O, Francis, she who was thy wife, behold, Catherine Knollys lies dead under the chilly marble. I know well that she will never depart from thy soul, though dead. Whilst alive she was always loved by thee: living, she bore thee, her husband, sixteen children, equally female and male (that is, both gentle and valiant). Would that she had lived many years with thee and thy wife was now an old lady. But God desired it not. But he willed that thou, O Catherine, should await thy husband in Heaven.
Given the emphasis on Francis, it is possible that the epitaph was commissioned on his orders. The touching words testify to the sadness that Katherine’s death left in both his life and that of their children, and her passing also saddened many who had known her. She had been popular, and following her death Thomas Newton published an epitaph in her memory. It began with a verse that confirms the high regard in which her contemporaries had held Lettice’s mother:
Death with his Dart hath us bereft,
A Gem of worthy fame,
A Pearl of price, an Ouche of praise,
The Lady Knollys by name.39
Now, though, Lady Knollys had gone, leaving the stage ‘of this most wretched life, wherein she played a stately part’.40 Following Katherine’s death, the Queen remained on good terms with Francis, who, upon delivering the Queen of Scots to Tutbury on 4 February, was relieved of his role of custodian by the Earl of Shrewsbury. He left Tutbury four days later, leaving his brother Henry behind to support Shrewsbury in his new role.
The Queen was kind to Francis’s children following the loss of their mother. Whether she made any attempt to reach out to Lettice during this time is uncertain, but it is likely that she condoled with her younger sister Elizabeth, who had by now been promoted to the role of lady of the privy chamber. However, Elizabeth typically viewed Katherine’s death primarily as her own personal loss. It was at this time that Lettice’s thirteen-year-old sister Anne became a paid member of the Royal Household, and throughout the course of her service the Queen gave her several gifts. With no mother to supervise her care and her father away from home, it is possible that the youngest surviving Knollys daughter, nine-year-old Katherine, went to live with her elder sister Lettice; Lettice and Katherine were always close, and this would not be the last occasion on which they would live together. In later life, probably in the 1590s, Katherine went to live with her older sister following the death of her second husband. At this time she was only a few years older than six-year-old Penelope and her younger sister Dorothy, and may have been seen as a suitable companion.
LETTICE’S MOTHER WAS now dead, and by this time Lettice was pregnant with her fourth child. She had had a successful, though exhausting, pregnancy record, having borne three children in the space of three years. This would not be a peaceful pregnancy, for later that same year events took a dangerous turn, threatening the security of the Queen on her throne. And Lettice’s husband, Walter, was to be at the very centre of the action.
At the beginning of 1569, Mary, Queen of Scots, had been in England for more than six months. Following a conference at York the previous October, at which Mary’s half-brother the Earl of Moray had produced the infamous casket letters – proof, he said, of Mary’s involvement in the murder of her second husband, Lord Darnley – Elizabeth was in a quandary of indecision about what to do next.41 The letters were almost certainly forged, but still Elizabeth made no move to aid Mary in her hopes to be restored to her throne. As the Queen and her advisors pondered over what to do, it became apparent that Mary was now less Elizabeth’s honoured guest, and more her prisoner. Mary longed for her freedom; she was well aware that her imprisonment was illegal, and she began making plans to escape.
The north of England was largely Catholic territory, and Mary’s presence there had given rise to a new plot. The Northern Rebellion was the brainchild of Thomas Percy, seventh Earl of Northumberland, and Charles Neville, sixth Earl of Westmorland.42 Its aim was to free Mary, and arrange for her marriage to the Duke of Norfolk, with whom Mary had been conversing on the subject.43 More than that, the plot also aimed to depose Queen Elizabeth and set Mary on the throne in her place, thereby restoring England to Catholicism – despite the fact that Norfolk was a Protestant. When word of the uprising reached London, it caused panic, made worse when the Queen struggled to rally her forces. Moving Mary south was a priority, and with this in mind the Queen sought the assistance of Lettice’s husband, Walter.
