81 



^ome Itottce of Millkm pethvt, ^xxd €avl 

 of "f emkoke of % f resent Creation. 



By J. E. Nightingale, F.S.A. 



^HE career of this remarkable man has had but scant justice 

 ^i done to it. He played no inconsiderable part in the event- 

 ful reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. His 

 connection with the county of Wilts began with the grants to him 

 of the abbey lands of Wilton by Henry VIII. Sir R. C. Hoare's 

 account of him, taken mainly from Collins' Peerage, is very short. 

 Aubrey's biography on some points is scarcely to be relied uponj most 

 of his information about the first earl must have come down to him 

 by tradition. All I have attempted to do is to bring together such 

 scattered notices of him as I have been able to find, with the ad- 

 dition only of such matter as is necessary to connect them together; 

 for in truth a complete history of his life would be, in a great 

 measure, the history of the period in which he lived. 



The publication of the calendars of State Papers by the Record 

 Commissioners has opened up a rich mine of new information in the 

 smaller matters of history. In the foreign series many personal 

 details are supplied by the untiring energy of the agents of foreign 

 courts, especially of the republic of Venice, who kept their masters 

 well informed of the minutest details of passing events ; these now 

 form some of the most valuable and authentic materials for the 

 history of Europe in the sixteenth century. To what effective pur- 

 pose these materials have been put, reference need only be made to 

 Mr. Fronde's work on this period of English history. 



The origin of the Herberts is somewhat cloudy. It is in South 

 Wales where we must look for the early history of the family. In 

 the Priory Church at Abergavenny, is a remarkable series of monu- 

 mental efiigies ranging from the thirteenth to the seventeenth ceu- 



VOL. XVIU. — NO. UI. 6 



