THE TALBOTS.—FEUDAL PERIOD.
WE are again among Norman magnates, men of the blue blood, descendants of those who really conquered the land, and then stood forward for successive ages in the front rank of its defenders, who helped to extort the Great Charter and fought through the Wars of the Roses, whose single opinions hurried or retarded the Reformation, and who could almost individually throw a casting vote for or against a revolution. Since William the Bastard died there has been no day when the adhesion of the head of the Talbots has not been distinctly important to the acting Government of England. They themselves, or the pedigree-makers whom new men reward so highly, claim a still greater antiquity, and it is almost with regret that we are compelled finally to reject the claim. Had it been correct, there would have been one family among the Peers whose lineal ancestors had been barons before the Norman invasion; as it is, there is not one, not one, indeed, who can prove themselves possessed of lands held without interruption from before the Conquest. Private gentlemen can, like Al r. Myddleton, of Denton, in Wharfdale, whose single claim to his lands is a grant, or confirmation of grant, from the Confessor, and one or two Peers of Welsh descent, as, for example, Lord Willoughby d'Eresby, if his pedigree can be trusted. The Talbots, or Talebots, claim, on the authority of the Heralds' Visitation Book of 1584-85, to be descended from Philip Talebot, Lord of Eccleswall, Credenham, and Worksop, in the reign of Edward the Confessor; but no such person is named in Domesday Book, while therein, among the under-tenants, appears Richard Talebot, holding nine hides of land in Bedfordshire from Walter Giffard, Earl of Buck- ingham, and a Geoffrey Talebot, holding lands in Essex. Richard Talbot also appears as witness to some grants of land which this Walter Giffard made to some monks in Normandy. It is probable that he came over in some very moderate position not before Hastings, for his name is not in Wace's Roll of the lead- ing warriors in that battle in his " Chronicles of the Dakesof Nor- mandy," but he was in England almost immediately after the inva- sion. Nothing is known of him, but he must have been one of the strong men of earth, for, amidst that powerful crowd, every man of whom was hustling his neighbour, he rose, either during the Conqueror's life or immediately after his death, to baronial rank. He married a sister of Hugh de Gournay, ancestor of the existing Quaker family of Gurney, whose blood, though now known chiefly in the Money Market, is more ancient than that of most Peers. His son Hugh was castellan of Plessy, in 1180, for Hugh de Gournay, against Henry I.:; and died a monk in Normandy, leaving a son Richard, who received from Henry II. a grant of the lordship of Eccleswall and Linton, in Herefordshire. His son Gilbert—we follow Dugdale, and throw over the curious list of five barons sometimes inserted as physiologically im- possible—was present at the coronation of Richard I., and in the fifth year of his reign had lands given him in Linton for his custody of Ludlow Castle, and paid in King John's reign soccage representing five knights' fees. Gilbert's son Richard left two sons,', the younger of whom became Bishop of London in the reign of Henry in., while the elder, Gilbert, succeeded in the barony. He distinguished himself as a soldier, as soldiers went in those days, curbing the turbulent Welsh within their marches — the crave of the Welsh for a hundred years to come out of their own borders is still unexplained, they seem to have contemplated successful invasion— and was the one noble who, when Llewellyn rose in 1256, dared remain firm at his post. In the 44th year of Henry III., then an old man, he was made Governor of Grosmond, Skenfrith, and Blancminster Castles, and the year after one of the Justices Itinerant of Hereford, the gentlemen whose appointment was the first successful blow levelled at baronial power. He was em- ployed all his life in Welsh transactions, and married Gwendolen, a daughter of Rhys-ap-Griffith, Prince of South Wales, wherefore his son assumed his mother's arms,—a lion rampant, instead of his own. This son Richard, who succeeded in 1274, inheriting Long- hope and Redley, in Gloucestershire, and Eccleswell and Linton, in Herefordshire, was also a soldier of mark, who followed Edward I. in Wales, Scotland, and France, everywhere with distinction, and in 1301 was one of the great Barons who signed the celebrated letter to the Pope vindicating the royal authority against ultramontane pretensions. He died in 1306, leaving