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THE STAFFORDS. 245
His remark "more grace may come of him than I desire," seems to
express his expectation that, though he would not plead for himself, some
one else might plead for him, and in Act III. Sc. 2, Surrey (who had
married his daughter) taunts Wolsey, after his fall, with having prevented
this
" Thy ambition,
Thou scarlet Sin, robbed this bewailing land
Of noble Buckingham, my father-in-law:
The heads of all thy brother cardinals
(With thee and thy best parts all bound together)
Weighed not an hair of his. Plague of your policy !
You sent me deputy for Ireland :
Far from his succour, from the King, from all
That might have mercy on the fault thou gavedst him,
Whilst your great goodness, out of holy pity,
Absolved him with the axe."
Which Wolsey with indignation denies. However, that such denial
was not generally accepted is evident from the exclamation of the Emperor
Charles V. when he heard of the Duke's death : "A butcher's dog hath
"killed the finest Buck in England." A bill of attainder followed the
execution, and all his honours became forfeited ;
and with the last Duke
sunk for ever the splendour, princely honour, and great wealth of the
ancient and renowned family of Stafford.
The King granted, however, some of the manors in the county of
Stafford to his son, Henry, who, in the first year of Edward VI., was
summoned to Parliament as Baron Stafford, and who died, esteemed for
his learning and piety, 1562, leaving his estates to his brother Henry, who
succeeded him. Edward, his brother, succeeded him, who seems to have
made a mesalliance. For in 1595, Rowland White, writing to Sir Robert
Sidney, says " My Lord Stafford's son is basely married to his mother's
:
"chambermaid." His grandson, Henry,
fifth Baron, died, unmarried, in
1637, and then such are the strange vicissitudes of fortune the title
reverted to Roger Stafford, the grandson of the Duke of Buckingham ;
but he, having fallen into great poverty, had lived in obscurity under the
name of Fludd, his mother's brother being a servant to Mr. John Corbett,
in Shropshire. At the age of 65, he felt quite unequal
to assume the
position and dignity which had come to him, and having petitioned
Parliament, he was allowed by Charles I. to surrender to him the said
Barony of Stafford ; which title the King then granted to Sir William
Howard, the younger son of the Earl of Arundel, and to Mary his wife,
the sister of the late lord, creating them Baron and Baroness Stafford, by
letters patent, with remainder to their heirs general, and two months
after he advanced Lord Stafford to the dignity of a viscount.
H2