CLIFFORD, George (1558-1605)

The Clifford family can be traced back to Walter de Clifford (d.1190), a member of a Norman family who held Clifford Castle in Herefordshire, from where the family took its name. It was Robert Clifford^† (1274-1314) who transformed the Cliffords into northern barons. His mother was the heiress of Robert de Vipont, or Vieuxpont, and, as a result, Robert inherited extensive lands in Westmorland and the hereditary office of sheriff. In 1299 Robert was summoned to Parliament, thereby creating a barony by writ. He was subsequently granted Skipton Castle and other properties in the Craven district of the West Riding. In the late fifteenth century this estate was expanded, as Henry Clifford^†, 10th Lord Clifford, inherited from his mother property in the East Riding, centred on the manor of Londesborough. However, it was only with the 10th lord’s son that the centre of the Clifford estates shifted decisively to Yorkshire. Henry Clifford^†, 11th Lord Clifford, was brought up with the future Henry VIII, who rewarded him with the earldom of Cumberland in 1525. The new earl substantially extended his holdings in the Craven district by taking advantage of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. His successor, the 2nd earl, consolidated the family estates, selling peripheral properties and buying more land in Craven.39 Oxford DNB, xii. 120; Spence, Privateering Earl, 2; CP, iii. 290, 566; Clifford Letters of the Sixteenth Century ed. A.G. Dickens (Surtees Soc. clxxii), 18, 21-3, 25-7.

George Clifford, the subject of this biography, entered into his inheritance on 8 Jan. 1570, aged 11. (His father’s inquisition post mortem records the date as 2 Jan., but George’s daughter, Lady Anne Clifford, indicated that this is erroneous.)40 Anne Clifford’s Great Bks. of Rec. 608. See also Williamson, 2-3. He inherited an estate which largely consisted of three substantial blocs: one in Westmorland, one in Craven and one in the East Riding. Sixty per cent of the rents came from the latter two blocs, both in Yorkshire. The net annual rental was over £1,800, but as this figure excluded casual receipts, such as fines for leases and sales of timber, the profits generated by the estate were almost certainly considerably larger. For these reasons, it is likely that Cumberland enjoyed an income greater than any but the wealthiest of Elizabethan peers. Moreover, although his earldom was less than 50 years old, Cumberland’s barony was one of the oldest in England, making the earl a member of the ancient nobility.41 Spence, Privateering Earl, 2-6, 41.

Shortly before he inherited the Cumberland earldom, George Clifford was sent to be educated in the household of his uncle, the Catholic Anthony Browne^†, 1st Viscount Montagu. This is not entirely surprising, for although both the 1st and 2nd earls of Cumberland remained loyal to the Tudor regime they were also conservative in their faith. However, by the time these arrangements were made, young Clifford’s father had already entered into negotiations to match his son to the daughter of the Protestant Francis Russell^†, 2nd earl of Bedford. Consequently, on the death of the 2nd earl of Cumberland in January 1570, Bedford not only secured Clifford’s wardship but also removed him to his own household, thereby ensuring that the new earl of Cumberland received a Protestant education. Sent to study under the future archbishop of Canterbury, John Whitgift^†, at Cambridge, Cumberland subsequently testified that Whitgift weaned him from Catholicism. He seems to have adhered to the Church of England for the rest of his life.42 Clifford Letters of the Sixteenth Century, 24, 27; T.D. Whitaker, Hist. and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven ed. A.W. Morant (1878), 338; Spence, Privateering Earl, 17-18, 20; 103, 155; Collection of State Pprs. 599; Reportes del Cases in Camera Stellata ed. W.P. Baildon, 228.

Cumberland’s marriage to Bedford’s daughter, Margaret Russell, was less successful. Their two sons both died young, and only their daughter, Lady Anne Clifford, survived to adulthood. Furthermore, according to Lady Anne, Cumberland fell in love with ‘a lady of quality’, so alienating him from his wife and leading the couple to separate in 1600. By then, Cumberland was in financial difficulty, and found it hard to fulfil the promises he had made for his wife’s upkeep.43 Anne Clifford’s Great Bks. of Rec. 710; Spence, Privateering Earl, 214-15.

