THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



of Tintern Abbey. These lands were supposed to 

 yield an injcome of ;^i92, a comfortable little sum 

 in those days and really worth a great deal more 

 than it seemed. For the system on which diverted 

 ecclesiastical property was then managed, of low 

 rents and large fines on renewal, made it appear of 

 much less value than it really was, and proved an 

 advantage to the plunderers, as it threw dust in the 

 eyes of the people and prevented them from under- 

 standing the extent of the robberies or the value of 

 the spoil when divided. Thus by the irony of fate 

 Lord Worcester assisted in the ruin of a building 

 which his maternal ancestors had helped to beautify. 

 A devout woman of the Herbert family had erected 

 a stone cloister in place of the wooden one up to 

 that time in use. The second Earl and his wife 

 were buried in Chepstow Church, where a monu- 

 ment erected to them is still to be seen. 



William, the third Earl, who married Christian, 

 daughter of the first Lord North, was, like most of 

 the men of note of his day, drawn to the court of 

 Queen Elizabeth. He was a successful diplomatist, 

 his most important mission being to the court of 

 France, when he represented the Queen of England 

 at the christening of the Princess Elizabeth, daughter 

 of Charles IX. The queen and her ministers were 

 anxious not to break with France. The marriage 

 of Elizabeth with the Duke of Alen9on was still 

 a subject of negotiation, and the negotiations, though 

 not the marriage, were acceptable to the queen. 



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