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WARWICK, EARLS OF. 



WARWICK, EARL OF. 



536 



English Poetry' (ii. 2), "at best is but conjecture, nor can it be con- 

 sidered a very happy one The initial letters in Guy, Guyon, 



and Guido are the representatives of the Teutonic W, and clearly 

 point to some cognomen beginning with the Saxon Wig (belluin)." 



Guy in fact must be considered as a personage belonging not to 

 history, but to fable and romance. Camden was perhaps one of the 

 first inquirers among us, if not the very first, who ventured to inti- 

 mate so much, when in giving an account of the earls of Warwick in 

 his ' Britannia ' (Warwickshire) he wrote (as Bishop Gibson has trans- 

 lated the passage), " To pass by Guar, and Morindus, and Guy, the 

 echo of England [the Latin is, Anglise tympanum, meaning rather the 

 drum of England, that is, the most resounding of English names], 

 with many more of that stamp, which the fruitful wits of those times 

 brought forth at one birth." Even as a hero of romance, Guy, though 

 evidently referrable to an early Anglo-Norman origin, can scarcely be 

 traced with certainty to a more remote date than the earlier part of 

 the 14th century. "Guy of Warwick," Ritson observes, "is men- 

 tioned by no English historian before Robert of Brunne, or Peter de 

 Langetoft, about 1340." Among the "romances of price" enume- 

 rated by Chaucer in his ' Rime of Sir Thopas,' in the ' Canterbury 

 Tales," are mentioned those of "Bevis and Sir Guy" (line 13,827). 

 Bishop Percy, in his 'Essay on the Ancient Metrical Romances,' hi the 

 third volume of his ' Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,' remarks 

 (p. 33) that " the Romance of Sir Guy was written before that of 

 Bevis, being quoted in it." In this place Percy gives an account of 

 various manuscripts of the romance of Sir Guy, and also of some 

 other old romances connected with the same story. See also the fourth 

 appendix to Sir Walter Scott's edition of 'Sir Tristrem.' Percy 

 (vol. iii., pp. 100-117) has published two old English poems, 'The 

 Legend of Sir Guy,' and ' Guy and Amarant.' Some extracts from the 

 romance of Sir Guy are given by Warton, ' Hist, of Eng. Poet.,' ii. 1-7 

 (edit, of 1824). See also vol. i., pp. xxxix., ccxliv., 91-93, 146, 147, 

 14 9 ; ii. 44 ; iii. 2, 425. An account of the romance of Guy of War- 

 wick, with copious extracts, is given in Ellis's 'Metrical Romances,' 

 vol. ii., pp. 3-94 (the ed. in Bohn's ' Antiquarian Library,' pp. 188-238). 

 For a compendious summary of the hero's exploits, the reader may 

 turn to the ' Legend ' printed by Percy, or to the 12th and 13th songs 

 of Drayton's ' Polyolbion.' The modernised prose abridgment of the 

 story of Sir Guy used to be a common stall pamphlet. The original 

 metrical work, under the title of ' The Book of the most victorious 

 Priuce, Guy, Earl of Warwick,' was, according to Ritson, printed in 

 4to by William Copland before 1567, and again by John Cawood 

 before 1571 : of the earlier impressions there is an imperfect copy in 

 Garrick's collection at the British Museum, and there was a perfect one 

 in the Roxburgh Library, which was purchased by Mr. Heber for 4.31., 

 aud at the dispersion of his library sold for 25Z. There is also a 

 French romance of Sir Guy, which was printed in 1525 ; but whether 

 earlier or later than the English may perhaps be doubted, although 

 Mr. Ellis has said that the work which he has abridged " was written, 

 in French at least, as early as the 13th century, and translated in the 

 beginning of the 14th; so that Mr. Warton is evidently mistaken in 

 supposing that it was partly copied from the ' Qesta Romauoruni ' 

 (cap. 172), which, by his own admission, was composed at a much later 

 date." 