three sons, of whom the eldest, Gilbert, succeeded to the principal estates, and, like the rest of the descendants of the Conqueror's following, resisted bitterly the new invasion of Angevin, Poitevm, and Fleming lords, whom popular English history calls " favourites," and with whom Edward II. tried to counterbalance his great nobility. He was present when Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, executed Piers Gaveston, but obtained a formal pardon for his share in that offence, which, however, Edward never forgave. Talbot was seized in 1322 by Hugh le de Spencer, one of the few of the new immigration who established himself on the soil, and compelled to enter into recognizances k but the Par- liament held the same year released him from all penalties. He followed Edward III. in his great military enterprises, and received a grant of the castles and lordships of Blenlevenny and Bulkedinds, in lieu of some properties which belonged to him through his Welsh pedigree, and which had been united with the Crown. He died in 1353, leaving a son, Sir Richard Talbot, then about thirty-four years of age. He was a distinguished warrior, chiefly in Scotch expedititons, and was one of Edward Baas most powerful allies, and married Elizabeth, daughter and subse- quently coheiress of John Comyn, of Badenoch, with whom he obtained some Irish lands, and Goderich Castle in Herefordshire, which he made his principal seat. He followed Edward in every war, served in every Parliament of the reign, received grant after grant from the monarch—one being a private prison in Goderich Castle, " for the punishing of malefactors," and died October 23rd, 1356, five hundred and seven years ago, seized of 'the manor of Bampton, Oxfordshire, of the inheritance of his wife, Farnham, in Berkshire, and Huntley, in Gloucestershire ; and of the manors of Swanscombe, in Kent ; Credenhill, the park of Penyard, the manor of Wormlow, and hundred of Irchenfield ; as also the manors of Goderich Castle and Eccleswell and Linton, with the advowson of the church of Credenhill, in Herefordshire Gilbert, his son and heir, served, like his father, in the French wars, and in the fleet, under Michael de in Pole. He married first a daughter of Boteler (Butler), Earl of Ormonde, and, secondly, a daughter of the Earl of Stafford, and died April 24th, 1387, leav- ing by his first marriage a son, Sir Richard, then twenty-six years of age. Sir Richard married the heiress of the Le Stranges, of Blackmere, and obtained livery of his wife's inheritance during his father's lifetime. He was a Knight Banneret, served in the fleet under the Earl of Arundel, and took part in the Castilian ex- pedition under John of Gaunt. In 1391, as one of the heirs of the Valences and Marshalls, Earls of Pembroke, through the marriage with Elizabeth Comyn, he had awarded to him the county of Weysford, or Wexford, in Ireland, and was styled Earl of Wex- ford. There was, however, no formal creation, and the Grey de Ruthyns, as nearest heirs of the Earls of Pembroke, assumed with the title of Hastings that of Wexford. Oddly enough, that family seem to have forgotten the meaning of their own title, and now the Marquises of Hastings use Weysford as if it were a Christian name. Richard Lord Talbot died on September 7, 1396, master, besides the great properties pre- viously enumerated, of the manors of Great Braxted, Hasling- bury, and Waldbury, in Essex ; a moiety of the manor of Brough- ton, in Wilts ; the lordship of Leigh, in Gloucestershire ; the manors of Doddington, Wrockwardine, Blackmere, alias Whit- church, in Shropshire ; and Lidney and the castle of Kilpec, in Herefordshire. He left five sons and four daughters. The third son became Archbisop of Dublin; of the second, John, we shall treat presently ; and the eldest, Gilbert, twelfth in succession from the founder, succeeded to all the family estates. He was made a Knight of the Garter by Henry IV., as heir of the Pembrolces claimed to carry the great spurs at the coronation of Henry V., and was made Justice of Chester by that King, being called on to bring as his contingent to the French wars 120 men- at-arms and 240 archers. He was engaged to treat with Owen Glendower, and was in the French wars appointed Governor of Caen and Captain-General of the Marches of Normandy, and with Gilbert d'Umfraville was ordered to subdue all the forts and castles of that province. He died October 19, 1419, leaving to the guardianship of his brother John only an infant daughter, named Ankaret, who died in 1421, and John, the real hero of the Talbot line, then became the head of the family.