Cumberland’s financial troubles arose primarily from his career at the Elizabethan court. Anne recalled her father’s ‘extreme love’ of ‘horse races, tiltings, bowling-matches, shooting, and all such expensive sports’.44 Anne Clifford’s Great Bks. of Rec. 710-11. In 1590, aged 32, he took over the role, previously played by Sir Henry Lee^‡, of the queen’s champion at the accession day tilts. This function, which needs to be distinguished from the formal, hereditary, office of the monarch’s champion, had been invented by Lee, the instigator of accession day tilts.45 S. Simpson, Sir Henry Lee (1533–1611): Elizabethan Courtier, 31. However, this honour served only to increase Cumberland’s expenses. According to the royalist writer, David Lloyd, Cumberland ensured that he was always ‘gaudy at court, to astonish and ravish the lowest; making noble expenses when necessary, and appearing splendid on the important occasions’.46 D. Lloyd, State-Worthies (1670), 723. However, Elizabeth failed to appoint him to any significant political or military position from which he might increase his honour or reap material benefits. From 1586, following the outbreak of war with Spain, he tried to mend his finances by investing heavily in privateering, leading several expeditions himself, capturing Puerto Rico in 1598. However, the profits never covered the large costs incurred, which he put at £100,000, with the result that he fell further into debt. By 1602 he may have owed as much as £80,000.47 Spence, Privateering Earl, 168, 208, 211; HMC Hatfield, x. 234. At the 1600 accession day festivities, Cumberland declared that he had ‘thrown his land into the sea’, by which he meant that he had already begun selling his estates to pay for his maritime adventures.48 Williamson, 243. Among his creditors was his brother, Francis^* (later 4th earl of Cumberland). As early as 1588 he transferred Londesborough and his other lands in the East Riding to Francis.49 Spence, Privateering Earl, 73. He was unable to touch his lands in Westmorland, which had been settled on his countess as her jointure, an arrangement confirmed by act of Parliament in 1593.50 Ibid. 101-2; Anne Clifford’s Great Bks. of Rec. 656-7. In the final three years of his life, Cumberland raised over £30,000 by selling off lands in Craven and elsewhere and using other expedients. However, this reduction in the size of his Craven estate necessarily meant that his rents there fell by a quarter.51 Spence, Privateering Earl, 190-1, 194, 196-8, 201.

Cumberland was only saved from financial ruin by the queen. Following a lengthy period of lobbying, in 1601, Elizabeth granted him a licence to export undressed and undyed woollen cloth, despite statutes to the contrary. The following May, thanks to pressure from the Privy Council, Cumberland reached agreement with the Merchant Adventurers’ Company, which was granted the sole use of his licence in return for a payment to him of 2s. 2d. for each cloth sold. The annual profits of this grant probably amounted to £2,000, almost doubling Cumberland’s income, and were assigned to pay his debts.52 CPR, 1600-1, pp. 131-2; Spence, Privateering Earl, 183-5, 190-1; Add. 75352, John Tailor to Francis Clifford, 8 Mar. 1602; APC, 1601-4, p. 488.

The accession of James I, 1603-4

Cumberland was at Skipton in the middle of March 1603, when he received instructions from the Council to take steps to prevent any disorder during the queen’s final illness. His reason for declining to take action is indicative of the extent to which the court had been the focus of the earl’s public life. He pointed out that, having never been active in local administration before, he would only alarm an otherwise quiet region if he were seen to act now. He was still at Skipton on 19 Mar., when he received a letter, either from the Council or from Secretary of State Sir Robert Cecil^* (subsequently 1st earl of Salisbury). This was probably an urgent summons to return to court, as, on 24 Mar., Cumberland signed the proclamation announcing the accession of James I at Westminster. Having done his duty, that same evening Cumberland returned north to meet the new king.53 HMC Hatfield, xii. 675, 698; Stuart Royal Proclamations I: Jas. I ed. J.F. Larkin and P.L. Hughes, 3; CSP Ven. 1592-1603, p. 563.

Cumberland was understandably eager to impress James, and therefore, although he could probably ill afford the cost, he met his new monarch with a following so magnificent that Thomas Fuller later wrote that Cumberland ‘seemed rather a king than [an] earl’.54 T. Fuller, Worthies of Eng. iii. 420. On 16 Apr. 1603 Cumberland attended James on his entry into York, on which occasion the earl successfully asserted his hereditary right as Lord Clifford to bear the sword before the monarch, a privilege also claimed by Thomas Cecil^*, 2nd Lord Burghley (subsequently 1st earl of Exeter) as president of the council in the north.55 J. Nichols, Progs. of Jas. I, i. 78-9. By then James had already decided to appoint Cumberland to the Privy Council in order to increase the representation of the nobility on that body. Cumberland was therefore sworn a councillor after he returned to Westminster on 26 April.56 Add. 4149, f. 109r-v; APC, 1601-4, pp. 495-6; SP14/1/73.