WARWICK, EARLS OF. The first historical earl of Warwick was 

 Henry de Newburgh, a younger son of Roger de Bellomont, Earl of 

 Mellent in Normandy : he was so created by the Conqueror, and died 

 in 1123. In this family the honour remained till Thomas de New- 

 burgh, dying in 1242, without issue, left Margery, his half-sister, his 

 heir ; and she marrying first John Mareschall, of the family of the 

 Earls of Pembroke, and, after his death, John de Plessets, each of 

 these her husbands took successively the title of Earl of Warwick. 

 She had however no issue by either ; and her second husband having 

 died in 1263, and she herself soon afterwards, the earldom was 

 inherited by William Mauduit, or Malduit (in Latin, Male-doctus), 

 who was her first cousin, being sou of her aunt Alice (half-sister of her 

 father) and of William Mauduit, baron of Hanslap. On his death, 

 without issue, in 1267, he was succeeded in the earldom by William 

 de Beauchauip, baron of Elniley, who was his nephew, being the son 

 of his sister Isabel de Mauduit and her husband William de Beau- 

 champ. The Beauchamps continued earls of Warwick till the death, 

 without issue, of Anne, countess of Warwick, in 1449, upon which 

 Richard Nevil, eldest son of Richard, earl of Salisbury, having married 

 Anue de Beauchauip, aunt of the lato couutess, was created Earl of 

 Warwick the same year : he succeeded to the earldom of Salisbury in 

 1469, and was killed at the battle of Barnet in 1471, when, an act of 

 attainder having taken place, his honours were forfeited, and George 

 Plantagenet, duke of Clarence, brother of King Edward IV., having 

 married Isabel Nevil, his eldest daughter, was created Earl of Warwick 

 and Salisbury in 1472. Clarence was put to death aud attainted in 

 1478; but his son Edward Plantagenet bore the title of Earl of War- 

 wick till he also met with a similar fate in 1499. From this time 

 there was no earl of Warwick till the honour was conferred by 

 Edward VI., in 1547, upon John Dudley, Viscount L'Isle, who was 

 maternally descended from Margaret Beauchamp, daughter of Richard 

 de Beauchamp, twelfth earl. Dudley, (afterwards created Duke of 

 Northumberland) was attainted aud beheaded in 1553 ; but his second 

 son, Ambrose Dudley, after being restored in blood, was created Earl 



of Warwick by Queen Elizabeth in 1562, and retained the title till his 

 death, without issue, in 1589. After this the earldom remained 

 extinct till 1618, when it was revived and conferred by James I. upon 

 Robert Rich, third Baron Rich of Leeze ; and it was retained (from 

 1673 in conjunction with the earldom of Holland) by thU family till 

 the death of Edward Rich, earl of Warwick and Holland, without 

 male issue, in 1759. Upon this event the earldom of Warwick waa 

 conferred upon Francis Greville, first Earl Brooke, whose ancestor, 

 Sir Fulke Greville, early in the 16th century, married Elizabeth Wil- 

 loughby, granddaughter and heiress of Lord Willoughby de Broke and 

 his wife Elizabeth Beauchamp, who was descended from Walter de 

 Beauchamp, baron of Alcester and Towyck, third son of Isabel de 

 Mauduit and William de Beauchamp, and brother of William de 

 Beauchamp, who became Earl of Warwick in 1267. In this family 

 the titles of Earl Brooke and Earl of Warwick still remain, the latter, 

 contrary to what is usual, being the one commonly used, although the 

 former, conferred in 1746, is by a few years of earlier date. 



