JOHN, LORD LUMLEY, Son of Richard lord Lumley2, was the seventh baron of that family, and an eminent warrior in the reign of Henry the eighth. Being about the age of twenty-one, in the fifth of that king, he carried a considerable force to the earl of Surrey at York, and was a principal commander at Flodden-field, where he distinguished himself with great bravery. He was present at most of the interviews between his master and foreign monarchs, which so much delighted that prince and his historians; and again served against the Scots in the fifteenth of that king. He was one of the barons who signed the memorable letter to Clement the seventh, threatening him with the loss of his supremacy in England, unless he proceeded to dispatch the king's divorce: but notwithstanding this, we find him deeply engaged in the rebellion, which our old writers call "the pilgrimage of grace." The duke of Norfolk, general of the royalists, offered them a free pardon; lord Lumley was 2 Vide Dugdale, and Collins's Peerages. commissioned to treat on the part of the revolters, and with great dexterity extricated himself and his followers. Yet soon after he lost his only son George, who being taken in another insurrection with the lord Darcy, was beheaded. Of the father we find no more mention, but that in the year 1550 he translated "Erasmus's Institution of a Christian Prince;" which is preserved in manuscript in the king's library.3 [The manuscript referred to by lord Orford in the royal library (17 A. xlix.) is perhaps the only extant evidence of lord Lumley's pretensions to authorship; but as that is wholly a translation, and as no dedicatory epistle appears, though the work seems to have been addressed to his noble father by his "lordeshippes obedient sonne, J. Lumley, 1550;" it is judged more advisable to insert an original composition by this nobleman, though merely a letter of acknowledgment for personal obligations to lord Cromwell, as the catalogue announces, for no superscription appears. Vide Casley's Catalogue, p. 262. [Another manuscript in the same library (18A. xlii.) contains a poem addressed to lord Lumley, called John Phillips' Closet of Council: but the volume is either lost or misplaced.] Cottonian MS. Vespasian, F. xiii. "My verey synguler good lorde, "My dewtye lowlye doon, I humbly thankee your lordshyp for all youre goodness towardes me; bysychyng the same off contenewaunce: and thatt' yt may lyke you to be soo good lorde unto me in soo myche, as affter thys troblesom worlde many parssons be dyspossed to make sinistere reports, to take every suche informacyon in good partye, unto suche tyme as yee here or know myne awnswere therin. For undowttydlye yee shall ever fynde me one man. Wyth youre lordschypp I begann, and thare wyll I end; and seyke no farther, but to the kyngs magistye and you. "And for as myche as I am adwiessed by my lerned counsell, thatt I may order myne enherytaunce as to mayke myne heere whome I lyst, I schall most hartely besuche your lordschypp to gyff forther credence to youre serwande Wyllm. Blytheman, and my chaplean syr Thoms. Hallyman, whome I have instruct att lenghte in that behalffe off my full mynde, besuchyng youre lordshypp to contynew good lorde unto me. And I hawe sent unto youre lordeschypp the powre halffe yeres fee, whyche I promest unto you; besuchyng youre lordeschypp to tayke ytt in worthe; for I am, and ever schalbe youre beadman, as Jhu knowythe; whoo preserwe youre lordschypp in healthe and myche honor, to hys plesure and most coumfort, "By yours, att commaundment, youre "JHON LUMLEY."] |