The death of Elizabeth had led to an upsurge in raids on the border between England and Scotland, a region James needed to pacify in order to ease communications between his two kingdoms. Cumberland’s privateering exploits may not have mended his finances but they had given him a reputation as an effective military leader, which certainly impressed the new monarch. Consequently, in early June, Cumberland was appointed to command the English side of the border.57 Nichols, 78; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 13; Spence, Privateering Earl, 187-8. By then the disorder had died down, so Cumberland did not take up his new post until the autumn.58 HMC Hatfield, xv. 258; Spence, ‘Pacification of the Cumberland Borders’, 98.

In June Cumberland returned to York to meet James’s queen, Anne of Denmark, and, later that month, entertained both the king and queen at Grafton, in Northamptonshire, where he was steward of the honour. His wife was present, but not allowed to act as hostess. Nevertheless, her allies at court secured a royal letter ordering Cumberland to underwrite bonds for £500, borrowed for her use. It is possible that it was at Grafton that the countess also succeeded in extracting an undertaking from Cumberland to the king concerning her support.59 HMC Hatfield, xv. 133; Clifford, Memoir of 1603 and the Diary of 1616-1619, p. 53; HMC Hatfield, xxiii. 110-11; Williamson, 265-6, 268; SO3/2, p. 27. However, the countess found it difficult to keep her husband to his promise, despite her continual lobbying of the king, helped by Lord Henry Howard^* (subsequently earl of Northampton), which produced a steady flow of royal letters to Cumberland.60 Longleat, PO/VOL. XXIII (IHR mic. XR56/10), pp. 18-23; SO3/2, p. 174; Williamson, 266.

That October Cumberland was in Carlisle, where he presided over a commission of oyer and terminer for punishing those responsible for the March disorders; as a result, seven offenders were executed.61 HMC Hatfield, xv. 257-61; Spence, ‘Pacification of the Cumberland Borders’, 98. In December the king announced his intention to resettle the Grahams, the clan which dominated the western part of England’s border with Scotland and which was blamed for many of the raids. The following February Cumberland obtained warrants to survey the Cumberland borderlands in preparation for a grant of former Graham lands from the king. These lands, if added to his estate, would vastly increase Cumberland’s acreage. Moreover, if the union with Scotland brought peace and prosperity to the region, these additions could prove very valuable. However, although he was granted Nichol forest and other properties in Cumberland in February 1604, Cumberland did not live to see the completion of the grant, which was made to his successor, the 4th earl.62 HMC 2nd Rep. 78; HMC Hatfield, xvi. 25; LPL, ms 3203, f. 180v; Spence, ‘Pacification of the Cumberland Borders’, 100-2; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 78.

In January 1604 the king summoned the first Parliament of the new reign. Cumberland, thanks to his lands and the office of hereditary sheriff, had dominated the parliamentary elections held in the late Elizabethan period for Westmorland and the county’s only borough, Appleby.63 HP Commons, 1558-1603, i. 265-6. To a large extent, his dominance continued in 1604, as Cumberland seems to have nominated both Members for Appleby, and also the junior knight of the shire for Westmorland, Sir Richard Musgrave, who had married his niece and served as his deputy on the borders in the summer of 1603. However, in previous elections Cumberland had always ensured that his nominee for the county election received the senior seat. In addition, Cumberland’s brother, Francis, was elected for Yorkshire, though this was probably down to Francis’s own standing in the county and the support of the new president of the council in the North (Edmund Sheffield^*, 3rd Lord Sheffield, subsequently 1st earl of Mulgrave), than to Cumberland himself.64 HP Commons, 1604-29, ii. 427, 439, 467; HMC Hatfield, xv. 133. 147; Spence, Privateering Earl, 52.

Cumberland may not have intended to attend Parliament himself, as he initially proposed to go to his estates in Yorkshire, in March 1604, to raise money from his tenants. However, he abandoned this idea and sent his brother instead.65 Williamson, 168-9. Nevertheless, the official record suggests that Cumberland’s attendance of the 1604 session was patchy, as he is recorded as present at just 31 of the 71 sittings, 44 per cent of the total. Much of this absence is unexplained. It seems likely that the reason he was excused on 26 Mar. was to enable him to attend the funeral of his former tutor, Archbishop Whitgift, the following day. On the other hand, this does not explain why he missed the next three sittings (28, 29 and 31 March). Cumberland was again excused on 30 Apr., by his brother-in-law, Philip Wharton^*, 3rd Lord Wharton, having apparently already missed the two previous sittings, but was recorded as attending again on 1 May.66 LJ, ii. 266a, 287a. His last recorded attendance of the session was on the afternoon of 3 July, suggesting that he missed the final six sittings. Cumberland’s poor level of attendance helps to explain why he was named to just 13 of the 70 committees established during the session.

