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PROVINCIAL

KINGS.

CLARENCEUX.

Hen. VII. ROGER MACHADO, Esq.

HEN. VIII.

Provincial

Kings.

This king at arms, who by birth was a foreigner, had probably been Clarenceux. an officer to Henry VII, previous to his accession. That Monarch greatly esteeming, offered to advance him to the place of Garter, which, as he ill understood the English language, he declined. For this modesty, Henry obliged Sir Thomas Wriothesley to give him a pension of twenty marcs. When repeated altercations had subsisted between them, relative to Garter's visiting Clarenceux's province, he accepted from Garter forty marcs yearly, payable out of his fees arising from such visitation; but Sir Thomas, to avoid appearing the deputy of Clarenceux, and he to retain some authority as Clarenceux, applied jointly for, and obtained a bill, signed by that Sovereign, giving them equal powers to execute the office; but like all other divided authority, it still led to much altercation and mutual upbraiding. That Monarch, November 17, 1494, gave him and John Meautis, secretary of the French language, a grant to empower them to import Gascon wines to any part of France, Spain, or Britain, or the countries of any of the Sovereigns in alliance with his Majesty, not exceeding a certain quantity. In this grant he is placed after Meautis, and styled Roger Machado, alias dictus Richmond, rex armorum de Clarenceux. At other times he writes himself variously, putting after his name alias Richmond, alias Clarenceux, or alias Richmond, alias Roy d'Arms de Clarenceux. His death happened in 1516. His arms were Gules, five Axes Argent, two, one, and two. Mr. Brooke, Somerset, calls him a Frenchman, and says he came in with Henry VII., whose herald he had been when a subject. This accounts for his never having had any inferior office in the College.

1516. THOMAS BENOLTE, Esq.

He appears also to have been of foreign extraction. He had shewn his merit prior to his admission to this post. In 1514, Henry sent him, respecting the intended marriage of his sister, the Princess Mary, with Louis XII. At the time of his appointment he was in Spain, to proclaim war against Charles V. At his return, he consented that his commission should be such an one as his predecessor had accepted, empowering Gar

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HEN. VIII.

Provincial

Kings. Clarenceux.

ter, jointly with him, to grant arms, and do other things belonging to
Clarenceux' place. He was induced to comply with this request of Gar-
ter, because the latter retained the visitation books. In 1516, he was dis-
patched to Scotland, to confirm the truce for one year. Mr. Pinkerton
says, he was placed there as a spy upon Albany, the regent's, conduct.
He often afterwards was sent into the same kingdom. Henry sent him, in
1519, to the courts of France, Burgundy, and those in Germany and
Italy, to proclaim the justs intended to be solemnized by the Kings of
England and France, between Ardres and Guisnes, which he attended in
1520. The following year he went to Scotland, and in 1522 he was sent
thither again, to accuse the Duke of Albany, regent of that kingdom, of
a design to marry the Queen-mother, and usurp the crown, and to defy
him, if he did not immediately leave the realm. He was joined with Sir
Francis Pointz, knight, in a commission to go to Spain, in 1526, to de-
mand half the ransom which the Emperor Charles V. had received, for
setting Francis I., of France, at liberty, whom the Spanish general had
taken prisoner at the battle of Pavia, and to demand, that one of the two
sons of that Monarch, pledged as hostages for the payment, should be
sent into England. He went incognito, until he arrived at the Spanish
court. In the following year he, and Guienne king at arms for France,
went to Spain, to " defy and carry the lie to the Emperor, and bid him
combat." They found the court at Burgos, and having obtained leave of
audience, about nine o'clock in the morning of January the 27th, in the
hall of presence, where the Emperor was surrounded with his princes and
nobles, they came into the Imperial presence, bare-headed, with their ta-
bards hanging upon their right arms. Having permission to deliver
their message,
with assurance of safe conduct to the confines of
France, Guienne defied his Majesty, in the name of his royal Master, by
sea and land, and delivered him the lie in writing, signed Guienne king at
arms, the commission for which was dated at Paris, November 11; 1527;
and having received the Emperor's answer to the alleged provocation of
having arrested and detained the Pope, and the sacred college of cardinals,
took his tabard, and put it on his body. The same ceremonies were ob-
served by Clarenceux, who also defied the Emperor in his Sovereign's
name. He was well entertained, and obtained his dispatch soon after,
gaining by his singular discretion great commendation: a conduct directly

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contrary

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Provincial
Kings.

