ”