The Lord Brooke | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byEdmund Lodge | |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
| In office 1614–1621 | |
| Preceded by | Sir Julius Caesar |
| Succeeded by | Sir Richard Weston |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 October 1554 Beauchamp's Court,Alcester |
| Died | 30 September 1628 (age 73) Brook House,Holborn, London |
| Resting place | St Mary's Church,Warwick |
| Parents |
|
| Alma mater | Shrewsbury School,Jesus College, Cambridge |
Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke[a] (/fʊlkˈɡrɛvɪl/; 3 October 1554 – 30 September 1628) was anElizabethanpoet,dramatist, andstatesman who served in theHouse of Commons at various times between 1581 and 1621, when he was raised to thepeerage.
Greville was a capable administrator who served the English Crown underElizabeth I andJames I as, successively, treasurer of the navy, chancellor of the exchequer, and commissioner of the Treasury, and who for his services was in 1621 made Baron Brooke, peer of the realm. Greville was grantedWarwick Castle in 1604, making numerous improvements. Greville is best known today as the biographer ofSir Philip Sidney, and for his sober poetry, which presents dark and thoughtful views on art, literature, beauty and other philosophical matters.
Fulke Greville, born 3 October 1554, at Beauchamp Court, nearAlcester,Warwickshire, was the only son ofSir Fulke Greville (1536–1606) and Anne Neville (d. 1583), the daughter ofRalph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland.[1] He was the grandson of Sir Fulke Greville (d. 10 November 1559) andElizabeth Willoughby (buried 15 November 1562), eldest daughter ofRobert Willoughby, 2nd Baron Willoughby de Broke,[2] the only other child of the marriage was a daughter, Margaret Greville (1561–1631/2), who married Sir Richard Verney.[1]
He was sent in 1564, on the same day as his lifelong friend,Philip Sidney, toShrewsbury School.[3] He then went up toJesus College, Cambridge in 1568.[4]
SirHenry Sidney, Philip's father, and president of theCouncil of Wales and the Marches, gave Greville in 1576 a post connected with the court of theWelsh Marches, but Greville resigned it in 1577 to go to attend the court ofQueen Elizabeth I along with Philip Sidney. There, Greville became a great favourite with the Queen, who valued his sober character and administrative skills. In 1581, he was elected in a by-election asMember of Parliament forSouthampton.[5] Queen Elizabeth made him secretary to the principality of Wales in 1583. However, he was put out of favour more than once for leaving the country against her wishes.
In 1581 at a Whitehall tournament in honour of French ambassadors Greville, Philip Sidney,Philip Howard Earl of Arundel and Frederick Lord Windsor staged an entertainment as the "Four Foster Children of Desire". The ambassadors were working on plans for Elizabeth's marriage toFrancis, Duke of Anjou. The "Foster Children" laid siege to the "Fortress of Perfect Beautie". After two days of challenges the Children admitted defeat. The entertainment was understood to convey the idea that Elizabeth was unattainable, devised by the opposition to the French marriage.[6]
Greville, Philip Sidney andSir Edward Dyer were members of the "Areopagus", the literary clique which, under the leadership ofGabriel Harvey, supported the introduction of classical metres into English verse. Sidney and Greville arranged to sail withSir Francis Drake in 1585 in his expedition against the Spanish West Indies, but Elizabeth forbade Drake to take them with him, and also refused Greville's request to be allowed to joinRobert Dudley's army in theNetherlands. Philip Sidney, who took part in the campaign, was killed on 17 October 1586. Greville memorialized his beloved friend inA Dedication to Sir Philip Sidney.
Greville participated in theBattle of Coutras in 1587.[7] About 1591 Greville served further for a short time inNormandy underKing Henry III of Navarre in theFrench Wars of Religion. This was his last experience of war.[5]
Greville representedWarwickshire in parliament in 1592–1593, 1597, 1601 and 1621. In 1598 he was madeTreasurer of the Navy, and he retained the office through the early years of the reign of James I.[5]
Greville was grantedWarwick Castle—situated on a bend of the River Avon inWarwickshire—by King James I in 1604.[8] The castle was in a dilapidated condition when he took possession of it, and he spent £20,000 to restore it.[5][9]
In 1614 he became chancellor and under-treasurer of the exchequer, and throughout the reign, he was a valued supporter of James I, although in 1615 he advocated the summoning of Parliament. In 1618 he became commissioner of the treasury, and in 1621 he was raised to the peerage with the title ofBaron Brooke, a title which had belonged to the family of his paternal grandmother.