In September, Walter was at Chartley with his wife and children when he received an urgent message from the Queen. Together with his cousin, Henry Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, he was commanded to assist the Earl of Shrewsbury at nearby Tutbury in securing Mary’s person in order to prevent an escape attempt.44 He had been ordered to keep a body of horsemen in readiness, and he prepared to take them to Tutbury. From Chartley, Walter bade his pregnant wife and children farewell as he began the sixteen-mile journey. It must have been difficult leaving Lettice at this time for she was fast approaching her confinement, but Walter’s commission gave him an opportunity to shine in the Queen’s service.
Tutbury had once been an important stronghold with royal associations, but it had since fallen into disrepair, and the Scottish Queen loathed it. Neither did she take kindly to the arrival of Walter and Huntingdon, especially when she learned of the reason for their visit. This was almost certainly the first occasion on which Walter had met Mary, and there is no evidence as to what his first impressions of her may have been. He was, however, intent on serving Queen Elizabeth, and in so doing did nothing to ingratiate himself with Mary. Both he and Huntingdon reported that they had searched Mary’s coffers, but to no avail; anything incriminating she may have had was now gone, for Shrewsbury had informed Huntingdon that ‘she did burn many papers’.45 Mary took the search ‘very grievously’, complaining bitterly of her treatment.46
Interestingly, it was while Walter was at Tutbury that the first evidence of a rift with the Earl of Leicester appears. Having written to Cecil on 27 September to inform him of the search of the Scottish Queen’s coffers, Huntingdon made reference to certain comments that had been made by John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, Mary’s agent to Elizabeth.47 Precisely what Leslie had said is unclear, but he had evidently made some remarks against both Huntingdon and Walter, which Huntingdon strenuously denied. Eager to defend himself, Walter had added a postscript. He was alarmed by the nature of Leslie’s allegations, which were obviously concerned with the suits of both Leicester and the Duke of Norfolk for the Scottish Queen’s hand in marriage. He felt obliged to answer them, and in so doing a different side to his character emerges. He indignantly claimed:
That which the Bishop of Ross hath reported of me, is most untrue; for any unfit speech, which hath passed from me, either of the Duke of Norfolk, or of the Earl of Leicester, I desire but to have it justified to my face, when time shall serve. I have spoken nothing which I will not say again; and yet that have I not said, which might give either of them cause of offence.48
Walter was vehement in his own defence, and felt that whatever charges Leslie had levelled at him had been blown out of proportion. He was a man who was not afraid to stand his ground, and to speak out when he felt that he had been wronged. If he is to be believed, then he bore no hard feelings against Leicester at this time. Yet this would later change.
WALTER RETURNED HOME to Chartley shortly afterwards, but there was little time for him to discuss his first impressions of Mary, Queen of Scots, with Lettice; her thoughts were elsewhere. On 31 October, All Hallows’ Eve, she gave birth to her fourth child. To her delight and that of Walter, the baby was a boy. He was named Walter after his father, and it would later be rumoured that the boy was his father’s favourite.49 Walter would be the last of the Herefords’ surviving children; a further son, named Francis, was born at a later unknown date. Sadly, no further details are known of him, and he died young.50 He may have been laid to rest in the church at Stowe, perhaps close to Walter’s grandfather. Lettice had now amply fulfilled her d
uty, providing her husband with two male heirs, and two beautiful daughters. She had every reason to be jubilant.
Just days after young Walter’s birth, the precious time that Lettice’s husband was able to spend with his family and his newborn son came to an abrupt end. The Northern Rebellion was posing an increasing threat, and in November the rebels’ forces gathered in Durham. They defiantly ordered a Catholic Mass to be celebrated in the cathedral, and there was no doubt that they were intent on moving south. Their numbers were swelling daily, with more than four thousand men marching under their banner. Although Mary was now at Tutbury, Elizabeth’s advisors began to fear that, with the rebels marching south, she would soon be freed if she remained there. It was with this in mind that Walter and Huntingdon were called upon once again, and ordered to move Mary further south. They escorted her to Coventry, from where extra guards were employed to ensure that she did not escape, while Walter and Huntingdon returned home to rally their troops.51
Walter’s return to Chartley was of short duration. Having mustered 150 horsemen to add to the Queen’s ranks, he prepared to leave his family once more. Knowing of the threat that the rebels posed was a cause of alarm for Walter, whose young family at Chartley was vulnerable; Lettice had only recently given birth and was probably not strong enough to travel, hence the reason why her husband did not send her further south. All that they could do was hope that the rebellion was crushed swiftly.
