100 



have two sons, between whom and their posterity there should be 

 great suits at law, and that the heirs male of the line should end 

 with those two sons, or soon after them," which — stars or no stars 

 — actually came to pass. 



The shepherd-lord was twice married, to ladies of good families, 

 and left one son and several daughters. His daughter Dorothy 

 married Hugh Lowther of Lowther, a sort of cousin, he being son 

 of Anne Threlkeld's daughter, and, it would appear, heiress of Sir 

 Launcelot and his wife, the widow of John Clifford. 



The good Lord Clifford died in 1523, at the age of seventy, 

 and was followed by his son Henry, a contemporary of King 

 Henry VHL, between whom and himself as boys and men, a close 

 friendship ever existed — as a result of which the King created him 

 Earl of Cumberland. He died in 1542. His son, also Henry, 

 when young and at the court of Henry VIH., married Lady 

 Eleanor Brandon, niece to the King, and granddaughter to 

 Henry VH. The marriage was the occasion of extraordinary 

 magnificence, the King himself being present. 



In preparation for the reception of so regal a bride in the north, 

 the bridegroom's father caused an extensive and magnificent 

 addition to be built to Skipton Castle — begun and completed in 

 three months. 



This great lady lived only about ten years a wife, and died at 

 Brougham Castle in 1547, leaving an only daughter. 



Immediately after the death of his wife, Henry Clifford, then 

 second Earl of Cumberland, being thirty years old, had an illness 

 so serious that he was believed to be dead, and was laid out in 

 state under a crimson velvet hearse or pall. The men who 

 watched by him thinking they saw some signs of life, threw off the 

 trappings of death, carried him back to his bed, and applied 

 restoratives with such success that he was restored to life, but life 

 so feeble that he had to be fed literally as a new born child for 

 five weeks, and afterwards for several months he drank only ass's 

 milk. He however recovered perfect health, and married as his 

 second wife Ann, daughter of Lord Dacres of Greystoke, Gilsland, 

 and Kirkoswald, They were married at Kirkoswald Castle. 



