sence of Lord Chichester (Cal. State Papers, Irel. Jas. I, iv. 470), and on 1 Feb. 1619 (patent 19 Feb.) he was created viscount Powerscourt. In reference to this dignity Chamberlain wrote to Carleton on 6 Feb.: ‘Sir Richard Wingfield, though eighty-eight years old and childless, has given Lord Haddington 2,000l. for an Irish viscountcy’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1619–23, p. 11). Probably eighty-eight is a mistake for sixty-eight, otherwise Wingfield must have lived to the age of a hundred and three. On 30 Sept. 1619 he was appointed a commissioner for the plantation of Longford and Ely O'Carroll, and was again lord justice on the retirement of Lord Grandison in May 1622 (Cal. State Papers, Irel. Jas. I, v. 350).
Wingfield died on 9 Sept. 1634, and having no issue by his wife Elizabeth, widow of Edward, lord Cromwell of Oakham in Rutland, was succeeded in the estate (the title becoming extinct) by his cousin, Sir Edward Wingfield, son of Richard, and grandson of George, third son of Lodovic.
Portraits of Wingfield and his wife, by Cornelius Janssen(?), are preserved at Powerscourt. That of Wingfield represents him wearing a scarf, in connection with which there is a family tradition how on returning to England in 1595, and being asked by Queen Elizabeth what he expected as his reward, he replied, ‘The scarf which your majesty wears round your neck will be sufficient reward for me.’
[Lodge's Peerage, ed. Archdall, v. 268–72; Powerscourt's Wingfield Muniments, pp. 38–9 (not always accurate), and authorities quoted. There are a number of Wingfield's letters in the Cecil Correspondence preserved at Hatfield House, and other references are Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography; Meehan's Fate and Fortunes of the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel; Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. p. 655, 8th Rep. p. 397.]
WINGFIELD, Sir ROBERT (1464?–1539), diplomatist, born about 1464, was the seventh son of Sir John Wingfield of Letheringham, Suffolk. His brothers Sir Humphrey [q. v.] and Sir Richard (1469?–1525) [q. v.] are separately noticed. He was brought up by Anne, lady Scrope, his stepmother (Blomefield, Norfolk, i. 321). He first rose to favour under Henry VII, to whose aid he came, together with his brother Richard, against the Cornish rebels in 1497 (Grafton, Chron. p. 575; Polydore Vergil, p. 760). On 9 March 1505 he arrived at Rome on a pilgrimage (Collect. Top. v. 66). He was employed by Henry VII on a mission to the Emperor Maximilian before 1508, in January of which year he is mentioned as returning to England (Bernard Andr. p. 108). On 2 July 1509 he is mentioned as a knight, the occasion being a grant to him by Henry VIII of a rent of 20l. from the castle and town of Orford and the manor of Orford, and of the patronage of the Augustinian friars there, all being part of the forfeitures of Edmund de la Pole, earl of Suffolk [q. v.] Further grants followed, and on 10 Feb. 1511 he is styled ‘councillor and knight of the body.’
In the same month Wingfield was despatched again on a mission to Maximilian, and in August following he and Silvester de Giglis [q. v.], bishop of Worcester, were nominated ambassadors to a council convoked by Julius II at the Lateran. The ultimate intention of the pope was to form a ‘holy league’ against France, to which Henry signified his adhesion on 17 Nov. The council was not actually opened till May 1512 (Creighton, iv. 150). Wingfield remained with the emperor at Brussels and elsewhere, and does not appear to have attended its sittings. On 30 Sept. Maximilian, hearing that Julius II was ill, appointed Wingfield and the bishop of Gurk his envoys to support the candidature of his nominee at Rome; but, exasperated at being left without means, Wingfield unceremoniously disappeared from the court of Brussels, ostensibly on a pilgrimage, but in reality to join his brother Sir Richard at Calais. Meanwhile he had been ordered to repair to the emperor, then in Germany, and on 9 March 1513 he was at the imperial court at Worms. On 18 April 1513 he was again at Brussels, whence he was on that day despatched back to the emperor at Augsburg to secure his adhesion to Henry VIII's scheme of a general confederacy against France. As a reward for his services he had already (14 July) received a joint grant in survivorship with his brother Sir Richard of the office of marshal of the town and marches of Calais. During the early autumn of 1513 he paid a brief visit to England, but in May 1514 he was at Vienna, whence he despatched repeated but generally vain appeals for money and for his recall. The success of the French arms in Italy in 1515 had, however, aroused the jealous resentment of Henry, who became yet more eager to unite Maximilian in a confederacy against France. Maximilian on his part was ready to sell himself to the highest bidder, while Wingfield, with whom hatred of the French was a master passion, was always persuaded that the emperor was devoted to the English interest. Wolsey, perceiving that the ambassador was duped by Maximilian, sent Richard Pace [q. v.] to act as a check upon