Seven of the committees to which Cumberland was appointed were established when he was recorded as absent. The practice of nominating peers to committees in their absence was not uncommon, and does not necessarily imply that the official record of absence is incorrect. If the Journal is correct in failing to record his attendance, on 3 Apr., this may explain why the text of the bill against adultery, which he was appointed to consider that day, was entrusted to Edward Russell^*, 3rd earl of Bedford, despite the fact that Cumberland was the senior member of the committee, and would therefore normally have taken the chair. As he was guilty of the crime against which the bill was aimed, he presumably objected to the measure, which would have rendered him ineligible for appointment to the committee had he been present to make his opposition known. He may, instead, have been appointed in his absence because the measure was known to concern him. Indeed, when the bill was reported by Edward Seymour^*, 1st earl of Hertford, it was described as ‘rather to concern some particular persons than the public good’. The appointment to the committee of two members of the countess of Cumberland’s family, namely Bedford and William Russell^*, 1st Lord Russell of Thornhaugh, may suggests that Cumberland and his wife were the ‘particular persons’; however, there were other adulterous members of the nobility.67 Ibid. 272a, 275a.

On 14 Apr. Cumberland was not recorded as present when he was named to attend a conference with the Commons about the Union. It is possible that the attendance record is erroneous, however, as he was certainly in Westminster on that day and well enough to conduct business, since he wrote to Sir Thomas Lake^‡ ‘in haste’ from his residence at the Savoy.68 Ibid. 277b; SP15/36/20; Spence, Privateering Earl, 189.

There is no firm evidence that Cumberland spoke in the 1604 session, even as a reporter from committee. Two bills were committed to his custody, one to relieve victims of the plague and another to restrict the number of poor lodgers in London. The first was subsequently reported by the lord treasurer, Thomas Sackville^*, 1st earl of Dorset, but the second, committed eight days before the prorogation, never emerged from committee.69 LJ, ii. 325b, 332b, 333b. Motions on 26 and 30 Apr. to grant parliamentary privilege to one of his servants were attributed to the earl in the Journal, but as he was not marked as present on either occasion, and indeed was excused on the 30th, they were presumably made on his behalf.70 Ibid. 285a, 287b. The servant was denied privilege, because the House concluded that he was not ‘employed in any necessary place of attendance on his lordship in this time of the Parliament’.71 Ibid. 290b-291a. On 24 Mar. Cumberland participated in the tilts to celebrate the first anniversary of James’s accession, but there is no evidence that he, or anyone else, played the part of the king’s champion, presumably because the role was thought unnecessary for a male monarch.72 H. Foley, Recs. of the English Province of the Soc. of Jesus, i. 59.

Final months, 1604-5

In late June 1604 the Spanish diplomat, Juan de Tassis, reported that Cumberland hoped to succeed Charles Howard^*, 1st earl of Nottingham, as lord admiral, or to become deputy to the young Prince Charles (Stuart^*, later prince of Wales), whom, it was reported, would be appointed to that post. Cumberland had apparently harboured admiralty ambitions since at least the early 1590s and his Elizabethan maritime exploits arguably qualified him for the role. However, the weak state of his finances made it impossible for him to buy out Nottingham. Tassis also observed that Cumberland opposed peace with Spain, war being ‘more useful to him’, particularly if he secured the admiralty. This view was shared by Godfrey Goodman^*, bishop of Gloucester. However, Cumberland apparently told intermediaries working for the Spanish that he favoured both peace with Spain and toleration for England’s Catholics. Given that he had lost money through privateering, his enthusiasm for peace should not, perhaps, be lightly discounted. Tassis nevertheless recommended that Cumberland should be given a valuable jewel to win him over. It is not known if this advice was taken.73 A.J. Loomie, ‘Toleration and Diplomacy’, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. n.s. liii. 18-19, 32, 53, 55; J.E. Jackson, ‘Longleat pprs., no. 4’ Wilts. Arch. Mag. xviii. 269; Spain and the Jacobean Catholics ed. A.J. Loomie (Cath. Rec. Soc. lxiv), 7; G. Goodman, Ct. of Jas. I, i. 61.

