BILLIARD ROOM.
BILLIARD ROOM.
BILLIARD ROOM.
BILLIARD ROOM.
FRANCES HOWARD, DUCHESS OF RICHMONDAND LENNOX.By Vandyck.BORN 1577-8, DIED 1639.
FRANCES HOWARD, DUCHESS OF RICHMONDAND LENNOX.By Vandyck.BORN 1577-8, DIED 1639.
FRANCES HOWARD, DUCHESS OF RICHMOND
AND LENNOX.
By Vandyck.
BORN 1577-8, DIED 1639.
Full length. Black velvet dress. Girdle of pearls. Pearls in her hair. Cap, wimple. In one hand a staff, in the other a handkerchief, marked F. R. Miniature at her bosom. Coronet on the table.
SHE was the daughter of Thomas, first Viscount Howard of Bindon, by his third wife, Mabel, daughter of Nicholas Burton of Carshalton, county Surrey.
A curious contemporaneous account is given of this remarkable woman: ‘She was one of the greatest, both for birth and beauty, in the land, but at first she went a step backward.’ This alludes to her early fancy for one Prannall, a vintner, and son to a rich alderman. Their union made a great noise in the world of which Frances Howard was a distinguished ornament, the bridegroom having incurred severe censure, wrote a touching and manly appeal, to Lord Burghley on the occasion.
We subjoin some extracts: ‘My very good Lorde, hearing to my very grete griefe, how your Honour, by misinformation, shulde be incensed againste me, and daring not presume into your Lordship’s presence to pleade pardon for my amisse, I thoughte it my duty to acknowledge my fault, and under your Lordship’s favoure, with all humilitie, to allege somewhat for myselfe. Though I have married Mistress Frances Howard, yet I proteste, as I desire your Honour’s patronage, I did not begin my suit without the knowledge of her friendes, neither cann they justifie I married her against their willes. The gentlewoman I have a long time dearlie loved, being bounde thereto by her mutuall likinge of me. I expected little or nothing with her, she having little or nothing to maintaine herself, and being destitute of friendes, I thoughte it friendlie to present her myselfe, and thereby to make her partaker of ‘all wherewith God had blessed me,’ and so forth. Then he goes on to remark to the great Minister that he did not think ‘your Lordship, being busied with serious publick affairs, woulde have time to be troubled with such domestical and private matters,’ etc. etc. ‘It cannot be justlie suggested that the gentlewoman is cast away, consideringe I will avowe myself a poore gentleman, the son of a deceased alderman of honest fame,—one who is to assure her a large jointure, one whose inward disposition of mynde his outward behaviour can testifie.’ Continuing in this quaint style, he encloses a schedule of his estate and property, and concludes with ‘all manner of goode wishes for Lord Burghley himself, and his progenie, both in this worlde and that which is to come,’ subscribing himself, ‘your Honour’s poore suppliant, Henry Prannall.’
The true-hearted plebeian did not survive his marriage long, to fret the proud spirit of the Howards; and, faithful to his promise, he left a large fortune to his young and beautiful widow, unencumbered by children to perpetuate the despisedname of Prannall. Under these circumstances, it may well be imagined Mistress Frances did not want for suitors. One Sir George Rodney, we are told, ‘a gentleman of the West, well fitted in person and fortune, fixed his hopes upon her, but Edward Earl of Hertford, being entangled by her eyes, she, having “a tang of her grandfather’s ambition,” left Rodney, and married Hertford. The knight having drunk in too much affection, and not being able to digest it, summoned up his scattered spirits, to a most desperate attempt, and coming to Amesbury in Wilts, where the Earl and Countess then resided, shut himself in a chamber, and wrote a large paper of well-composed verses to the Countess in his own blood.’
A strange sort of composedness, ‘wherein he wails his unhappinesse, and when he had sent them to her, he ran himself upon his sword, leaving the Countess to a strict remembrance of her inconstancy, and himself a desperate and sad spectacle of frailty.’
