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It is a generally accepted article of
belief that there are few English families around whose members is thrown
a brighter halo of romance than the Cliffords, ancient Barons of Skipton,
and afterwards Earls of Cumberland. Bold, warlike, and restless, they were
also the owners of the broadest lands of any house in the north, save
possibly the Percies and the Dacres of Gillesland.
A greater contrast could not
well be seen than that between John, Lord Clifford 'the
black-faced Clifford,' as ho was styled for his ferocity-who fell in the
battle of Wakefield, nod his son Henry, tenth Lord of the Honor of
Skipton. Adversity is one of the best schools for the growth and
cultivation of the gentler virtues; and the young noble, being compelled
to pass the years of his youth in shade and obscurity, grew up to manhood
at all events with a tender and susceptible heart.
At his father's death,
in 1460, he was but six years old; and four years later he had the
mortification of seeing the castle, manor, and lordship of Skipton, which
had been forfeited by his father's attainder, bestowed first on the
Stanleys, and afterwards on Richard Duke of Gloucester, the latter of whom
held them till his death on Bosworth Field.
In the meantime it
became necessary to conceal from the ruling, house the son and heir of one
who had proved himself so formidable a foe. Banishment and imprisonment,
if not death, would certainly have been the fate of the child if he had
been discovered; but, fortunately for him, he possessed in his mother's
love and care a talisman which saved him from such danger. At the age of
seven she clothed him in the habit of a shepherd's boy, and procured for
him employment as such in the fields around Londes- borough, where she
took up her abode. In this sequestered spot, amid the Yorkshire wolds and
hills, entrusted to the care of peasants whose wives had been servants in
his father's halls, and therefore were familiar with him from his infancy,
he carried out and acted out his destiny; and doubtless, a lord's son
though he was, he submitted to his hard lot all the more readily from the
conviction instilled into his ear by his excellent mother that the thread
of his life hung on his perfect resignation to a state of poverty and
obscurity.
Whilst thus occupied at
Londesborough, on reaching his fourteenth year, occurred the death of his
mother's father, the Lord Vesey; and this gave rise to an ill-natured
report among the hangers-on of the court to the effect that her two sons
were alive. Search was therefore made for them; but her answers, dictated
by the tenderest instincts of maternity, lulled these rumors to sleep. But
she could not have passed a very easy life; for though, on the death of
her husband, she had sent the younger one away to the continent (where be
died), yet she knew that there were many persons privy to the secret that
the shepherd-boy on the hills about Londesborough was her elder son, and
the rightful lord of Skipton, and the head of the house of Clifford.
About this time his
mother seems to have married, for her second husband, Sir Lancelot
Tbrelkeld, a knight of the county of Cumberland, and a man of high repute
and integrity, who was equally anxious with his wife to screen her young
son from danger till better days should dawn upon him. They, therefore,
finding that there was danger of his eventually becoming known at
Londesborough, removed him and some of his youthful playmates to Threlkeld,
in Cumberland, on the Scottish border, where he grew up under the watchful
eyes of his stepfather's kindred.
Here, in the lowly
disguise of a shepherd, this child of Nature, bred up in forests and in
mountain fastnesses, and inured to the privations of a common laborer,
passed twenty-five of the best years of his youth and early manhood years
which are usually regarded as the best and the fairest of our lives. Yet,
though deprived of the honors and luxuries to which the nobility of his
house should have entitled him, he was more than compensated by higher and
better gifts, for his heart was uncorrupted and his integrity unassailed.
He possessed, we are told, a strong, natural understanding and an amiable
and contemplative disposition. In one thing only was he unfortunate; for,
under the apprehension that any show of learning might lead to the
detection of his birth, his education was so entirely neglected that he
could neither write nor read; and it was only after his restoration to the
honors and possessions of his family that he was taught to write his name.
He wanted not, however, the pleasures which health, activity, and
conscious innocence could bestow; nor, if what I have now to bring forward
be correct, did he want, daring this long period of enforced concealment,
those consolations which spring from the tenderest of all
affections--from the interchange of faithful and enduring love.