Having received orders to take his forces to Leicester, by the end of November Walter was ready to leave. On 27 November, he wrote to the Queen acknowledging his duty to her. He would, he assured her, ‘repair with all the forces that I have levied, as speedily as it is possible unto Leicester, and so forward to what place it shall please them whom your Majesty hath appointed to have the government of your army’.52 He also took the opportunity to profess his loyalty, declaring that ‘I will most faithfully and truly serve your Majesty to the uttermost of my power.’53 Leaving his wife and his four young children behind, Walter and his men marched towards Leicester. His first stop was Lichfield, where he managed to rally 3,000 men. When he arrived in Leicester, he joined the Queen’s forces, which were assembled under the command of the Earl of Leicester’s brother, Ambrose, Earl of Warwick. On 1 December, Ambrose advertised Cecil of Walter’s arrival, informing him approvingly that ‘My Lord of Hereford has been here with me, whom I find as willing to serve her Majesty as man can be.’54 There was no hint of any animosity between the two families, and both men were intent upon serving the Queen. At the same time, Ambrose had pressed Walter to accept the post of Marshal of the army in the north, telling Cecil that although ‘he took it very friendly at my hand for offering it’, he was reluctant to accept the post.55 He was worried, Ambrose explained, about his ignorance to ‘discharge so great a burden’, and Ambrose admired Walter’s honesty.56 Pressing him further, he finally convinced Walter to accept, admitting that ‘I will love him the better while I live for this great forwardness which I find in him.’57 That same year Walter was also made Lord Lieutenant of the county of Stafford in reward for his services.58 Lettice’s family had also been called upon to serve the Queen in the suppression of the rebellion, and among those who led a force were her father, her elder brother Henry, and her younger brother, William.
Lettice waited anxiously at Chartley for news of her husband and the rebellion. To her great relief, as well as that of Queen and country, support for the rebels melted away in the middle of December. As they proceeded to march south, the rebels found that their cause was less popular than they had hoped. When word reached them that the Earl of Sussex, Lord President of the North, was marching his force of 7,000 men towards them, the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland disbanded their men and fled north.59 On 26 December, the Queen wrote to Ambrose of her relief, ‘Forasmuch as we are credibly advertised of the dispersing of this late rebellion by fleeing away of the two Earls, heads of the said rebellion’. 60 As a result, Ambrose could now disband his forces.
The rebellious Earls, meanwhile, managed to flee across the border into Scotland. From there Westmorland escaped abroad, living out the rest of his life in impoverished exile.61 Northumberland was not so fortunate. He was captured in Scotland in 1572 and handed over to the Queen, who had him executed at York. Mary’s intended bridegroom, the Duke of Norfolk, was arrested but was later pardoned. However, displaying staggering naivety, both he and Mary hoped that they would still be able to marry, and continued to make plans to this effect. With this in mind, another plot was hatched, under the auspices of the Florentine banker, Roberto Ridolfi. When the Ridolfi Plot came to the attention of the Queen and her advisors in 1571, Norfolk’s luck ran out. In September, he was arrested once more while the evidence against him was compiled.
During the crisis posed by the threat of the Northern Rebellion, Walter had amply demonstrated his loyalty to the Queen. He had proven himself to be an able military leader who had earned the respect of his contemporaries, and having fulfilled his duty he was able to return to Chartley. In turn, the Queen was coming to hold Lettice’s husband in increasingly high regard, and in dealing with the Duke of Norfolk’s treason she once more requested his assistance. In January 1572, Walter arrived in London. He had brought Lettice with him, and with no London home of their own, the couple took up residence at Durham Place. This may have been Lettice’s first visit to the capital in some time, but on this occasion the visit was more for business than pleasure. On 16 January, the Duke of Norfolk stood trial at Westminster Hall, and among the peers who presided over the trial was Walter. He probably discussed the proceedings with his wife, and if this were so then he would have been able to tell Lettice how the Duke’s attitude had gone from one of proud defiance, to one of broken resignation following a guilty verdict. Norfolk was condemned for high treason, but in spite of his blatant guilt their ties of kinship – Norfolk was the Queen’s second cousin – meant that Elizabeth was reluctant to order his execution. She also wanted to be seen as benevolent, but Norfolk’s involvement in more than one plot made this difficult. Under pressure, she eventually signed the Duke’s death warrant. On 2 June, Norfolk was executed, telling the crowd that had gathered to witness him die that ‘he had never willingly offended the Queen’.62
Throughout these testing times Lettice’s husband had distinguished himself, and proven that he was wholeheartedly loyal to the Queen. Her husband’s success was a great source of pride for Lettice, but if she thought that life was about to resume its normal course then she was to be mistaken: Walter’s star was now in the ascendant.
