service, be obtained of the king a charter, granting him the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, from which he designed, as it was reported, to expel the inhabitants, and to re-people them with foreigners. With this view he assembled a formidable army at Calais. These troops, with their wives and children, being there embarked with an intent to land at Dover, were overtaken by so violent a tempest, and Hugh himself, and all his followers, perished. Matthew Paris computes the total number of lives lost on this occasion at 40,000. The king was thus disappointed of the expected succour; but the inhabitants of Suffolk were not a little rejoiced at their escape from this destruction intended them. But though the county was saved by this providential interference from the rapacity of the king's confederates, it was destined to suffer severely from the allies of the barons : for Louis, the dauphin of France, in conjunction with the nobles who were in arms against John, made incursions into this county, and having ravaged the towns and villages, reduced it into complete subjection to themselves. In the rebellion excited by Wat Tyler and Jack Straw against Richard II. the populace of this county, headed by John Wraw, and John Ball, two seditious priests, took a conspicuous share. Assembling in vast numbers, they committed the greatest enormities, putting to death the chief justice of England, the Earl of Suffolk, and other distinguished persons, till they were routed with great slaughter, and finally dispersed by the bishop of Norwich. In the fifteenth year of Henry VII. one Patrick, an Augustine friar of this county, having a scholar, named Ralph Wilford, the son of a shoemaker, instructed him to assume the character of the earl of Warwick, nephew to Edward IV. and Richard III. at that time confined in the Tower, whence the impostor pretended to have escaped by the aid of the friar. This story gained credit from many people, as soon as it was divulged, which encouraged the friar to assert its authenticity from the pulpit. The king being soon informed of these transactions, caused both master aud scholar scholar to be apprehended; the latter was hanged: and the friar condemned to perpetual imprisonment.* It does not appear that Suffolk had any share in Kett's rebellion, in the reigu of Edward VI. though the seat of that insurrection was in the neighboring county of Norfolk. On Edward's decease, the inhabitants of Suffolk, though as sincere Protestants as any part of the nation, zealously supported the title of his sister Mary, against the pretensions of Lady Jane Grey's adherents. When the iprncess repaired on this occasion from Norfolk to Framlingham Castle in this county, the nobility and gentry resorted to her, offering their services to vindicate her rightful claim to the crown, on condition that they might enjoy their religion as established in the reign of her predecessor. Mary assured them that no alteration should be made in that point by her consent, and still less by her authority; but no sooner was she firmly seated on the throne, than the people of Suffolk found themselves as much the victims of the misguided system of this princess as the rest of their fellow-subjects. They ventured to remonstrate with her majesty, and humbly entreated her to be mindful of her promise to them, but were answered, contrary to their expectation, that "it was not the place of members to govern the head, nor subjects their prince, as they should hereafter know." The threat conveyed in the concluding words was fulfilled in the rigorous persecution to which many of the inhabitants of this county fell a sacrifice. In 1578, the nobility and gentry of Suffolk magnificently entertained Queen Elizabeth in her progress; for though they had but short notice of her intended visit, they prepared so well for it, that on her entering the county, she was received by two hundred young gentlemen clad in white velvet, three hundred of the graver sort in black, and 1500 attendants on horseback, under the con duct of the high-sheriff, Sir William Spring. When her majesty, highly pleased with her entertainment, left the county on her return, she was attended to the confines by the like escort. During the civil war between Charles I. and the parliament, • Magna Britannie, Vol. V. p. 174. this was one of those counties that associated for the maintenance of the cause of the latter, and were placed under the command of the Earl of Manchester, Sir Edward Barker, Sir John Petty, and other loyal gentlemen of this county, endeavored, it is true, to raise a force to secure it for the king; but Cromwell surprized and reduced them to obedience. In 1782, when England was involved in a war with France, Spain, Holland, and America, the principal inhabitants of Suffolk, at a meeting held at Stowmarket, agreed to open a subscription, in order to raise a sum sufficient to build a seventyfour gun ship, to be presented to government. Notwithstanding the zeal and efforts that were employed to forward this design, it appeared at the conclusion of the year that no more than 20,0001. had been subscribed. A general peace following very soon afterwards, the plan was dropped, and consequently the subscribers were not called npon for the sums for which they had pledged themselves. HONORIAL HISTORY.