teenth century, speaks in the past tense, and what became of it we are not informed. Godwin says that Bishop Audley also gave the organs to St. Mary's Church; but this is doubted by Anthony à Wood. In 1509 he gave a donation of 200 marks to Chichele's chest at Oxford, which had been robbed. It further appears that he was a legatee and executor of King Henry VII, and one of the trustees for the foundation of the Savoy Hospital (Calendar of Henry VIII, i. 776, 3292); that in 1516 he obtained from Henry VIII a license to found and endow two chantries, one in his own cathedral and one in Hereford (ib. ii. 2660); and that in 1521 he suppressed the nunnery of Bromehall in his diocese on account of the misconduct of its inmates, for which he received a letter of thanks from the king (ib. iii. 1863). He died at Ramsbury in Wilts on 23 Aug. 1524, and was buried in a chapel erected by himself in his own cathedral of Salisbury in honour of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

[Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, i. 662, ii. 722, 725; Wood's Antiq. of Univ. Oxf. i. 667; Wood's Antiq. of Colleges, 239, 248; Hardy's Le Neve; Godwin de Præsulibus; Biographia Britannica.] J. G.

AUDLEY, ALDITHEL, or ALDITHELEY, HENRY DE (d. 1246), a royalist baron, was son of Adam de Aldit heley, who held Alditheley (Staff.) from the Verdons in 1186 (Pipe Roll 32, 33 Hen. II.). He began his career as constable to Hugh de Lacy (whose first wife was a Verdon) when Earl of Ulster, and, on Hugh's disgrace (1214), attached himself to Ranulph, the great royalist Earl of Chester, and was rewarded by the crown with a forfeited estate (1215-16). He served as sheriff of Shropshire and Staffordshire 1216-1221, as deputy for the Earl of Chester, from whom he obtained large grants of lands (Cart. 11 Hen. III. p. 1, m. 6). On acquiring Heleigh Castle he made it his chief seat, but was entrusted by the crown, as a lord-marcher, with the constableship of several castles on the Welsh borders from 1223 to his death, which took place shortly before 11 Nov. 1246, when his son did homage (Fin. 31 Hen. III. m. 12).

[Dugdale's Baronage (1675), i. 746; Eyton's Shropshire (1858), vii. 183-5.j

J. H. R.

AUDLEY, HUGH (d. 1662), notorious me neylender, amassed a large fortune in the first half of the seventeenth century by frugal living and hard dealings. In 1605 he possessed only 2007., and died in November 1662 worth 400,0007. He held a very lucra

tive post in the court of wards, and is said to have lost not less than 100,0007. by the disestablishment of the court at the time of the civil wars. At his elbow he usually had some devotional book, especially when he expected clients, and he was very regular in his attendance at church. The expensive habits of the clergy caused him some anxiety, and he would often sigh for the simplicity of living that prevailed in the days of his youth. He was always willing to advance money to improvident young gallants; he was, indeed, a most heartless bloodsucker. Occasionally he met with checks and reverses, but his indomitable energy bore him through everything. In the lofty language of his biographer, he lived a life of intricacies and misteries, wherein he walked as in a maze, and went on as in a labyrinth with the clue of a resolved mind, which made plaine to him all the rough passages he met with; he, with a round and solid mind, fashioned his own fate, fixed and unmoveable in the great tumults and stir of business, the hard rocke He is the in the middest of the waves.' subject of an article in D'Israeli's 'Curiosities of Literature.'

[The Way to be Rich according to the Practice of the Great Audley, 1662.] A. H. B.

AUDLEY, ALDITHEL, or ALDITHELEY, JAMES DE, knight (d. 1272), a royalist baron, was son and heir of Henry de Audley [q.v.], and, like him, a lord-marcher. In 1257 he accompanied Richard, king of the Romans, to his coronation at Aachen (MATT. PARIS), sailing on 29 April (RYMER) and returning to England in the autumn to take part in the Welsh campaign (1257– 1260). In the following year (1258) he was one of the royalist members of the council of fifteen nominated by the Provisions of Oxford, and witnessed, as James of Aldithel,' their confirmation by the king (18 Oct.). He also, with his brother-in-law, Peter de Montfort [see MONTFORT, PETER DE], was appointed commissioner to treat with Llewelyn (18 Aug.), and two years later (44 Hen. III.) he acted as an itinerant justice. On Llewelyn of Wales attacking Mortimer, a royalist marcher, Audley joined Prince Edward at Hereford, 9 Jan. 1263 (Claus. 47 Hen. III. m. 5 dors.) to resist the invasion. But the barons, coming to Llewelyn's assistance, dispersed the royalist forces, and seized on his castles and estates. He is wrongly said by Dugdale and Foss to have been made 'justice of Ireland' in this year, but in December he was one of the royalist sureties in the appeal to Louis of France. At the time of the battle of Lewes (May 1264) he was in