CHAPTER 7
Faithful, Faultless, Yet Someway Unfortunate, Yet Must Suffer
ON 23 APRIL 1572, much to Lettice’s gratification and Walter’s sense of family pride, his loyalty to Queen Elizabeth was rewarded. On that day he was made a Knight of the Garter, the highest order of chivalry in the land.1 This was a great honour, and it did not end there.2 In 1571, his cousin Anne Bourchier had died, securing him the title of Lord Bourchier.3 Following the death of Anne’s father the second Earl of Essex in 1540, the earldom of Essex had become extinct in the male line.4 This title, one that had previously been invested in Walter’s ancestors, was now to become his. On Sunday 4 May 1572, the Queen created Walter Earl of Essex in a splendid formal ceremony at Greenwich Palace. At the same time, Edward Clinton was created Earl of Lincoln.5 The official account of the proceedings described how Walter,
being apparelled in a kirtle of crimson velvet and having on his Robe of Estate of crimson velvet with a deep cape of ermine of three rows, and a hood of crimson velvet was conducted and led from the Closet where the chaplains remain to the Queen’s presence between the Earl of Sussex on the right hand and the Earl of Huntingdon on the left hand they also having on their Robes of Estate. The Earl of Leicester on the right before the said Sir Walter bear the cap with the circlet. The Earl of Bedford on the left hand of the said Earl of Leicester before the said Sir Walter bear the sword the pommel upward.6
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As Walter knelt before the Queen underneath her Canopy of Estate, she dubbed him Earl of Essex. It was a moment of great pride and triumph, and while Lettice was not there to witness it in person, she cannot have failed to exult that, through her husband, she was now the Countess of Essex. She was climbing up the social ladder, and such a title was indicative not only of the high favour in which the Queen held Walter, but also of her recognition of his faithfulness. It was probably in order to mark this momentous occasion that Walter’s portrait was painted. Dated 1572, several copies of the same version survive, notably in Ulster Museum.7 Walter can be seen wearing black armour, with his hand resting casually on his helmet. His armour is made richer by the adornment of gold embroidery and red trim. Notably, his wand of office also sports the Garter, which is highly visible in the portrait and was something of which he was immensely proud. On one of the portrait versions the motto Virtutis, Comes Invidia (Courage is Envied) is prominent, and this sentiment would be of the utmost importance: Walter was about to embark on a dangerous expedition that would put his own courage to the test.
Now that Walter was ennobled, he began to look towards furthering his career. Lettice had provided him with four living children, and his family were settled – it was time to concentrate his efforts elsewhere. Ireland had long been a source of concern, not just to Queen Elizabeth, but also to her predecessors. Despite being far from an impartial observer, Camden was firm in his presentation of the Irish as unruly, and though they were often divided among themselves, many were united in their hatred of the English. The inhabitants of Ulster in particular were prone to rebellion, the leaders of which were the O’Neill clan. Turlough Luineach O’Neill, who wielded control over several areas of Ireland, including Co. Tyrone, headed them, and he sometimes worked in collusion with the leader of Clandeboye, Sir Brian MacPhelim. MacPhelim, who had ‘usurped a great part’ of the county, had recently caused havoc in Ulster, burning the town of Knockfergus.8 To add yet more complications, the Scots were also wielding some control there, creating further problems. For some time Sir Henry Sidney, the Earl of Leicester’s brother-in-law, had been serving as Lord Deputy of Ireland, but in 1571 Sir William Fitzwilliam replaced him.9 However, with few resources forthcoming from England it was a thankless task. The Irish needed to be brought to heel, and what was wanted was some fresh blood.
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