WARWICK, RICHARD DE BEAUCHAMP, EARL OF, K.G., 

 was the son of Thomas, eleventh earl, and of Margaret, daughter of 

 William, Lord Ferrers of Groby, and was the first of his family who 

 greatly distinguished himself in the service of the state. He suc- 

 ceeded to the title upon the death of his father iu 1401. In 1417 he 

 was created Earl of Aumerle for life. In 1425, having been sent over 

 to France with a reinforcement of 6000 men, he was left by the Duke 

 of Bedford to act as regent of that kingdom during his own absence in 

 England. While holding this post he carried on the war with great 

 success, making himself master in the course of the next two years of 

 some of the strongest places in the province of Maine. On the 

 return of the Duke of Bedford to France, in February 1428, Warwick 

 was called home by the English council and appointed governor to the 

 king, Henry VI., now in his seventh year, and hitherto brought up 

 under the care of Dame Alice Botiller. He continued to perform the 

 duties of this honourable office, which seems to have been no sinecure, 

 till 1437, when, on the recall of the Duke of York from the regency 

 of France, Warwick was sent over as his successor; but this his second 

 administration of the affairs of that kingdom was not distinguished 

 by any remarkable event, or by any at least in which he was personally 

 engaged. He fell sick before he had held his appointment quite two 

 years, and died at the castle of Rouen on the 30th of April 1439. Iu 

 October following his body was brought over to England, and interred 

 at Warwick. This Earl of Warwick, who was styled the Good, left 

 by his second wife, Isabel, daughter of Thomas Despenser, earl of 

 Gloucester, a son, Henry, and a daughter, Anne, who married Richard, 

 eldest son of Richard Nevil, earl of Salisbury, created earl of Warwick 

 in 1449. 



WARWICK, HENRY DE BEAUCHAMP, EARL AND DUKE 

 OF, K.G., was the son of Richard, twelfth earl, whom he succeeded 

 in the title in 1439. It is said that his estate was kept out of his 

 possession by the king, Henry VI., for two years after his father's 

 death; but Henry afterwards, by way of making up for this injustice, 

 on the 2nd of April 1444, nominated him premier carl of England, 

 with the privilege of .wearing a gold coronet, and on the 5th of the 

 same month raised him to the dignity of Duke of Warwick. The 

 next year he made him King of the islands of Wight, Jersey, and 

 Guernsey, crowning him with his own hand. Beauchamp however 

 did not live long to enjoy these extraordinary honours ; he died on 

 the llth of June, the same year, when his dukedom became extinct, 

 and the earldom of Warwick fell to his daughter Anne de Beauchamp, 

 his only child by his wife Cicely, daughter of Richard Nevil, earl of 

 Salisbury, the sister of his sister's husband. Anne, countess of War- 

 wick, died at six years of age, in 1449. 



WARWICK, RICHARD NEVIL, EARL OF, K.G., was the eldest 

 son of Richard Nevil, earl of Salisbury, and was probably born about 

 the beginning of the reign of Henry VI., or soon after 1420. His 

 mother was Alice, daughter and heiress of Thomas Montacute, earl of 

 Salisbury ; and it was in consequence of his marriage with this lady 

 that Richard Nevil, himself a younger sou of Ralph, earl of Westmor- 

 land, was created earl of Salisbury in 1422. His sou, the subject of 

 the present notice, in his father's lifetime married Anne, daughter of 

 Richard de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, who, upon the death of her 

 niece Anne, infant daughter of Henry, duke of Warwick, in 1449 came 

 into possession of the great estates of the Warwick family. Upon this, 

 the Lord Richard Nevil, as ho was then styled, was created Enrl of 

 Warwick, the dignity to descend to the heirs of his wife, " with all 

 pre-eminences that any of their ancestors before the creation of Henry, 

 duke of Warwick, used." His two uncles William and Edward Nevil, 

 younger brothers of his father, were at the same time Barons Faucou- 

 berg and Abergavenny, having acquired these dignities by marriage ; 

 and another of his uncles, George Nevil, was Barou Latimer, an honour 

 which had also come into the family by marriage a generation or two 

 before. But the highest and most important of Nevil's alliances was 

 that which connected him with Richard, duke of York, whose wife 

 was Cecily, daughter of Warwick's grandfather, Ralph, earl of West- 

 morland, and who, as representative of Lionel, earl of Clarence, third 

 son of Edward III., was the undoubted lineal heir to the throne, now 

 occupied by the house of Lancaster, descended from King Edward's 

 fourth sou, John of Gaunt. In this way the Earl of Warwick and 

 King Edward IV. (son of Richard, duke of York), were first cousins. 