John Talbot had made a great match, marrying Maud, the eldest of the daughters and coheirs of Thomas Neville, Lord Furnivall, and in the 11th of Henry IV. he was summoned to Parliament as Lord Furnivall, and afterwards as John Talbot, of Hallamshire, that property—worth now Heaven knows what
number of millions !—with the castle of Sheffield, being part of her inheritance. She brought him also the castle and manor of Alveton, or ALTON, in Staffordshire, now the chief seat of the Talbot House. In the last year of Henry IV. he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland ; but the new reign opened un- favourably for him. He fell under suspicion, and on November 16th, 1413, was committed to the Tower ; but was speedily released, and in February following was re-appointed Lord- Lieutenant, and held the office seven years. His eminent military abilities—he was unquestionably the greatest general of that age, perhaps the greatest of the whole feudal period—soon reduced Ireland to obedience, and so secure did the Pale become that the noblemen and gentlemen there resident addressed to the King a description of his services. In 1419 his elder brother's death re- called him to England, and leaving his brother, the Archbishop, as his deputy, he transported to England and imprisoned in the Tower a great Irish chieftain, Donald MacMurrogh, whom he had captured, and with whom he had the King's leave to make his own terms. He next crossed into France, accompanied Henry in his triumphal march to Paris in 1420, in 1425 was again appointed Lord Justice of Ireland, and then for the second time re-entered France. Here he was placed by the Regent, John of Bedford, in command of all the English forces, and was eminently successful till, in 1429, the Maid of Orleans gave him battle and took him prisoner, lie remained a prisoner for three years, and was only released on promise to pay a large ransom, which he accomplished with the assistance of the Duke of Brittany, who gave him 2,000 muves of salt, which he transported to England custom free. The instant he was released he flew back to England, raised new forces, rejoined Bedford, and became the terror of all France, and so prized by the English Government that, on the 20th of May, 1442, he was created Earl of the County of Salop, or, as it was generally but most improperly called, Shrewsbury, which title his lineal descendant still enjoys. So clear is the object of the creation, that we have little doubt that the present Earl, if it were worth while, could enforce his right to the title derived from the county, and not from the town. In 1444 Talbot contrived to get 10,0001. paid down and departed again for France, carrying with him as his own contingent one baron, two knights, ninety-six men-at-arms, and 300 archers. In 1446 he was again, for the third time, appointed Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland, and on July 17th in that year he was raised to the additional dignity of Earl of Waterford (being also styled Earl of Wexford) and Baron Dungarvan, while the city and county of Waterford, with the castles, lords, and barony of Dungarvan, were granted to him, and the jura regalia from Water- ford to Youghal.
In 1451 Shrewsbury was again on his old field of fame, and the year after he was made commander of a fleet, having 4,000 archers on board. But his career was now drawing to a close. In 1453 he had been appointed Lieutenant of Aquitaine, and, although eighty years of age, marching thither, took Bordeaux, and had reduced several other strongholds, when, hearing that Chastillon was besieged by the French, he advanced thither, and gave them battle. Fortune once again deserted him, and on the 20th July, 1453, having his thigh shattered with a cannon-ball and his horse killed under him, John, Earl of Shrewsbury, re- mained dead on his last battle-field. His son, John Talbot, the eldest son by his second marriage with the eldest daughter and coheir of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, was slain with him. This son had greatly distinguished himself in the wars, and had been created Lord Lisle, of Kingston Lisle, in Berkshire, in 1444, and Viscount Lisle in 1451. His father, when wounded, had earnestly entreated him to leave him, but he refused, and re- mained to share his death of glory. The great Earl, when he fell, had been the victor in forty-seven battles and dangerous skirmishes. When his dead body was found on the field by his herald, who had worn his coat of arms, " he kissed the body, and broke out into these compassionate and dutiful expressions Alas ! it is you. I pray God pardon all your misdoings ; I have been your officer of arms forty years or more ; it is time .1 should surrender it to you ;' and while the tears trickled plentifully .down his face, he disrobed himself of his coat of arms, and flung it over his master's body." Thus, in the fulness of years, every one of which since he could bear arms had been marked by some stout action or skilful leadership in the service of his country, died the noblest warrior of the feudal period, whom Froiasart would have worshipped, and whosename, even at this lapse of time, creates a proud sympathy in the breasts of Englishmen. He was the popular idol of his own age, and he has invested the name which he bore with a charm that generations of mediocrity cannot destroy. We would gladly penetrate below the surface of his external actions, and learn what the man was in himself ; but the meagre facts• and dry outlines of the
chroniclers leave us to imagine for ourselves what the man really was who was a tower of strength to England as long as he lived, and whose death was hailed in France as the seal of emancipation.