Cumberland returned to the borders in August 1604, but was back in Skipton by the 22nd of that month.74 HMC Hatfield, xvi. 200, 269. Relations with his wife briefly improved in the summer of 1604, probably because Northampton had persuaded him to pay her some money, but he quickly fell into arrears again, leading to a renewed round of complaints.75 Longleat, PO/VOL. XXIII (IHR mic. XR56/10), pp. 24-31. The following January he participated in the creation of Prince Charles as duke of York and, in February, was one of the commissioners who extended the prorogation of the first Jacobean Parliament to October.76 Annales, or A generall Chronicle of Eng. (1631), 857; LJ, ii. 349a. In April Cumberland obtained a 21-year extension on his licence to export cloth.77 SO3/2, p. 538. He again entertained James at Grafton in August, and subsequently accompanied the king to Oxford.78 Nichols, i. 518, 556.

In the middle of July Cumberland removed his daughter, Anne, to Grafton, to live with him, but he subsequently agreed that she should return to her mother. By the end of September he fell ill of dysentery, which Anne later attributed to the long term effects of wounds contracted in his Elizabethan campaigns. He was still able to conduct business in mid October, but, on the 21st, Salisbury reported to James that the physicians believed he had only hours to live. Cumberland, then at the Savoy, made a confession of faith before the dean of Westminster, Lancelot Andrewes^* (subsequently bishop of Winchester), in which he disavowed Catholicism. He was also reconciled to his wife, although she refused to receive communion with him. Cumberland’s deathbed attempt to secure the office of steward of Grafton for his brother was unsuccessful because the king had already promised it to Ludovic Stuart^*, 2nd duke of Lennox [S] (subsequently duke of Richmond in the English peerage). He did, however, obtain a promise of support from Salisbury, to secure a grant of the borderlands for his brother and a discharge of the debts which Cumberland owed the crown.79 Longleat, PO/VOL. XXIII (IHR mic. XR56/10), p. 33; Anne Clifford’s Great Bks. of Rec. 712, 799; HMC Hatfield, xvii. 459-61; Chamberlain Letters, i. 214.

Cumberland survived longer than his doctors expected but died at the end of October. The Skipton parish register states that he expired on the 29th, but this is almost certainly an error as several other sources agree that he died on the 30th.80 Par. Reg. of Skipton-in-Craven ed. W. J. Stavert, 39; J. W. Clay, ‘Clifford Fam.’, Yorks. Arch. Jnl. xviii. 392; Chamberlain Letters, i. 214; Anne Clifford’s Great Bks. of Rec. 706; Birch, i. 34. His internal organs were buried in the Savoy chapel; Sir Edward Hoby^‡ reported that ‘there was as much filthy matter in his liver as filled a great charger’. The rest of his body was taken to Skipton, where it was buried on 29 Dec., although his funeral was not held until 13 Mar. 1606. In 1654 his daughter belatedly constructed a tomb of black marble. Few men seem to have lamented Cumberland’s passing. On the contrary, Hoby remarked that ‘it is said that the body of the Council is no whit weakened’ by his death, suggesting that, despite his greater political prominence since the death of Elizabeth, Cumberland had made little impact on the Jacobean regime.81 Anne Clifford’s Great Bks. of Rec. 706; Birch, i. 34; Par. Reg. of Skipton-in-Craven, 39; Williamson, 272. However, following his death, Cumberland’s reputation rose as the financial implications of his career disappeared from view. His maritime exploits were remembered as pioneering the strategy, advocated by many opponents of Spain in the 1620s, of attacking the Spanish in the West Indies. The true cost of his privateering was forgotten. Thomas Fuller, writing in the mid century, remarked of Cumberland’s voyages that they touched ‘at the port of profit in passing’, a statement which would surely have come as a surprise to the earl.82 Fuller, iii. 420.

In his will, dated 19 Oct. 1605, Cumberland confirmed a series of deeds made during his last illness, assigned property to pay his debts and settled his lands on his brother in order to ensure that they descended with his earldom. His daughter Anne was bequeathed a portion of £15,000, but was threatened with the loss of a third of that sum if she tried to contest her uncle’s claim to the lands, which she stood to inherit only if the Clifford male line failed. (Cumberland’s widow later complained that Anne, then aged just 15, was pressured into making a promise to her dying father not to challenge this settlement.) Cumberland appointed as his executors his brother Francis, the earl of Salisbury, Edward Wotton^*, 1st Lord Wotton (who was married to Cumberland’s niece) and his servant, John Taylor. The will was proved in the prerogative court of Canterbury on 6 July 1606, and at York on 8 Jan. 1607, but the last of Cumberland’s debts were not cleared until the 1660s.83 PROB 11/108, ff. 3-4v; Clay, 387-91; Longleat, PO/VOL. XXIII (IHR mic. XR56/10), pp. 41, 43; Spence, Privateering Earl, 212, 215-16. The earldom passed to Cumberland’s brother, but the inheritance of the Clifford barony was contested by Lady Anne.