---Previously to the Norman conquest, and for nearly two centuries afterwards, the honors of Suffolk and Norfolk were united in one person. The former never conferred a separate title till the 11th Edward III. when, on the decease of Thomas Plantagenet de Brotherton, without issue, ROBERT, son of Robert de Ufford, steward of the royal household, by Cicely de Valoines, was created earl of Suffolk, and had an annuity of 201. per annum granted him sub nomine et honore comitis. He was much employed by his sovereign in important affairs of state till his death, in the 43d year of the same reign, when he left his honor and possessions to his son WILLIAM DE UFFORD, who was snatched away by sudden death, as his four sons had been before him. Ascending the steps to the house of lords to represent to them what the commons, in parliament assembled, considered of the greatest importance for the welfare of the realm, he fell down and expired, leaving his possessions to Sir William de Eresby, Roger Lord Scales, and Henry Lord Ferrers of Groby, the issue of his three sisters. The The title thus became extinct in this family, and lay dormant four years, when king Richard II. in the ninth year of his reign be stowed it on MICHAEL DE LA POLE, whom he had before made chancellor and keeper of the great seal, assigning him at the same time a grant of 1000 marks per annum to be paid out of his exchequer. Of this nobleman Walsingham observes, that being the son of a merchant, and brought up in the mercantile line himself, he was better versed in commercial matters than in affairs of state. His father was William de la Pole, mayor of Kingston-upon-Hull, who had the dignity of a banneret conferred upon him as part of his reward for lending Edward III. large sums of money, without which he could not have prosecuted his designs against France. The king also promised to pay him 1000l, a year on the recovery of his rights in that country. Of his son, the earl of Suffolk, Camden adds, that wanting a mind capable of bearing such a flow of prosperity, he was guilty of some misdemeanor, for which reason he was forced to quit the court, and died in exile at Paris. His large estate was confiscated, so that a small portion only descended to his son and heir. MICHAEL DE LA POLE, who, having married Catharine, daughter of Hugh, earl of Stafford, had certain manors settled upon him and his wife, in the lifetime of his father, for their better support. Those he enjoyed, with the addition of 501. per annum granted upon his petition by the king, and the title of a knight, till the death of Richard I. Soon after the elevation of his successor, to which de la Pole materially contributed, he presented a statement of his case in a petition to parliament, and with the assent of the peers was made capable of inheriting all the lands and lordships of his ancestors, and allowed to enjoy the title and honor of earl of Suffolk to him and his heirs. He died of a flux in 1415, at the siege of Harfleur in France. MICHAEL DE LA POLE, son and heir of the preceding, fell within a month after his father's decease, at the glorious battle of Agincourt, and furnished our inimitable bard with the subject of those pathetio pathetic lines, in which the duke of Exeter, uncle to the king, describes the death of his own brother the duke of York :-- Suffolk first died: and York, all haggled over WILLIAM DE LA POLE, brother to the gallant earl, succeeded him in his honors and possessions. He was a brave and skilful officer, and being left in France after the death of Henry V. he rendered such eminent services in preserving the conquests there, that he was rewarded with the dignity of marquis, and various additional privileges and emoluments. In the 22d of Henry VI. he was sent over to France, apparently to settle the terms of a truce, which had then been begun, but in reality to procure a suitable match for the king. The princess selected to be the partner of his throne, was Margaret of Anjou, daughter of Regnier, titular king of Sicily. The treaty of marriage having been soon brought to a conclusion by Suffolk, he was sent as the king's proxy to espouse the princess, and conduct her to England. He enjoyed ever afterwards a high degree of favor with the queen, through whose means he was made lord chamberlain, lord high admiral of England, and raised to the dignity of duke of Suffolk. This nobleman is accused of having been concerned with the cardinal of Winchester, in the assassination of the good duke of Gloucester; and after the death of the cardinal, governed every thing with uncontrolled sway. His conduct soon excited the jea lousy |