Pursuivants Extraordinary. MARY I. fering him grace if he submitted; but if he persisted in his determination to withstand the Queen's authority, that they would spend their lives in subduing him and all his partizans. I have never seen any thing farther of this pursuivant, nor was any of his baptismal name promoted in this, or the following reign, to be a pursuivant in ordinary, so that we may presume he died in this office; perhaps, too, in this reign. This officer at arms fell in the attack of Calais, in 1558. Grafton says, that Sir Anthony Ager, with his son and grandson, a pursuivant at arms, called Calais, with fifteen or sixteen other Englishmen, lost their lives during the siege. John Highfield, in a declaration relative to the loss of that city, addressed to Mary, mentions the death of an herald, meaning this pursuivant. This accounts for Guisnes and Hampnes being sent by Lord Wentworth, deputy-governor of Calais, to the French camp, concerning the capitulation. These surrendered themselves, Lord Wentworth, Sir Ralph Chamberlain, captain of the castle, John Halston, captain of Rise-bank, Nicholas Alexander, captain of Newmanbridge, Edward Grimstone, comptroller, John Rogers, surveyor. These, with others, in all fifty, were sent by the Duc de Guise into France. The pursuivants as persons inviolate, Guisnes and Hampnes, were permitted to return to England, In him this office expired, as useless. The name, too, would have reminded the Sovereign and the subject of a loss by both sincerely deplored. His arms were Azure, a Fesse nebuly, Ermine, between three Lions' Heads erased, Or, crowned Argent. Hen. VIII.-WILLIAM LAMBARDE, Gent. He never rose higher, dying in this office. His arms were Gules, on a Bend Argent, three Dolphins Vert. April 29, 1554.-JOHN HOLLINGWORTH, Gent.-See Blue-mantle. Risebank. ELIZABETH. Acceded November 17, 1558;—Died March 24, 1603. ELIZABETH. THIS great and illustrious Sovereign was far from being unmindful of the College of Heralds. Though, like her grandfather, she was frugal, yet she loved magnificence as well as her father; uniting, as it were, their discordant characters, in this, as in various other respects. In the Harleian Collection is a certificate from the Queen's Majesty to the treasurer, to pay £100. to the heralds, being fees due to them for their attendance at her coronation. Her Majesty procured, in 1566, an act of parliament, to confirm the corporation of the kings and heralds at arms, or as it has been called, an exemplification of the letters patent granted to the heraldic body, relative to their privileges. In the annual expense, both civil and military, of Elizabeth, is this regulation and establishment for the officers of arms. Kings at arms, three; Garter, principal, his fee, £40., Clarenceux and Norroy, each £20. Heralds, seven; Windsor, Richmond, York, Chester, Somerset, Lancaster, and one more, each £13. 6s. 8d. Pursuivants, four; Rouge-dragon, Rougecroix, Portcullis, and Blue-mantle, each £10. She had also twenty-five serjeants at arms, at £18. 5s. each. The banner and standard-bearers had each £100. Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal, made and approved of orders for the good government of the College, and the preservation of the records. A principal regulation or order of his, was appointing, in 1568, that in future there should be a monthly waiting in the library, of an herald and a pursuivant together, by rotation. The fondness of the nobility for every thing relative to heraldry, in which they were copied by the gentry, was of great emolument to the College. Their salaries, even in this long reign, were never advanced any more than their fees, for diet and reward. In 1596, a warrant issued to pay pay Garter ten shillings a day for his diet, and ten shillings a day for his ELIZABETH, Elizabeth, though jealous of her peers, like Henry VII., loved to see them splendid, not powerful, nor affecting any privilege which should peculiarly attach to the person of the Sovereign. This, perhaps, is a reason, why we do not read in this reign of any, even the greatest of her noblemen, having either herald or pursuivant. She lessened the number of her own officers at arms, but these were chiefly pursuivants extraordinary. In Mr. Pennant's very entertaining History of London, we read, that in 1562, "Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, rode through the City, with his Duchess, to " his residence, where now is Duke's Place, attended by one hundred " horse in his livery, with his gentlemen before him, in coats guarded with " velvet, preceded by the four heralds, Clarenceux, Somerset, Red-cross, " and Blue-mantle." These heralds attended him not as Duke of Norfolk, but as Earl Marshal; nor do we see the name of any officer at arms who belonged to him as Duke of Norfolk, or in any other respect, the above being all royal ones. The College was in a very distracted state in some parts of this reign; sometimes by the quarrels between Garter and Clarenceux, about their respective rights and emoluments, in which disputes the other officers took part; often amongst the inferior heralds: so that there was nothing but mu tual 1 ELIZABETH. tual upbraidings, until by constant irritation, they loaded each other with every epithet that was disgraceful to themselves and their opponents. Their accusations against each other would fill a volume. At this time it could neither interest nor please any one. The Queen, to appease these violences, gave a commission to Cecil, Lord Burleigh, Lord High Treasurer of England, and Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral of England, exercising the place of Earl Marshal, who, in obedience to the Royal command, October 22, 1597, settled the matters in dispute, in such a manner as to confine their mutual jealousies and disgusts, within the bounds of decency and decorum, though in the next reign it ended in the deposition of Garter, who was every way unworthy of his preferment, by his conduct to all the other officers in the College. Brokesmouth, or Brooke, York herald, was also a dreadful incendiary and firebrand amongst them. The length of time these were members was a real misfortune, as they were the great cause of keeping alive the most violent animosities, which only were allayed by the expulsion of the one, and the death of the other. Unhappily they both survived Elizabeth. The suppressing so many of the pursuivants extraordinary, occasioned the rise of some of the members in a very rapid succession. Court interest gave others high offices in the College, without having previously served in the lower departments: this, aiding the other dissatisfactions, made still farther broils and hatreds. Brooke, whose acrimony and maliciousness stamp his character with peculiar infamy, and Lant, Portcullis, were very strenuous in attempting to restore the more ancient and usual way of succession in the College, by the members rising progressively: the one acted with all the asperity and bitterness which on every occasion distinguished him; the other in a modest, humble, and respectful manner, petitioned her Majesty, in 1595, to recur to the former mode of succession. As this, however, was contrary to the just prerogatives of the Crown, it rather injured than did good to their cause; for the Sovereign had always exercised a discretional power, and could quote precedents, that even kings at arms had been raised from being only pursuivants extraordinary. Lord Burleigh, at one time, had it in contemplation, to unite the offices of Garter and Clarenceux; but that being contrary to their charter, and the confirmation of it by parliament, he gave up the design. This nobleman well understood both heraldry and genealogy, and patronized |