There is reason indeed
to believe that the exquisitely-pathetic ballad entitled 'The Nutbrown
Maid,' printed by Bishop Percy in his 'Relics of Ancient Poetry,' was
founded on what really had occurred between this young nobleman and the
object of his attachment, during the latter part of his seclusion on the
fells of Cumberland. The barony of Westmoreland was the inheritance of
Henry, Lord Clifford; of one whom the circumstances of the time made a
'shepherd's boy;' who was obliged to put on various disguises to secure
himself from dangers; and who, instead of giving festive treats in the
balls and palaces of his ancestors, was forced to seek his own scanty
portion in the mountain solitudes and woodland recesses. He then may be
truly said to have been (as the ballad represents him) a ‘banished man'
and an ‘outlaw.' For nearly thirty years he was obliged to forego the
patrimony of his father, and in that period, if, as I surmise, he was the
real hero of, The Nut-brown Maid,' the adventure recorded in the poem took
place.
The 'great lynage' of
the lady, and her being a ' baron's child,' agree perfectly with the
descent of his first wife, Anne, daughter of Sir John St. John, of Bletsoe.
This account of the origin of ' The Nut-brown Maid' carries with it a high
degree of probability and verisimilitude. It accords remarkably not only
with the style, language, and orthography of the composition-which are
those of the period immediately preceding the accession of Henry
VII.---but it coincides throughout with the extraordinary circumstances
which accompanied the youth and opening manhood of the persecuted
nobleman; and in its denouement it points with singular precision to what
were in fact his prospects and expectations.
We may, in short, infer
from the closing stanzas of the poem that the interview which it
commemorates took place almost immediately after it was known to Lord
Henry that the attainder of his house had been reversed, and before any
intimation of such a change of fortune could have reached the cars of the
object of his affections.
Interesting as the
ballad of ' The Nut-brown Maid' must assuredly be, deemed merely as a work
of fiction, yet it becomes incomparably more striking and affecting when
it is discovered to have been built on the basis of reality, and a
reality, too, of which the circumstances are, at the same time, in a high
degree romantic and extraordinary.
It is highly probable
that ibis fine old poem was written very shortly after the scene which it
commemorates, and whilst the singularly interesting result of that scene
was yet rife amongst the inhabitants of the adjacent district. It may
therefore, without deviating perhaps much from the mark, be attributed to
the year 1485, when Henry of Lancaster mounted the throne of these
kingdoms. But who the minstrel was who has thus, in strains of exquisite
feeling, so sweetly sung of female truth and constancy, has hitherto
escaped all research. As he was certainly a stranger to Arnold in 1502, we
may conclude him to have been some obscure and nameless bard of the north
of England---
‘Some youth to fortune
and to fame unknown,’
but one who evidently possessed not only great knowledge of the human
heart, but skill to picture what he knew.
There is, indeed, so much
fidelity to nature in this ballad, in accordance with the situation of the
parties, as to afford strong internal evidence of its direct relation to
the peculiar circumstances and character of the Henry Lord Clifford who is
the subject of the present paper.
We must recollect that
this heir of the Cliffords, though from necessity deprived of the
education due to his rank, was yet no stranger to the nobility of his
birth-a consciousness which would almost inevitably give to his bearing
and carriage a certain degree of self-confidence and elevation. We also
know that he frequently, though secretly, enjoyed the society of big
mother, Lady Margaret, and of his father-in-law, Sir an intercourse which,
to those who had the opportunity of familiarly observing him, would
insensibly give a polish to his manners that could not fail to be
favorably contrasted with the rudeness and rusticity of those who were his
daily companions or attendants. If to these features we add, what danger
and the necessity of varied disguise and frequent change of place would
certainly bring on, a habit of adventure and romantic expedient, and
mingle them with what we know him to possess, an amiable disposition and a
tender heart, we shall have before us a character of no common interest,
and in a high degree calculated to make an indelible impression on a bosom
so susceptible, faithful, and affectionate as that of the 'Nut-brown
Maid.'
The
reversal of the fortunes of the House of Lancaster in the person of Henry
VII. brought about a change in the fate and fortunes of the ' Shepherd
Earl.' Almost immediately on the re-ascendancy of the House of Lancaster a
petition for the restitution of the Clifford estates in the counties of
Westmoreland and York, together with their rank and honors, was presented
in the first year of Henry VII; to which petition the king, in the same
parliament, subscribed ‘Soit fait come est desier.’ The petition,
in fact, was granted. Thus, in the thirty-second year of his age, after
having led for twenty-five years the life of a shepherd and an outlaw, and
latterly either in Cumberland or on the borders of Scotland, was Henry
Lord Clifford restored to the wealth and dignities of his forefathers.
