The Gunpowder Plot and Lord Mounteagle's Letter Part 8

This proof is contained in the following "Examination of Marmaduke Warde, Gentleman, in the County of Yorke, taken at Beauchamp Court before Sir Fulke Grevyll, Knight, and Bartholmewe Hales, Esq^{re.}, on Wednesday, the 6th day of November, the day following the arrest of Fawkes and the flight of the others of the conspirators from London towards Dunchurch, in Warwickshire:--

"GUNPOWDER PLOT BOOKS--PART I., NO. 47.[81]

"The examinacion of Marmaduke Warde, gent. of Newbie in the countie of yorke taken before S^{r.} ffowlk Grevyll[A] Knight and Bartholmewe Hales esq^{r.}

"This ex^{t} beinge demaunded when he came into this Countreye saith a fortnight since & hath since continued at Mr Jo: Writes at Lapworth, where Mr Write discontynuinge the s.p.a.ce of on weeke past his sister in lawe Mrs Write intreated him (beeinge accompanyed w^{th} on Marke Brittaine her man) to goe to Mr Winter w^{th} a horse to Huddenton where as theye past by Alcester about an hower after the troope past this ex^{t} was apprehended but the saide Brittaine beeinge well horst escapt hee further saith hee knewe not of the companies pa.s.singe y^{t} way vntill they came to Alcester nor of theire purpose any thinge at all."

[Footnote A: This was the celebrated Sir Fulk Greville, the friend and biographer of Sir Philip Sidney. Greville was afterwards created Lord Brooke. His tomb, with a famous inscription, is in the church of St. Mary, Warwick.]

Now, from the "_Life of Mary Ward_," vol. i., p. 91, it is evident, first, that Marmaduke Warde got into no trouble of any kind, notwithstanding that for a fortnight he had been actually dwelling under the roof-tree of one of the princ.i.p.al conspirators, and when apprehended was even in the act of taking a horse from Lapworth to Huddington, the mansion of Robert Winter, one Gunpowder traitor and armed rebel, who was also the brother of another Gunpowder traitor and armed rebel--the latter, indeed, being among the very chiefest of the traitors and rebels.

It is evident, secondly, that on reaching London town the Master of Newbie, in the County of York, lodged in Baldwin's Gardens, Holborn, apparently as a matter of course.

Moreover, the marvel of the whole thing is enhanced by the fact, first, that Marmaduke Ward's name is bracketed along with Richard Yorke (a follower of Robert Winter) and Robert Key (doubtless Robert Keyes), the Gunpowder traitor, who was arrested in Warwickshire by himself and not in the company of the others (it is supposed he had been to Turvey, in Bedfordshire, to see his wife and children at Lord Mordaunt's, and was making his way towards Holbeach); and by the fact, secondly, that the said Marmaduke Ward, Richard Yorke, and Robert Key are specially described as "suspected persons usually resorting to Mr. Winter, Mr. Grant, and Mr.

Rookwood's."[A]

[Footnote A: See add. MS. 5874, fo. 322, British Museum. See also Appendix for the list of suspected persons usually resorting to Mr. Winter's, Mr.

Grant's, and Mr. Rookwood's.

Mr. Winter's house would be Huddington, in Worcestershire; Mr. Grant's, Norbrook, in Warwickshire; Mr. Rookwood's would be Clopton Hall (or House), Stratford-on-Avon. Mabie's "_Life of Shakespeare_" (Macmillan, 1901), p. 393, contains a picture of the dining-hall at Clopton.]

Now the inferences that I draw from these two truly astounding circ.u.mstances are these following:--That Marmaduke Warde must have had literally "a friend at Court," or his lodging when he reached the great Metropolis, as a matter of course, would have been not--emphatically _not_--Baldwin's Gardens, Holborn, but, of a surety, the Tower of London.

That this "friend" must have been very closely allied to him in some way or another.

And that this "friend" must have been a very powerful friend indeed, especially when one remembers the punishment that was inflicted after the Plot had become a mere bubble-burst by the Court of Star Chamber upon Marmaduke Warde's own connection (through the Gascoignes), Henry Earl of Northumberland,[82] and upon the Lords Montague, Mordaunt, and Stourton, the latter of whom had married a daughter of good Sir Thomas Tresham; and the prosecution of Marmaduke Warde's other connection, Sir John Yorke, of Gowthwaite Hall, in Nidderdale, as late as the year 1612, on a charge of complicity in the Plot.[83]

Now, from all these three inferences, surely the further inference is inevitable, that the probabilities are so high as to amount to moral cert.i.tude, that Thomas Warde and Marmaduke Warde were each allied, in blood, to William Parker fourth Lord Mounteagle.