Clarenceux.

contrary to that of Guienne, who, having omitted some very essential HEN. VIII. points, was sent out of Spain in disgrace. We may well suppose the difficulty of performing such messages; because about seven or eight months afterwards, when his Imperial Majesty sent Toison d'Or, Burgundy king at arms, to these two great Sovereigns, Henry and Francis, to explain his conduct, having acted incautiously, he was near involving himself in ruin. Favine, in his Theatre of Honor and Knighthood, speaks of the circumstance thus: September 10, 1528, "Toison d'Or presented himself first. "to the King of France, in the great hall of the palace at Paris, the King "being assisted with all the princes of his blood, divers ambassadors and strange lords, with an infinite number of prelates, peers of France, and others: but because the herald had discovered his message with impu"dence, indiscretion, and Spanish rodomontado terms, in presence of the King, and clothed in his coat of Spain, he was summoned to give his patent for acceptance of the fight, and the field of battle. When he "had declared publicly, that he had nothing in writing, but only his cre"dence by word of mouth, the King denied him audience, and forbad "him, before all present, on pain of his life, to utter, or move one "word that might offend him: and so the herald of Spain returned back, "without doing any thing.". Favine, with the prejudice of a Frenchman, does not notice Guienne's ill-conduct, though it is mentioned by so many authors on the contrary, he says, the Emperor sent them away the second of January, but does not tell us of the approbation Clarenceux gained, remarking only of both their behaviour at Burgos, that it was "very simple, yet very sprightly." Clarenceux, however, was very near suffering undeserved disgrace, if not ruin, upon his return to England. Henry was exasperated at his declaring war. The council threw all the blame upon him. In this dangerous dilemma he went to Hampton Court, where his Majesty then was, and by the friendship of Sir Nicholas Carew, was privately brought into the royal presence, when producing his orders signed by Cardinal Wolsey, he exculpated himself from all blame. Henry properly transferred his indignation from him to his minister. The King soon after sent him on an embassy to Cleves, to treat with the electors and dukes of Germany. From thence he travelled into Italy, to negotiate with her princes and states. In the 14th of this reign, he attended Sir Thomas Cheney, ambassador to France, to defy the most christian King: thence he Q

went

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Clarenceux.