There is reason to
conclude that it was in Westmoreland, from the vicinity of that county to
the district in which he had usually wandered as a banished man, that he
first assumed the honors of his family. The Cliffords, indeed, possessed
not less than four estates in Westmoreland, namely, Pendragon, Brough,
Appleby, and Brougham; and the last, lying towards the northern boundary
of the county, must have been the first mansion on his patrimony which
Lord Clifford would reach on his return from exile. It was, in fact, the
most magnificent of all the four structures, as its remains yet testify;
avid in the great hall, which occupied one of the stories of the massive
Norman towers, did the friends and retainers of Lord Clifford assemble to
celebrate his restoration. Hither also, there can be little doubt, as she
survived the happy event six years, came his mother, Lady Clifford, acid
with her, in all probability, the venerable partner of her days, Sir
Lancelot Threlkeld.
The scene of festivity
which we may suppose to have taken place on this occasion has furnished to
Wordsworth a pleasing opportunity for the exercise of his muse; and the
song of exultation which, for this purpose, he has put into the mouth of
the family minstrel, is beautifully illustrative of the character and
disposition of Lord Clifford, and of some of the incidents which befell him
during his sojourn in the wilds of Cumberland.
It will hereafter be
found, however, that this shepherd-lord, though happily void of the
ambition and ferocity of some of his ancestors, had not degenerated from
the martial spirit of his race; and that, when a proper occasion called
for its exertion, he was the first to rally round the standard of his king
and country. In the meantime, he was what the preceding lines, in
conformity with history and tradition, have represented him-humble,
courteous, and kind, fond of retirement, and addicted to contemplative
pursuits. Having visited, therefore, his Westmoreland estates, lie passed
into Yorkshire; and, on reaching Skipton, in Craven, he fixed upon the
neighboring forest of Barden as the place of his retreat. In this romantic
tract, which from ancient time had formed part of the honor and fee of
Skipton, there were six lodges for the accommodation of the keepers and
the protection of the deer; and, in one of these, called Barden Tower,
which he greatly improved and enlarged, adding to its other conveniences
that of a chapel, did Lord Clifford take up his residence, preferring it
to the splendor and parade which almost necessarily awaited him in his
larger houses. Here, with the object of his early choice, the beautiful
and affectionate daughter of Sir John St. John, the heroine of the ballad
of `The Nut-brown Maid,' Lord Clifford found the happiness of which he was
in search.
Though uneducated, and
aware of his deficiencies-a consciousness which, at the period of his
elevation, had for a time depressed his spirits -lie possessed a vigor of
mind and rectitude of principle which prevented him from becoming a prey
to vicious or luxurious habits. If, in his shepherd state, no portion of
scholastic learning had fallen to ibis share, he had imbibed what may
assuredly be considered as some of Heaven's choicest gifts-an enthusiastic
love of Nature, a taste for natural history and philosophy, and, above
all, a spirit of sincere devotion. With acquisitions such as these, we can
no longer be surprised that, despising the vanities of wealth and rank, he
preferred the beautiful seclusion of Barden to the pomp and splendor of
Skipton or of Brougham Castle, especially when we learn that this retreat
was in the immediate vicinity of Bolton Abbey, from an intercourse with
the Canons of which place he hoped more effectually to prosecute both his
religions and philosophical pursuits. He had, early in life, and whilst
yet a shepherd's boy, owing to the total want of instruments fur measuring
the lapse of time, become a diligent observer of the heavenly bodies-a
practice which had excited in him an ardent thirst for astronomical
knowledge. As soon, therefore, as the means were in his power, he
purchased the best apparatus which the science of the day could supply;
and, converting the tower of Barden into an observatory, he there, in
company with some of the Canons of Bolton-who are said to have been well
acquainted with the astronomy of their age-spent no inconsiderable portion
of his time.
