without so useful a champion; for he appeared to be a man of a very corrupt nature, whose passions could have transported him into the most unjustifiable actions. I. 345. WILLIAM SEYMOUR, MARQUIS OF HERTFORD; RE STORED TO THE DUKEDOM OF SOMERSET-DIED HE was a man of great honour, interest, and estate, and of an universal esteem over the whole kingdom; and though he had received many and continued disobligations from the court, from the time of this king's coming to the crown, as well as during the reign of king James, in both which seasons, more than ordinary care had been taken to discountenance and lessen his interest; yet he had carried himself with notable steadiness, from the beginning of the parliament, in the support and defence of the king's power and dignity, notwithstanding all his allies, and those with whom he had the greatest familiarity and friendship, were of the opposite party; and never concurred with them against the earl of Strafford, whom he was known not to love, nor in any other extravagancy. He did accept the government of the prince of Wales, purely out of obedience to the king; and, no doubt, it was a great service; though for the performance of the office of a governor, he never thought himself fit, nor meddled with it. I. 425. II. 199. KOBERT BERTIE, LORD WILLOUGHBY; CR. EARL OF LINDSEY, LORD GREAT CHAMBERLAINSLAIN AT EDGE-HILL MDCXLII. HE was a man of very noble extraction, and inherited a great fortune from his ancestors; which though he did not manage with so great care, as if he desired much to improve, yet he left it in a very fair condition to his family, which more intended the increase of it. He was a man of great honour, and spent his youth and vigour of his age in military actions and commands abroad; and albeit he indulged to himself great liberties of life, yet he still preserved a very good reputation with all men, and a very great interest in his country, as appeared by the supplies he and his son brought to the king's army; the several companies of his own regiment of foot being commanded by the principal knights* and gentlemen of Lincolnshire, who engaged themselves in the service principally out of their personal affection to him. He was of a very generous nature, and punctual in what he undertook, and in exacting what was due to him § which made him bear that restriction so heavily which was put upon him by the commission granted to prince Rupert, and by the king's preferring the prince's opinion, in all matters relating to the war, before his. Nor did he conceal his resentment: the day before the battle, he said to some friends, with whom he had used freedom, "that he did not look upon himself as general; " and therefore he was resolved, when the day of "battle should come, that he would be in the head "of his regiment as a private colonel, where he * Old Sir Gervase Scrope, who had received sixteen wounds, lay stripped among the dead above two days before his son could find him; an instance of great filial piety, and eminent loyalty! (the father died 1655; the son, Sir Adrian, K. B. died 1667). II. 56. |