THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



doubt that he assented to the condemnation of 

 Mary. He also showed his devotion to the 

 crown by raising a force against the Armada, 

 while yet another side of his character is seen in 

 the patronage he extended to the Elizabethan 

 drama. 



Of his son, the fourth Earl, it would be inter- 

 esting to know more. Like many other men not- 

 able in their own day, he made a greater figure 

 among his contemporaries than he does in the pages 

 of history. If only some chronicle of his long career 

 had been preserved, it would give us a full picture of 

 the social life of the court and aristocracy of the 

 time. Almost all we know of him is contained in 

 the following short extract from Naunton's Frag- 

 menta Regalia : "My Lord of Worcester I have 

 here put last, but not least, in the queen's favour. 

 He was of the ancient and noble blood of the 

 Beauforts and of her grandfather's line by the 

 mother, which the queen could never forget, es- 

 pecially when there was concurrence of old blood 

 with fidelity, a mixture which ever sorted with the 

 queen's nature ; and though there might appear 

 somewhat in this house which might avert her 

 Grace (though not to speak of my Lord himself but 

 in due reverence and honour) — I mean contrariety 

 or suspicion in religion — yet the queen ever re- 

 spected this house, and principally this noble lord, 

 whom she made Master of the Horse and then 

 admitted him to her Council of State." 