And "probability" that amounts to moral cert.i.tude is, as every-day experience, as well as philosophy, tells us, "the very guide of life."

Therefore the historical Inquirer henceforward is warranted in reason in pursuing his inquiries into this matter on the following a.s.sumption, at the very least, namely, that Christopher Wright, Marmaduke Warde, Thomas Warde, and Lord Mounteagle had common family ties subsisting between them in the year 1605.

And, consequently, upon such an a.s.sumption the Inquirer may justifiably build his hypothesis respecting the revelation of the Gunpowder Treason Plot.[84]

CHAPTER XXI.

But, it may be asked, is there any Evidence, however remote, to show how it is possible that Mounteagle may have been brought into personal contact with his morally certain kinsman, Thomas Warde (or Ward)?

There is.

For it is to be remembered that although Mounteagle seems to have spent most of his time in London and Ess.e.x, his grandmother, Elizabeth Lady Morley, the wife of Henry Parker Lord Morley, was, as we have seen, of the then well-nigh princely house of the Stanleys Earls of Derby, she being, in fact, a daughter of Edward Stanley Earl of Derby, as was Margaret Lady Poyntz, the wife of Sir Nicholas Poyntz,[A] of Iron Acton, in the County of Gloucester, the father of Edward Poyntz, Esquire, the relative of the Wardes of Yorkshire.

[Footnote A: It is a remarkable fact that Sir Thomas Heneage (whose name frequently occurs in the correspondence of Sir Francis Walsingham with the Earl of Leicester when in the Low Countries), married for his first wife Anne Poyntz, the eldest daughter of Sir Nicholas Poyntz and the Honourable Margaret Stanley, the daughter of Edward Stanley Earl of Derby.--See "_Visitation of Ess.e.x, 1612_" (Harleian Soc.) under "Poyntz."--Sir Thomas Heneage is described as Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Sir Thomas Heneage married for his second wife the Dowager Countess of Southampton, the mother of Shakespeare's friend and patron. Now this Earl of Southampton, like the Earl of Rutland, was an intimate friend of Lord Mounteagle.]

Besides, as we have also seen, this was not William Parker fourth Lord Mounteagle's only relationship with England's "North Countrie,"--that birthplace and home of so much that is most original and energetic in the English race. For this happily-circ.u.mstanced young peer was related doubly to the great Lancashire house of Derby, being, indeed, the heir and successor to the honours and estates of the Stanleys Lords Mounteagle, of Hornby Castle, near "time-honoured Lancaster."

In fact, through his mother Elizabeth (Stanley) Lady Morley, William Parker fourth Lord Mounteagle was the owner of Hornby Castle, situated in the Vale of the Lune, one of the grandest portions of North-east Lancashire.

Again, through his grandmother Anne (Leybourne) Lady Mounteagle, Lord Mounteagle was descended from two other families belonging to the ancient and wealthy Catholic gentry of the North, some of whom the Wards, of Mulwith, Newby, and Givendale, in the Parish of Ripon, in the County of York, must have known personally, and certainly all of whom they must have greatly honoured.

I refer to the Prestons, of Levens and Preston Patrick, in the County of Westmoreland, and of Furness and Holker, in Lancashire, "North of the Sands," and to the Leybournes (or Labourns), of Cunswick, Skelsmergh, and Witherslack,[A] in the County of Westmoreland, and of Nateby-in-the-Fylde, in the west of the County of Lancaster.[85]

[Footnote A: The modern Witherslack Hall, in Westmoreland, is the property of the present Earl of Derby. It is situated in a lovely neighbourhood which instinctively recalls the words of the poet:

"Daffodils, That come before the swallow dares, and take, The winds of March with beauty."--_Winter's Tale._

Witherslack is reached from Arnside, Silverdale, or Grange-over-Sands.

The old Witherslack Hall of the Leybournes is now a farm-house.]

CHAPTER XXII.

