Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/226

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Herbert
220
Herbert


seized his Welsh followers. He and his brother fought desperately. Sir Richard is said to have twice passed through the `battail of his adversaries,' armed with a poleaxe, and `without any mortal wound returned.' But the defeat was decisive, and both brothers were taken prisoners. Pembroke pleaded for his brothers life in vain, on the ground of his youth; he declared that he was willing to die. On 27 July he made his will, giving directions for his funeral, making many pious bequests to Tintern Abbey and other religious foundations, and providing almshouses for the relief of six poor men. On 28 July Pembroke and Sir Richard were brought to Northampton and beheaded there. Pembroke was burried in Tintern Abbey, and Sir Richard in Abergavenny Church, where his wife Margaret was also buried (cf, Coxe, Tour in Monmouthshire. 1801 . p. 189 ; Churchyard, Worthines of Wales, 1587, p. 53).

Pembroke married Anne, daughter of Sir Walter Devereux, lord Ferrers of Chartley, and had by her four sons, William, Walter, George, and Philip, and six daughters. By a mistress, Maud, daughter of Adam ap Howell Graunt, he had some illegitimate issue, including Sir Richard Herbert, father of Sir William, first earl of Pembroke of the second creation (1501?-1570)[q.v.]

The oldest legitimate son, William Herbert, second Earl of Pembroke, and afterwards Earl of Huntingdon (1460-1491), born on 5 March 1460, succeeded his father as second earl of Pembroke in 1469, and undertook in 1474 to serve Edward IV in war in France and Normandy, with forty men-at-arms and two hundred archers. On 4 July 1479 he gave up the earldom of Pembroke in exchange for the earldom of Huntingdon at the request of the king, who desired to bestow it on his son Edward. He was captain of the army in France, June to September 1475; was appointed justice of South Wales on 15 Nov. 1483, and acted as commissioner of array in Wales, Monmouth, and Herefordshire. He died in 1491. On 28 Feb. 1484 he covenanted to marry Catherine, daughter of Richard III; but the princess died before the time appointed for the marriage, and Huntingdon married Mary, fifth daughter of Richard, earl Rivers. By her he had an only child, Elizabeth, who married Charles Somerset, earl of Worcester, the ancestor of the Dukes of Beaufort.

[Collins's Peerage; Dugdale's Baronage; Doyle's Official Baronage; William of Worcester's Collection and Annales in Stevenson's Letters, &c., during the Reign of Henry VI (Rolls Ser.), vol. ii. pt. ii. pp. 626, 630 sq.; Hall's Chronicle; Fabyan's Chronicle; Grafton's Chronicle; Holinshed's Chronicle; Warkworth's Chronicle (Camd. Soc.); Lord Herbert of Charbury's Autobiog., ed. Lee. 1886.]

S. L. L.

HERBERT, Sir WILLIAM, first Earl of Pembroke of the second creation (1501?–1570),was eldest son of Sir Richard Herbert of Ewyas, Herefordshire, by his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Mathew Cradock of Swansea. Sir Richard, who lies buried under a fine canopied tomb in Abergavenny Church, was illegitimate son of William Herbert, earl of Pembroke of the first creation (d. 1469)[q. v.], by A mistress, Maud, daughter Adam ap Howell Graunt. According to the statement on a portrait at Wilton that he was sixty-six years old in 1507, William was born in 1501. As a youth he seems to have entered the service of his kinsman Charles Somerset, earl of Worcester, and soon attracted notice at court. He became a gentleman-pensioner in 1626 and esquire of the body to the king. Aubrey in his 'Lives' states that he was 'a mad young fighting fellow.' On Midsummer-day 1527, Aubrey continues, he took part in an affray at Bristol between some Welshmen and the watchmen, and a few days later killed a mercer named Vaughan on account of `a want of some respect in compliment.' Thereupon he is said to have fled to France; to have joined the French army; and to have distinguished himself so conspicuously by his courage and wit that the French king wrote in his favour to Henry VIII. He soon returned home, and married Anne, younger daughter of Sir Thomas Parr, and sister of Catherine Parr [q.v.], who became, on 12 July 1543, Henry VIII's sixth queen. Thenceforth Herbert's place in the royal favour was assured, and royal grants soon made him a man of fortune. In 1542 and 1544 he and his wife received the rich estates belonging to the dissolved abbey of Wilton, Wiltshire. He destroyed the monastic building and built a magnificent mansion. In 1543 he was knighted, and on 24 Jan. 1543-4 was appointed captain of the town and castle of Abarystwith. On 27 April 1546 he became gentleman of the privy chamber, and was granted the keepership of Baynard's Castle on the banks of the Thames, near the spot now occupied by St. Paul's Wharf. At the same time he was appointed steward of much royal property in the west of England, and became owner of Cardiff Castle and of much additional land in Wales. The manor of Hendon, Middlesex, also fell to him. Baynard's Castle was thenceforth his London residence, and remained in the possession of his descendants. Herbert was an executor of Henry VIII's will, and the king bequeathed to him 300l., and nominated him one of