Weinheim. Before they reached Frankfurt they narrowly escaped murder; but, after encountering much trouble and danger, they arrived in Poland, where they were well received by the king, and generously placed by him in the earldom of Kroze, in Samogitia. They continued there in great quiet and honour until they received intelligence of the death of Queen Mary, soon after which time they returned to England.
Bertie sat in the parliament which assembled on 11 Jan. 1562–3 as one of the knights for the countv of Lincoln, his colleague being; Sir William Cecil, secretary of state. He was in Queen Elizabeth's retinue when she visited Cambridge in August 1564, and on that occasion the degree of M.A. was conferred upon him by the university. In 1572 he claimed to be summoned to the House of Lords in right of his wife's barony, and it appears that for a short period his claim to be so summoned was recognised as valid. The Duchess of Suffolk died in 1580, and his son Peregrine soon afterwards succeeded to the barony of Willoughby. Bertie died at Bourn, in Lincolnshire, on 9 April 1582, and was buried at Spilsby in the same county. In Spilsby church there is a stately monument to his memory and that of the Duchess of Suffolk. Besides his son Peregrine he had issue by the Duchess of Suffolk a daughter, Susan, born in England in 1554, who was successively wife of Reginald Grey, earl of Kent, and of Sir John Wingfield. His portrait, painted by Holbein in 1548, has been engraved. He wrote a Narrative of the Troubles of Catharine, Duchess of Suffolk, during the Reign of Queen Mary, which is printed in Foxe's Acts and Monuments.
[Lady Georgina Bertie's Five Generations of a Loyal House, pt. i., containing the lives of Richard Bertie and his son Peregrine, Lord Willoughby (London, 1845); Memoir of Peregrine Bertie, eleventh Lord Willoughby of Eresby (1828); Collins's Peerage; Foxe's Acts and Mon.; Strype's Works; Biog. Brit. (Kippis), ii. 280; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. i. 453; Craik's Romance of the Peerage, iii. 61-82.]
BERTIE, ROBERT, first Earl of Lindsey (1572–1642), lord high admiral of England, and general of the king's forces, was the eldest son of Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby de Eresby [q. v.], by Mary, daughter of John de Vere, earl of Oxford, and was born in London, 16 Dec. 1572 (Lloyd, Memoir, p. 308). Queen Elizabeth was his godmother, and the earls of Essex and Leicester his sponsors. Being "followed," according to Lloyd, "by a set of masters that disposed of all his hours at home, and an excellent tutor that disposed of his time in the university" (Oxford), he acquired high proficiency in various kinds of learning, especially history, mathematics, heraldry, geography, physics, religion, and divinity. He also displayed a strong love of adventure, and an eager interest in foreign travel. In 1597 he accompanied the expedition of the earls of Essex and Nottingham against Spain, and after the capture of Cadiz was knighted in the market-place for his distinguished valour. Continuing to spend his time for the most part abroad, he was present in 1598 at the siege of Amiens, and afterwards varied the monotony of visits to foreign capitals by taking part in various brilliant captures of Spanish galeons. He had meantime, in 1601, succeeded to the barony and estates of his father, but found himself, notwithstanding this, in straitened circumstances, for in a letter in 1603 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Series, James I (1603–10), p. 18) he asks leave to continue his travels abroad until he has paid off certain debts incurred by his father. After his return to England he laid claim, through his mother, to the earldom of Oxford, and to the office of lord high chamberlain. His claim was contested by Robert de Vere, who after long dispute was declared Earl of Oxford, decision being, however, given in favour of Lord Willoughby so far as concerned the office of lord high chamberlain, and in the second year of Charles's reign he took his seat above all the barons. During the greater part of the reign of James I he lived in retirement in Lincolnshire, seeking, according to Lloyd, to improve his fortunes by thrifty management; by "noble traffic, he having learned at Venice and Florence that merchandise is consistent with nobility;" by the due improvement of his estate; and by a "rich match," the lady whom he married being Elizabeth, sole daughter of Edward, Lord Montague of Boughton, Northamptonshire. In parliament he afterwards spoke frequently on the questions of plantations, trade, and the draining of the fens. In the last of these subjects he took special interest, and when the landowners in Lincolnshire refused to pay a tax towards the accomplishment of the work, a contract was made with him in 1635 to drain the fens lying between Kyme Eau and the Glen, computed to contain 36,000 acres, on condition that he should receive two-thirds, or 24,000 acres, of the reclaimed land. The work was completed within three years at a cost of 45,000l., and houses and farmsteadings were afterwards built by him on the enclosed land (Wheeler, The Fens of South Lincolnshire, p. 97; State Papers, Dom. Series). These peaceful avocations engaged only a portion of his attention, for already, on the declaration of war against