Lastly, it should be remembered, in endeavouring to trace out by inevitable inference the nature of the tie or ties, manifestly very strong, that bound Mounteagle to Marmaduke Ward (and therefore to Thomas Ward), that the ancestors of both Mounteagle and the Wards had, in the year 1513, fought together at the great battle of Flodden Field, in Northumberland, in which the Scots were led by King James IV. of Scotland, who married Margaret Tudor, the daughter of King Henry VII. of England, and whom naught would content, like many a valiant Scot before and since, save "a soldier's death or glory."

In the memorable fight, the fifth son of Thomas Stanley first Earl of Derby, namely, Sir Edward Stanley (whose mother was a Neville),[A] turned the fortunes of the day in favour of the English by attacking with his archers the rear of the Scottish centre--which centre, led by King James himself in person, was a.s.saulting, with some success, the English forces, whose vanguard was led by Lord Thomas Howard, in 1514 created the Earl of Surrey.

[Footnote A: The first Lord Mounteagle's mother was Lady Eleanor Neville, the sister of Richard Neville, so well known to history as "the King Maker." The Wards were related to the Nevilles in more than one way.--See "_Life of Mary Ward_," vol. i., the earlier chapters.

In Staindrop Parish Church, three miles from Winston, Darlington, are still to be seen the monuments of the great Ralph Neville and his two wives. This was the first Neville who bore the t.i.tle Earl of Westmoreland.

There are also the monuments of Henry Neville fifth Earl of Westmoreland, and two out of his three wives. His son Charles was the last Neville who bore this t.i.tle.--See Wordsworth's "_White Doe of Rylstone_." I visited Raby Castle, Durham, with its famous Hall and Minstrels' Gallery, on the 1st of July, 1901. Raby Castle is owned now by Henry De Vere Vane ninth Lord Barnard, who also owns Barnard Castle, overlooking the Tees, celebrated by Sir Walter Scott in "Rokeby."]

This Earl of Surrey was afterwards the second Duke of Norfolk, of the Howard line of the Dukes of Norfolk, and great great grandfather of Philip Howard Earl of Arundel, who died in the Tower of London in 1595.

The Mowbrays had been the holders of the coveted t.i.tle Duke of Norfolk[A]

from the year 1396 down to 1475, when John de Mowbray Earl of Warren and Surrey, the fourth of the Mowbray Dukes of Norfolk, died leaving no son but only a daughter, Anne, in her own right Baroness Mowbray and Segrave, and also in her own right Countess of Norfolk. This lady was contracted in marriage to Richard, afterwards created Duke of Norfolk, a son of King Edward IV., but they had no issue.

[Footnote A: The first Earl of Norfolk was Thomas of Brotherton, a brother of King Edward II. The date of this ancient Earldom was 1312. It fell into abeyance on the death of Richard Duke of Norfolk and his wife Anne Lady Mowbray.

Thomas Howard Earl of Arundel and Surrey (the half-cousin of Lord Mounteagle) was created Earl of Norfolk by a patent of King Charles I.

(formerly Duke of York) in 1644. At the present date (25th June, 1901) the House of Lords has under consideration a claim by Lord Mowbray Segrave and Stourton that he be declared senior co-heir to the Earldom of Norfolk created in 1312. (A case of great historic interest.)]

The second of the Howard Dukes of Norfolk, the hero of Flodden Field, was the father of Thomas third Duke of Norfolk, commonly called the "old Duke of Norfolk."

He was that Duke of Norfolk, under Henry VIII., who opposed the insurgent Yorkshire and Lancashire "Pilgrims of Grace" (1536) led by the gallant Robert Aske,[A] of Aughton, on the banks of the Yorkshire Derwent, when in the event Aske was hanged from one of the towers of the ancient City of York--probably Clifford's Tower--and many of his followers tasted of Tudor vengeance.

[Footnote A: Representatives of the family of Robert Aske are still to be found at Bubwith, near Aughton, and, I believe, at Hull. Aughton is reached from the station called High Field on the Selby and Market Weighton line. Aughton Parish Church is a fine mediaeval structure. Hard-by is Castle Hill, the site of the ancient castle of the Askes, showing also evident traces of two large moats which had surrounded the fortified buildings on the hill which const.i.tuted the Aughton Hall of days gone by.]

"The old Duke of Norfolk" was the father of that ill.u.s.trious scion of the house of Howard who, under the name Earl of Surrey, has left a deathless memory alike as warrior, statesman, and poet.

The Earl of Surrey's son was Thomas Howard fourth Duke of Norfolk, who is the common ancestor of the present Duke of Norfolk and the present Earl of Carlisle.