This, however, was not
the only resource in the fields of science to which the 'Shepherd Lord'
could apply himself, for it would appear, from the Clifford
MSS., which once belonged to the monks of Bolton Abbey, that he
joined with some of the reverend brethren of that house in the study of
chemistry, and even entered upon the mysterious and visionary search after
the ' philosopher's stone.' These pursuits on the part of Henry Clifford
almost of necessity threw, around his person, in the minds of the
inhabitants of Craven, an air of mystery and awe; and though he was too
religious to lead his poorer neighbors to believe that he had any dealings
with the black art and unhallowed powers, yet it was whispered at the
fire-side of the cottages, and possibly of the convent also, that during
his long period of concealment the young lord had been the especial
favorite of a good fairy, who watched over his safety, and, in the lines
of Wordsworth:
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'Who loved the shepherd lord to meet
In his wanderings solitary; wild notes she in his
bearing sang,
A song of Nature's hidden powers,
That whistled like the wind, and rang
Among the rocks and hollow bowers.
'Twos said that she all shapes could wear,
And oftentimes before him stood
Amid the trees of some thick wood
In semblance of a lady fair,
And taught him signs and showed him sights
In Craven's dens, on Cumbria's heights,
When under cloud of fear he lay
A shepherd clad in homely gray,
Nor left him at his later day.
And choice of studious friends had he
Of Bolton's dear fraternity;
Who standing on the old church tower,
In many a calm propitious hour
Perused with him the starry sky;
Or is their cells with him did pry
For other lore; through strong desire
Searching the earth with chemic fire.' |
Yet, from
his attachment to the arcana of science, it must not be supposed that
Henry Clifford led the life of a hermit. Far from it. He was charitable
and hospitable; and, though in his Yorkshire home at Barden he did not
maintain such state as would have been necessary at Brougham or at
Skipton, yet we find two tons of wine forwarded to him from Newcastle at
his retreat in 1021, when nearly three hundred tenants were admitted on
his 'bederoll.' Nor did he neglect from time to time to visit his various
castles, keeping his Christmas sometimes in one and sometimes in another-a
custom which, owing to the carelessness of his servants, brought on the
destruction of his castle of Brough; for it was burnt, if we may believe
the topographer Whitaker, ‘after a noble Christmas kept there by Henry,
Lord Clifford, the Shepherd, in his latter days.'
At what time Lord Henry
lost his first wife--the 'Nut-brown
Maid'--is not known;
though he left by her a son. But ten or twelve
years before his decease, in 1533, he married a
second lady-Florence, daughter of Henry Pudsey,
of Bolton, and widow of Sir Thomas Talbot, of
Bashall.
Thus, in the bosom of
domestic quiet and studious retirement, he passed the last thirty years of
a long life, never traveling out of England, and seldom visiting its
court or its capital, save when called to take his seat in Parliament,
where he is said to have shown the good sense of an honest and patriotic
nobleman, in spite of his want of early education. In the year 1513,
however, when on the verge of sixty, he was roused from the peaceful tenor
of his home by the sudden call of war, being honored by his sovereign to
command a part of the army sent to act against the Scotch in the
expedition which found its end on the field of Flodden. The patriotism of
the Shepherd Lord was not forgotten in the records of that day's
encounter, as is witnessed in the following;
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'From Penigent to Pendle Hill,
From Linton to Long Addingham,
And all that Craven coasts did till,
They with the lusty Clifford came ;
All Stainclitfe Hundred went with him
with striplings strong from wharloydale.' |
Yore
fortunate than his brave ancestor Robert de Clifford, first Lord of
Skipton, who perished in the fatal struggle at Bannockburn, Lord Henry
lived several years to wear the laurels that he had won at Flodden. He
returned home from that field, hoping to enjoy with increased zest the
quiet retreats of Barden Forest and Bolton Abbey. But, as is often the
case with men of wealth and rank, his station and connections often forced
him into scenes which were foreign to his taste, and his peace of mind was
sadly broken by the wild and extravagant conduct of his son by his first
wife; so that perhaps, ere he was called to his rest, he found that lie
had been quite as happy in his shepherd's cot in youth, as he could be as
a man in all his castles and manor-houses.
On April 23rd, 1523,
this amiable and virtuous lord paid the debt of nature, having survived
the battle of Flodden just ten years. He bad given directions in his will
that he should be buried at Shap in Westmoreland, if he died in that part
of England, or at Bolton, if he died in Yorkshire; and there is every
reason to believe that a vault on the southern side of the choir of Bolton
Abbey is the resting-place, not only of many other Lords of Skipton, but
also of Henry Clifford, the I Shepherd Lord
Chapters From the Family Chests, 1887
Chapters From the Family Chest |
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