Such trifles made little impression on Lady Hertford, who so wrought upon the good-nature of the Earl, her husband, that he settled above £5000 a year on her, for life. She carried a fair fame during Lord Hertford’s time, although she had many admirers, and amongst them the Duke of Richmond, whom she afterwards espoused. She was very fond of boasting of her high descent, and of her two grand, grandfathers, the Dukes of Norfolk and Buckingham, but she would desist when Hertford came into her presence, for, ‘when he found her in those exaltations, he would say, “Frank, Frank, how long is it since thou wert married to Prannall?” which woulde damp the wings of her spirit.’
Lodowick Stuart, son of Esme, fifth Duke of Lennox and second Duke of Richmond, as we have already said, paid his addresses to her, while Lord Hertford was still alive; and, says Wilson, (whom we have already quoted,) ‘that in very odd disguises.’
She survived the Duke, her third husband, well pleased with the grand title he had bestowed on her. But the proud widow had ‘still more transcendent heights in speculation,’ for King James, being then a widower, she turned her eyes on him, saying, ‘that after so great a Prince as Richmond,’ she ‘would never condescend to be kissed by, or to eat at the table of a subject. She wished this vow to be spread abroad, that the King might take notice of the bravery of her spirit. But it did not catch the old King, so that she missed her aim.’
‘The Duchess was a woman greedy of fame, and loved to keep great state with little cost, for being much visited by the great ones, she had a formality of officers and gentlemen that gave attendance. None ever sat with her, yet all the tables in the hall were spread; but before eating-time, the house being voided, the linen returned into its folds, and all her people grazed on few dishes. Yet when her actions came into fame’s fingering, her gifts were suitable to her greatness; for the Queen of Bohemia, to the christening of whose child she was a witness, had some taste of them. The Duchess, either to magnify her merit (or it was done by others in mockery to magnify her vanity) had huge inventories of massy plate writ down that she had given that Queen; yet they were but paper presents. Those inventories hada non est inventus. At the Hague, the shell (the inventory) was seen; but the kernel (the plate) was never found.’
The Duchess of Richmond was half-sister to Lady Thynne, second wife to Sir Thomas Thynne. She died at Exeter House in the Strand, and was buried in HenryVII.’s chapel, beside her last husband.
No. 17.
THOMAS THYNNE, SECOND MARQUIS OF BATH.By Pickersgill.BORN 1765, DIED 1837.Full length. Robes of Knight of the Garter.
THOMAS THYNNE, SECOND MARQUIS OF BATH.By Pickersgill.BORN 1765, DIED 1837.Full length. Robes of Knight of the Garter.
THOMAS THYNNE, SECOND MARQUIS OF BATH.
By Pickersgill.
BORN 1765, DIED 1837.
Full length. Robes of Knight of the Garter.
THE eldest son of the first Marquis, by Lady Elizabeth Bentinck, was Knight of the Garter, Lord-Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum, county Somerset, F.S.A. and F.S.L. Married in 1794 Isabella, daughter of George, fourth Viscount Torrington, and Lady Lucy Boyle, by whom he had seven sons, and three daughters.
Lord Bath, like his predecessors, made considerable alterations in the house, and estate, and died in 1837, deeply and deservedly regretted for his hospitality, and open-handed charity. Not only did he relieve the wants of the poor on his property, but he showed them that personal sympathy which is above all price. He indeed loved to share his good fortune with those around him, and was a benefactor to the neighbourhood where he lived during a long life.
No. 18.
FRANCES ISABELLA CATHERINE,MARCHIONESS OF BATH.By G. F. Watts, R.A.Full length. White dress.
FRANCES ISABELLA CATHERINE,MARCHIONESS OF BATH.By G. F. Watts, R.A.Full length. White dress.
FRANCES ISABELLA CATHERINE,
MARCHIONESS OF BATH.
By G. F. Watts, R.A.
Full length. White dress.
SHE is the eldest daughter of Thomas, third Viscount de Vesci, by Lady Emma Herbert, youngest daughter of George Augustus, eleventh Earl of Pembroke. She married John Alexander, fourth and present Marquis of Bath, in 1861.