West was admitted to Gray's Inn. On 25 Jan. 1503 he was one of the esquires in attendance at the wedding feast of the Princess Margaret [see Tudor, Margaret] (Hist. MSS. Comm. 1888, Duke of Rutland's MSS. i. 18). On 30 June 1513 West was a captain in Henry VIII's army at the sieges of Thérouanne and Tournai, and was dubbed a knight-banneret at Lille on 14 Oct. 1513 (Metcalfe, Book of Knights, p. 45). On his return he resided at Halnaker or Halfnaker, Sussex, which he had acquired by marriage with Elizabeth, younger daughter and coheir of John Bonville. Here, on 23 May 1517, he received license to impark three hundred acres (Letters and Papers, ii. 3311). He occasionally attended court, and in 1520 was at the Field of the Cloth of Gold (ib. iii. 237, 241, 243; Chron. of Calais, p. 22), and at the interview of Henry VIII with Charles V at Gravelines on 10 July. At Christmas 1521 he was appointed carver to the king (Letters and Papers, iii. 1899). On 27 May 1522 he was at the meeting of Henry VIII with Charles V at Canterbury (ib. 2288). In 1523–4 he was a commissioner of subsidy for Sussex (ib. 3282, iv. 214, p. 83). On 10 Nov. 1524 he was pricked high sheriff for Surrey and Sussex (ib. 819). He succeeded to the title and estates of De La Warr on the death of his father, whose will was proved on 25 Feb. 1525–6. Having rebuilt Halnaker, he entertained Henry VIII there with ‘great cheer’ (ib. 2407) in August 1526. These expenses were probably the cause of his constant letters to Cromwell pleading ‘poverty’ and soliciting leave of absence from parliament (ib. v. 709, vi. 536, vii. 12, 1412, viii. 21). He was one of the peers who on 13 July 1530 subscribed the declaration to Clement VII urging the divorce (ib. iv. 6513). In January 1534, soliciting from Cromwell leave of absence from parliament on the ground of poverty, he adds that his proxy is as good as himself, ‘for I can reason no matter, but say yea or nay for the impediment God has given me in my tongue’ (ib. vii. 12). Nevertheless, he was summoned to sit upon the trial of Lord Dacre, and joined in his acquittal on 10 July 1534 (ib. 962, x.).
On 20 April 1534 De La Warr was nominated a commissioner for Sussex to receive the oaths to the act of succession (ib. 518). The nomination was an act of policy, for he was intimate with the Lisles [see Plantagnet, Arthur, Viscount Lisle] (ib. vi. 1179, 1180, vii. 644, 1577), and with Robert Sherborne [q. v.], bishop of Chichester, who were known to be opposed to the ecclesiastical policy of the government. The clerical party spoke of him as ‘the whole stay of our corner of Sussex’ (ib. vii. 1243). Upon the dissolution of Boxgrove on 26 March 1537 he purchased the goods of the house (Dugdale, Monasticon, iv. 649; Letters and Papers, ix. 509, 530, XII. i. 747), and, having vainly endeavoured to obtain an exchange of its lands for his hereditary estate of Shepton Mallet, Somerset, succeeded (29 Hen. VIII) in procuring a grant of a lease of the priory and rectory (ib. XIII. i. 585).
On 15 May 1536 De La Warr sat on a full panel of available peers (Friedmann, Anne Boleyn, ii. 274) at the trial of Anne Boleyn and her brother, and his friend George Boleyn, lord Rochford [q. v.] He henceforth acted with the opposition, who disliked the religious changes. After the northern rebellion De La Warr was evidently anxious to strengthen his position at court, and in 1537 was twice an unsuccessful candidate for the Garter (Letters and Papers, xii. i. 1008, ii. 445). He was among the peers who on 14 May 1537 convicted Lord John Hussey [q. v.] and Thomas, lord Darcy [q. v.] (ib. i. 1199, 1207), of complicity in the northern insurrection. On 15 Oct. he ‘uncovered the basins’ at the christening of Prince Edward (Edward VI; ib. XIII. ii. 911), and was one of the supporters of the canopy over the corpse at the funeral of Queen Jane Seymour [q. v.] at Windsor on 14 Nov. (ib. 1060). He was anxious to display vigilance on behalf of the government, and on 14 April 1538 sent Cromwell information of the disaffected language of the vicar of Walberton, a parish near Halnaker (ib. 759). Yet he was so vehement in his religious conservatism that he dismissed one of his servants who ‘were of the new opinions’ (ib. ii. 829, 1). It is evident that he was already under suspicion of disloyalty. A letter written by him to Cromwell from Halnaker on 9 Oct. 1538 (ib. 570) excuses his absence from London, and says he is ‘evil at ease.’ He had reason for the anxiety he felt (ib. 963). His intimate friends Sir Geoffrey Pole [q. v.] and Lord Montague, whom he had been entertaining at Halnaker the previous midsummer, had been arrested on suspicion of treason. Pole's confession implicated De La Warr (ib. p. 266) and George Crofts [q. v.], a prebendary of Chichester (ib. 695, 2, p. 264). Crofts confessed that De La Warr had made the particularly odious charge against the government that it only secured the conviction of Lord Darcy by a promise to the peers that he should be pardoned (ib. 803). On the other hand, De La Warr had expressed disapproval of the northern rebellion, and ‘rejoiced when the same was ended’ (ib. 822). More serious