On 1 September 1628 Greville was stabbed at his house inHolborn, London, by Ralph Haywood, a servant who believed that he had been cheated by being left out of his master's will. Haywood then turned the knife on himself. Greville's physicians treated his wounds by filling them with pig fat. Rather than disinfecting them, the pig fat turned rancid and infected the wounds, and he died in agony four weeks after the attack.[10] Greville's body was brought back to Warwick and he was buried in theCollegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick. On his tomb was inscribed the following epitaph that he had composed:[11]
Fulke GrevilleServant to Queene Elizabeth
Conceller to King James
and Frend to Sir Philip Sidney.
Trophaeum Peccati.
Greville is best known for his biography of Sidney (composed c. 1610–12), which circulated in manuscript with the titleA Dedication to Sir Philip Sidney. It was published in 1652 asThe Life of the Renowned Sir Philip Sidney.[n 1] He includes some autobiographical matter in what amounts to a treatise on government.
Greville's poetry consists ofclosettragedies,sonnets, and poems on political and moral subjects. His style is grave and sententious.
Greville's works include:
Greville's works were collected and reprinted byAlexander Balloch Grosart, in 1870, in four volumes.Poetry and Drama of Fulke Greville, edited by Geoffrey Bullough, was published in 1938.The Prose Works of Fulke Greville, edited by John Gouws, were published in 1986.The Selected Poems of Fulke Greville edited byThom Gunn, with an afterword byBradin Cormack, was published in 2009 (University of Chicago Press,ISBN 978-0-226-30846-3.)
The principal repository for Fulke Greville's papers is theBritish Library (Add MSS 54566-54571, the Warwick Manuscripts; letters in the as-yet uncatalogued Earl Cowper mss.). Individual manuscripts of theDedication to Sir Philip Sidney are to be found at the Bodleian Library, Oxford (a manuscript formerly owned by Dr. B. E. Juel-Jensen); Trinity College, Cambridge (MSS R.7.32 and 33); and the Shrewsbury Library (MS 295).
Charles Lamb commented on Greville: "He is nine parts Machiavel and Tacitus, for one of Sophocles and Seneca... Whether we look into his plays or his most passionate love-poems, we shall find all frozen and made rigid with intellect."[15] He goes on to speak of the obscurity of expression that runs through all of Greville's poetry.
Andrea McCrea sees the influence ofJustus Lipsius in theLetter to an Honourable Lady, but elsewhere detects a scepticism more akin toMichel de Montaigne.[16]
A rhyming elegy on Greville, published inHenry Huth'sInedited Poetical Miscellanies, brings charges of miserliness against him.
Robert Pinsky has asserted that this work is comparable in force of imagination toJohn Donne.[17]
Lord Brooke, who never married, left no natural heirs, and his senior (Brooke) barony passed to his cousin and adopted son, Robert Greville (1608–1643), who took the side ofParliament in theEnglish Civil War, and defeated theRoyalists in a skirmish atKineton in August 1642. Robert was killed during the siege ofLichfield on 2 March 1643, having survived the elder Greville by only fifteen years. His other barony (Willoughby de Broke) was inherited by his sisterMargaret who married Sir Richard Verney.[citation needed]
Greville planned for a shared tomb with his lifelong friend,Philip Sidney.[18][19][20]
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Cousin, John William (1910).A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – viaWikisource.
| Parliament of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Henry Wallop Nicholas Caplyn | Member of Parliament forSouthampton 1581–1584 With: Nicholas Caplyn | Succeeded by Thomas Digges Thomas Godard |
| Preceded by Sir Thomas Lucy George Digby | Member of Parliament forWarwickshire 1587–1601 With:Sir John Harington 1587 Richard Verney 1589 Edward Greville 1593 William Combe 1597 Sir Robert Digby 1601 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forWarwickshire 1621 With:Sir Thomas Lucy | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Custos Rotulorum of Warwickshire bef. 1594 – aft. 1596 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Custos Rotulorum of Warwickshire 1626–1628 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Treasurer of the Navy 1598–1604 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Exchequer 1614–1621 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of England | ||
| New title | Baron Brooke 1621–1628 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Baron Willoughby de Broke de jureBaron Latimer 1606–1628 | Succeeded by |
Chancellors of the exchequer under theHouse of Stuart (1603–1649; 1660–1714) | ||
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| Charles I (1625–1649) |
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| Charles II (1660–1685) |
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| William &Mary (1689–1694) |
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| William III (1694–1702) |
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