Oxford, and in 1665 the university created him a D.C.L. In 1670 he became attorney-general, and in 1675 lord chancellor. He was created Baron Finch in 1674, and earl of Nottingham in May 1681. He died in Great Queen Street, London, on the 18th of December 1682, and was buried in the church of Ravenstone in Bucks.
His contemporaries of both sides of politics agree in their high estimate of his integrity, moderation and eloquence, while his abilities as a lawyer are sufficiently attested by the fact that he is still spoken of as “the father of equity.” His most important contribution to the statute book is “The Statute of Frauds.” While attorney-general he superintended the edition of Sir Henry Hobart’s Reports (1671). He also published Several Speeches and Discourses in the Tryal of the Judges of King Charles I. (1660); Speeches to both Houses of Parliament (1679); Speech at the Sentence of Viscount Stafford (1680). He left Chancery Reports in MS., and notes on Coke’s Institutes.
Daniel Finch (1647–1730), second earl, son of the preceding, entered parliament for Lichfield in 1679. He was one of the privy councillors who in 1685 signed the order for the proclamation of the duke of York, but during the whole of the reign of James II. he kept away from the court. At the last moment he hesitated to join in the invitation to William of Orange, and after the abdication of James II. he was the leader of the party who were in favour of a regency. He declined the office of lord chancellor under William and Mary, but accepted that of secretary of state, retaining it till December 1693. Under Anne he in 1702 again accepted the same office in the ministry of Godolphin, but finally retired in 1704. On the accession of George I. he was made president of the council, but in 1716 he finally withdrew from office. He succeeded to the earldom of Winchilsea (with which the Nottingham title now became united) on the 9th of September 1729, and died on the 1st of January 1730.
NOTTINGHAM, CHARLES HOWARD, 1st Earl of[1] (1536–1624), English lord high admiral (also known as 2nd Lord Howard of Effingham), was the eldest son of William, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham, lord high admiral, by his wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Gamage of Coity in Glamorganshire, and was born in 1536. He was nearly connected with Queen Elizabeth, his father’s sister, Elizabeth Howard, being mother of Anne Boleyn. During Mary’s reign he is said to have served at sea with his father, and on the accession of Elizabeth his kinship, together with his good looks and abilities, secured his early advancement. In 1559 he was sent as ambassador to France to congratulate Francis II. on his accession, and in 1569 was general of the horse under the earl of Warwick for suppressing the Roman Catholic rebellion in the north. The next year he commanded a squadron of ships to watch the Spanish fleet which came to conduct the queen of Spain from Flanders, on which occasion “His lordship, accompanied with 10 ships only of Her Majestie’s Navy Royal, environed their Fleet in a most strange and warlike sort, enforced them to stoop gallant and to vail their bonnets for the queen of England.”[2] In the parliaments of 1563 and 1572 he represented Surrey, and succeeded to his father’s title on the 29th of January 1573. He was installed a knight of the Garter on the 24th of April 1574, and made lord chamberlain of the household, an appointment which he retained till May 1585, when he became lord high admiral of England. He also filled the offices of lord lieutenant of Surrey and high steward of Kingston-upon-Thames. He. was one of the commissioners at the trial of the conspirators in the Babington Plot and of Mary, queen of Scots, in 1586, and, according to Davison, Elizabeth’s secretary of state, it was owing chiefly to his persuasion and influence that Elizabeth signed the death-warrant.[3]
In December 1587 he hoisted his flag on the “Ark.” His letters at this time reflect vividly his sense of the impending danger. “For the love of Jesus Christ, Madam,” he writes to Elizabeth, “awake thoroughly and see the villainous treasons round about you, against your Majesty and your realm, and draw your forces round about you like a mighty prince to defend you. Truly, Madam, if you do so, there is no cause for fear.”[4] On the approach of the Armada on the 6th of July 1588, Howard describes thus the disposal of his forces: “I have divided myself here into three parts, and yet we lie within sight of one another, so as if any of us do discover the Spanish fleet we give notice thereof presently the one to the other and thereupon repair and assemble together. I myself do lie in the middle of the channel with the greatest force. Sir Francis Drake hath 20 ships and 4 or 5 pinnaces which lie beyond Ushant and Mr Hawkins with as many more lieth towards Scilly.”[5] He directed the various engagements (see Armada), and stayed himself to conduct the attack on the “San Lorenzo,” stranded off Calais, arriving in consequence at the great fight off Gravelines some time after the engagement had begun. His tactics have been criticized both by contemporary and by later authorities, but his position was a perilous one, opposed to an overwhelming force of the enemy, and rendered still more difficult by the queen’s untimely economy, Howard himself contributing largely to the naval expenses and to the relief of the numerous seamen poisoned by bad food and landed at Margate. “It were too pitiful to have men starve after such a service.”[6] Instead of risking all in a pitched battle with the enemy, a course which probably appealed more to his dashing subordinates, he resolved to pursue the less heroic method of “plucking their feathers little by little”;[7] and his prudence, while justified by the extraordinary results, was also greatly praised by so good a judge as Raleigh. Shortly afterwards, under Howard’s directions, a “Relation of Proceedings” was drawn up (now printed in the Navy Records Society Publications, i. 1-18).
In 1596 Howard and Essex commanded the expedition against Cadiz, when a squadron of the enemy’s ships was destroyed and two of the number brought home. Howard’s intention was to limit the expedition entirely to naval operations, but Essex insisted on landing, and Howard, who had been specially charged by Elizabeth to protect her favourite,[8] was obliged to follow in his support. The town was sacked and the forts destroyed; the naval prizes, however, but for this diversion would have been more numerous. The council of war then refusing to countenance any further attempts on land, Howard and Essex returned with the expedition to England. On the 22nd of October 1596 Howard was created earl of Nottingham.
In February 1598, on a scare of an intended invasion, he was ordered to take measures for the defence of the country, and again in 1599, when he was appointed “Lord Lieut.-general of all England,” and exercised full authority both over the army and the navy. He took a leading part in suppressing the rebellion of Essex, and served as a commissioner on his trial in February 1601. In December 1602 he entertained Elizabeth at Arundel House, but made no attempt to rival the gorgeous and expensive entertainments given to the queen by some of his contemporaries. Elizabeth’s favour, in his case, required no courting by such methods, and it was to Nottingham that she named James as her successor on her deathbed. He continued to hold his office as lord high admiral under the new king, and in 1605 was dispatched as ambassador to Spain, where his great reputation, together with his amiable character, perfect temper and unfailing courtesy, secured the successful negotiation of peace. He served on numerous commissions, including those on the union of the two kingdoms in 1604, for the trial of the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot and of Henry Garnett in 1606, and for reviewing the articles and rules of the order of the Garter in 1618, and he attended Princess Elizabeth on her marriage to the elector palatine with a squadron to Flushing in 1613. Nottingham, who, unlike many of the Howards, was
- ↑ i.e. In the Howard line; see above.
- ↑ Fuller’s Worthies, ii. 361.
- ↑ Nicolas’s Life of Davison, pp. 232, 258. 281.
- ↑ Navy Records Society: Papers Relating to the Spanish Armada, June 23rd, i. 225.
- ↑ Howard to Walsingham, July 6. Ib. i. 245.
- ↑ Ib. ii. 183.
- ↑ Ib. i. 341 and Cal. of State P. Dom. 1581–1590, p. 516
- ↑ See H.’s letter to Essex on this subject, Hist. MSS. Comm. Marquess of Salisbury’s MSS. vi. 239.