arms for the king on the Welsh marches (MATTHEW PARIS), and he was one of the first to rise against the government of Simon de Montfort (Ypodigma Neustria). On Gloucester embracing the royal cause, early in 1265, Audley joined him with the other marchers, and took part in the campaign of Evesham and the overthrow of the baronial party. He appears to have gone on a pilgrimage to Galicia in 1268, and also, it is stated, to Palestine in 1270; but though his name occurs among the 'Crucesignati' of 21 May 1270, it is clear that he never went, for he was appointed justiciary of Ireland a few months later, his name first occurring in connection with that office 5 Sept. 1270 (Rot. Pat. 54 Hen. III. m. 4). During his tenure of the post he led several expeditions against 'the Irish rebels,' but died by breaking his neck' about 11 June 1272 (when he is last mentioned as justiciary), and was succeeded by his son James, who did homage 29 July 1272.

[Dugdale's Baronage (1675), i. 747; Foss's Judges (1848), ii. 212; Eyton's Shropshire (1858), vii. 185-8; Chancery Misc. Rolls, No. 28, Rot. 1, 2.]

J. H. R.

AUDLEY, or AUDELEY, JAMES DE (1316?-1369), one of the original knights or founders of the order of the Garter, was, according to the best authorities, the eldest son of Sir James Audeley, of Stretton Audeley, Oxon, who served in the expedition to Gascony in 1324 and to Scotland in 1327, and Eva, daughter of Sir John Clavering, and widow, first, of Thomas de Audeley and, secondly, of Sir Thomas Ufford. In 1346 letters of protection were granted him to proceed beyond the seas upon an expedition to France in the retinue of Edward III and the Black Prince. In 1350 he took part in the naval battle with the Spaniards off Sluys. After the expiration of the truce in 1354, the Black Prince advanced on Bordeaux, accompanied by Sir James Audeley and his brother, Sir Peter. At this time Sir James was in constant attendance on the prince; he distinguished himself by many brave exploits, particularly in the taking of Chastiel Sacra by assault, and at the battle of Poitiers on 19 Sept. 1356. According to Froissart, Sir James had made a vow that if ever he was engaged in any battle in company with the king or any of his sons, he would be the foremost in the attack and the best combatant on his side, or die in the attempt.' Having obtained the prince's permission, he posted himself with his four esquires in front of the English army. In his eagerness for the fray he advanced so far that he engaged

6

the Lord Arnold d'Audreghen, marshal of France, whom he severely wounded, and whose battalion was finally routed. So energetic was Sir James, that Froissart says of him that he never stopped to make any one his prisoner that day, but was the whole time employed in fighting and following the enemy.' He was severely wounded in the body, head, and face, but, covered with blood as he was, he continued to fight as long as he was able. At last, overcome with exhaustion, he was carried out of the battle by his four esquires.

Upon the Black Prince inquiring for him after the fighting had ceased, he was taken on a litter to the royal tent. There the prince told him that he had been the bravest knight on his side, and granted him an annuity of 500 marks. On his return to his own tent, Sir James made over the royal gift to his four esquires (Dutton of Dutton, Delves of Doddington, Foulehurst of Crewe, and Hawkestone of Wainehill). Hearing of this gene rous conduct, the Black Prince confirmed the grant to the esquires, and granted to Sir James a further pension of 600 marks. In 1359 Sir James was one of the principal commanders of a fresh expedition to France. In the next year he carried the fortress of Chaven, in Brittany, by assault, and was present with the king when the treaty of peace was signed at Calais. During the expedition of the Black Prince into Spain, in the year 1362, Sir James was appointed governor of Acquitaine. In 1369 we find him filling the important office of great seneschal of Poitou.