HEN. VIII. went to the Emperor. In Henry's twenty-first year, he was sent again to
Provincial Spain. In April, 1532, he took the order of the Garter into France, to
Kings. Ann de Montmorency and Philip Chabot. Clarenceux finding how much
he had been imposed upon by Garter, applied to the Sovereign, to have
the agreement he had made with him cancelled; as a reason for his Ma-
jesty's compliance, he proved how much Garter had prostituted his office,
by granting arms to a bondsmán. Henry, sensible of his wrongs, gave
him a new commission in 1529, under the great seal, inhibiting Garter,
and all others, from interfering with him, in granting arms in his province.
This gave rise, perhaps, to his desire of visiting his province. Though he
received from that Monarch a commission in 1528, permitting him to go.
into the counties of Worcester, Berks, Oxford, Wilts, Gloucester, and
Stafford, yet as they lay distant from London, he declined going that year.
The next he visited Kent, and afterwards Stafford. Following his original
design in succeeding ones, he visited, either himself or by his deputy, many
of the counties in his march or province. He was deservedly a favorite
with Henry VIII., who, though capricious, was generally a liberal and be-
neficent master. In his ninth
In his ninth year he gave Clarenceux a grant of the bai-
liwick of St. Botolph, porter of Halgarth, made him collector of Jesar-
hall; gave him the duty arising from weights, to hold for the term of his
life; and, in his thirteenth year, conferred upon him the important post of
receiver of all profits belonging to the honors and castles, appointed to
pay the wages of all captains, officers, and soldiers, in the town of Ber-
wick, and towns or castles of Middleham, Richmond, Barnard-castle,
Sharesholm, Tollingham, Wakefield, Sandal, Domas, Hatfield, Conings-
burgh, Chesterfield, Hinton, Panell; and likewise gave him the profits
and revenues of the town of Berwick. In 1526, he obtained from Wil-
liam Arnold the manor of Twidall and Danecourt, in the parish of Gil-
lingham, in Kent, which he soon after conveyed to Sir Henry Wyat, knight,
a privy-counsellor to both Henry VII. and Henry VIII.. Many of his ser-
vices abroad have been noticed: but probably he was employed in a num-
ber of others, because he told Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter, that he
spent more time out, than in the kingdom, in employments of the Sove-
reigns to whom he had been an officer at arms. Clarenceux died in 1534,
and was buried in the church of St. Helen, in London, with this inscrip-
tion upon
his grave-stone, under the effigies of himself and his two wives:

"Here

"Here under lieth the Bodi of Thons Benolte, Squyer, some tyme servt "and offycer of Armes, by the name of Windsor Herault, unto the right, high, " and most mighty Prince of most drade Souaye Lord "Kyg Henry the viii; which Thomas Benolte, otherwyes namyd Clarenceux "Kyg of Armes, decesid the viij day of May, in the year of our Lord God "MVCXXXiiij, in the xxvj yere of our said Soveraye Lord *.”

In the Harleian Collection is his effigies as Clarenceux, taken from his tomb. Mr. Townley took a copy of this upon vellum, which the late Mr. Brooke, Somerset, says, was beautifully fine in colors. His arms were Argent, a Chevron invecked, Sable, between three Torteaux ; on a Chief Azure, a Lion passant guardant, Or. He married Mary, daughter of Laurence Richards, alias Fermour, of Minster-Lovel, in Oxfordshire, Esq. ancestor of the Earls of Pomfret, by whom he had two daughters, his co-heirs; Eleanor, married to Jones, of Caerlion, in Monmouthshire; and Ann, who had two husbands, Sir John Radcliffe, and Richard Buckland, Esq., by whom she had several children. The other wife of Clarenceux is not mentioned.

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THOMAS TONGE, Esq.

Created at Guildford, in the Friers' church, August 2, 1534.

When Norroy, he went his visitation in the county of Cornwall, though that seemed to have been in the province of Clarenceux, as was Dorsetshire, which he also visited. He went into Yorkshire, which was in his proper march. The originals of these visitations are still preserved in the College. The latter begins thus: "The visitation of the northe contereye, began at Sir Brian Stapletonis, knyght, of Notynghamshyre, "the vii day of August, the yere of Lorde God, 1530, by Thomas Tonge, Noreye kynge of armys." He appears to have been a skilful herald. In the year 1529 he, and Garter Wriothesley, were examined, relative to various particulars, at the trial of Henry VIII. and his Queen, Catherine of Arragon, about the devorce the King wished. They certified, that Prince Arthur died in the castle of Ludlow, April 2, 1502, and that his brother Henry was born June 28, 1491; also that the marriage between Prince Arthur and "Lady" Catherine, was November 14, 1501. He

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* In the partition fees, is £10 at St. George's day, 1534. "Mr. Clarenceux Tho. Benolt absent, seke, and dyed the 8th daie of Maie next ensuinge, on whose soule God "have mercie."

HEN. VIII.

Provincial
Kings.
Clarenceux.

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