His eldest surviving son by his first marriage, Sir John Talbot, was forty years old at his death, and showed his sense of the benefits his family had received from the House of Lancaster by warmly espousing their cause. Heperished with his brother at Northampton, July 10th, 1460. By his second wife, a daughter of James Butler, Earl of Ormonde and Wiltshire, he had five sons, the eldest of whom, John, succeeded him as third Earl of Shrewsbury. This Earl was made by Edward IV. Chief Justice of North Wales, and was one of the Commissioners to treat with James III. of Scotland on international grievances. He married a daughter of Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, and died June 28th, 1473. George, his eldest son and successor as fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, was only five yearn of age at his father's death, and thus escaped all the difficulties of maturer nobles at the crisis which transferred the crown from the House of York to the House of Tudor, his uncle, however, leading his retainers to the aid of Richmond. He was made one of Henry VIL's Privy Council, and distinguished himself in the King's service, at the battle of Stoke, against Lambert Simnel. He was made a Knight of the Garter, and sent as one of the com- manders of the forces in aid of Maximilian of Germany against Charles VIII. of France. In 1509, Henry VIII. made him one of his household and Privy Council, and he accompanied him in most of his French expeditions—warlike and peaceful. He seems to have attached himself personally to the King, who made him Lieutenant- General of the North and Constable of Radnor and Wigmore Castles. The Reformation left him still an adherent of the Crown, although he may have leant to the old doctrines, and on the occasion of the dangerous " Pilgrimage of Grace," Mr. Froudo pro- nounces that Henry was, perhaps, indebted for his crown to Shrewsbury's resolution and fidelity. He anticipated orders in raising his forces, and overawed effectually the midland counties adjacent to the revolted district. Shrewsbury, however, seems to have been ill-repaid for his great services to the Crown, since, in the 28th year of Henry's reign, an Act of Parliament was passed in Ireland, called the Statute of Absentees, whereby the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Shrewsbury, the Lord Berkeley, and the heirs- general of the Earl of Ormonde, were obliged, "for their absence and carelessness in defending their rights" in that country, to surrender the same to the Crown ; and accordingly, the Earls of Shrewsbury were not inserted in the Journals of the House as Irish Peers till after the Restoration, when Charles II. restored them to the titles of Earl of Waterford and Wexford. He died at his manor of Wingfield, in Derbyshire, on the 20th of July, 1541. He married a daughter of George Lord Hastings, and was succeeded by his son Francis, fifth Earl of Shrewsbury, who was summoned to the Upper House in his father's lifetime, and in the year of his father's death exchanged with the King the manor of Farnham-Royal, in Buckinghamshire, for the inheritance of the site of the priory of Worksop, in Nottinghamshire, with divers other lands. Francis had a share in henry VIII.'s expedition to Scotland, when every place was desolated with fire and sword, and was appointed Lieutenant of the counties of York, Lancaster, Chester, Derby, Stafford, Salop, and Nottingham, and Justice of the Forests North of the Trent. In the 2nd year of Edward VI. he was sent again into Scotland, with 15,000 men, against the French. On the accession of Mary he was made President of the Council of the North. Earl Francis devoted his life almost entirely to military services, and did not take any violent part in the religious politics of the time. He was, however, a firm though moderate Catholic. He was appointed by Elizabeth, on her accession, one of her Privy Council, but was the only lay Peer, except Lord Montague, who had the courage and principle to oppose, in his place in Parliament, all the measures which undid the work of Mary, and re-established Protestantism as the religion of the State. "He died a few months afterwards, September 21, 1560, at the age of sixty.
His only surviving son, George, who then became sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, was sent by his father, in October, 1557, to the relief of the Earl of Northumberland, then pent up at Alnwick Castle by the Scots, and remained in service on the Borders for some months after. On the 24th April, 1560, Elizabeth gave him the Garter, and in the summer of 1565 appointed him Lord-Lieutenant of the counties of York, Notting- ham, and Derby. He was High Steward at the arraignment of the Duke of Norfolk, and succeeded him as Earl Marshal. In January, 1569, the Queen of Scots was committed to his custody. From this period, for the next fifteen years of his life, the Earl was entirely absorbed in the guardianship of his dangerous
prisoner. " In perpetual danger," says Lodge, in his introduc- tion to this Earl's correspondence, " from the suspicions of one Princess and the hatred of another ; vexed by the jealousy and rapacity of an unreasonable wife, and by the excesses and quarrels of his sons, from whom he was obliged to withdraw that authoritative attention the whole of which was required by his charge, we shall view this nobleman, through the long space of fifteen years, relinquishing the splendour of public situation and those blandishments of domestic life which his exalted rank and vast wealth might have commanded." Such sacrifices did Elizabeth demand from her great subjects. How far the Earl really remained faithful to his allegiance to Elizabeth under the assiduous wiles of Mary is still, perhaps, an undetermined point in history. Elizabeth, however, kept a keen eye on him, and, on the whole, found no safer or more trustworthy agent in securing this to her all-important end. The Earl was twice married—first to a daughter of 'Thomas Manners, first Earl of Rutland ; and next, as we have already had occasion to notice, to the widow of Sir William Cavendish, Elizabeth Hardwicke, and died November 18th, 1590. His eldest surviving son and successor, Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury, died at his house in Broad street, London, May 8, 1616, and was succeeded by Edward Talbot, his only surviving brother, the eighth Earl of Shrewsbury, who had been on very bad terms with the last Earl, the latter not showing to advantage in the letters which passed between them. He only survived till February 8th, 1618, and dying without issue, the Earldom devolved on the descendant of Sir Gilbert Talbot, third son of John, second Earl of Shrewsbury. The direct line had ended, but the estates and titles still reverted to a descendant of John the Warrior, the type man of the Talbots, whose function on earth, from William Rufus to William was always that of soldiers. The break, therefore, made no change either in the antiquity of the pedigree or the connection of the title with the hero who acquired it.
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