After taking part with the Earl of Cambridge in the capture of the town of La Roche-sur-Yon in that year, he went to reside at Fontenay-le-Comte, where, in the words of Froissart, he was attacked with so severe a disorder that it ended his life.' His obsequies were performed in the city of Poitiers, and were attended by the prince in person. On the foundation of the order of the Garter in 1344, Sir James was instituted as one of the first founders,' as they were described on their plates of arms in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. His stall was the eleventh on the prince's side; his plate of arms, though in existence in 1569, has long since disappeared. Sir Thomas Granson succeeded to the stall which became vacant on Audeley's death.

[Beltz's Memorials of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, 75-84; Sir N. H. Nicolas' History of the Orders of Knighthood of the British Empire, i. 37, ii. li; Dictionary of the D. U. K. Society, iv. pt. i. p. 91; Burke's Extinct Peerage; Sir John Froissart's Chronicles, translated

by Thomas Johnes, i.; Notes and Queries, 4th series, iii. 596, iv. 44.] G. F. R. B. AUDLEY, THOMAS, BARON AUDLEY OF WALDEN (1488-1544), lord chancellor, was an Essex man, whose family, though unknown to good genealogists, is surmised by some to have had a distant connection with that of the Lords Audley of an earlier date. He is believed to have studied at Magdalen College, Cambridge, to which he was afterwards a benefactor. He then came to London, and gave himself to the law in the Inner Temple, where he was autumn reader in 1526. Meanwhile he had been admitted a burgess of Colchester in 1516, and was appointed town clerk there. His name occurs on the commission of the peace for Essex as early as 1521 (BREWER, Calendar of Henry VIII, iii. 1081, 12 Nov.), and in commissions for levying the subsidy at Colchester in 1523 and 1524 (ib. pp. 1367, 1458, and iv. 236). It is said that he was steward to the Duke of Suffolk, and that the way he discharged the duties of that office first recommended him to the king's notice. In 1523 he was returned to parliament; and in 1525 he had become a man of so much weight that, when it was thought necessary to make a private search for suspicious characters in London, and the work was committed to men like the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, Lord Edmund Howard, and the principal residents in the different suburbs, we find Audley's name suggested with some others to assist in examining the district from Temple Bar to Charing Cross (ib. iv. 1082). The same year he was appointed a member of the Princess Mary's council, then newly established in the marches of Wales (MADDEN, Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary, introd. xxx). A little later he was appointed attorney of the duchy of Lancaster, and was candidate for the office of common serjeant of the city of London (Calendar of Henry VIII, iv. 2639). In 1527 he was groom of the chamber, and an annuity of 207. was granted to him on 10 July out of the subsidy and ulnage of cloth in Bristol and Gloucester (ib. p. 3324). Soon afterwards he was a member of Cardinal Wolsey's household (ib. p. 1331). On the fall of his master in 1529, some changes took place in which he attained further advancement. Sir Thomas More was made lord chancellor in the room of the cardinal, and Audley was made chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster in the room of Sir Thomas More. Another office which More had filled a few years before was that of speaker of the House of Commons, and in this too he was succeeded by Audley when

parliament met in November. On being elected and sent up to the House of Lords, in which the king that day was present, he made an eloquent oration in which he 'disabled himself' with conventional modesty for the high office imposed upon him, and besought the king to cause the commons to return to their house and choose another speaker. This sort of excuse was a timehonoured form, and its refusal was equally a matter of course. The king,' says Hall, by the mouth of the lord chancellor, answered that were he disabled himself in wit and learning, his own ornate oration there made testified the contrary; and as touching his discretion and other qualities, the king himself had well known him and his doings, sith he was in his service, to be both wise and discreet; and so for an able man he accepted him, and for the speaker he him admitted.'

But

It must be observed that this was the parliament by whose aid Henry VIII ultimately separated himself and his kingdom from all allegiance to the see of Rome. Its sittings continued, with several prorogations, over a period of six years and a half; and it is clear that from the first the Commons were encouraged to attack the clergy and urge complaints against them. In the House of Lords, Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, took notice of the character of their proceedings. My lords,' he said, 'you see daily what bills come hither from the Common house, and all is to the destruction of the church. For God's sake, see what a realm the kingdom of Bohemia was, and when the church went down, then fell the glory of the kingdom. Now with the Commons is nothing but "Down with the church!" And all this, meseemeth, is for lack of faith only. the words only furnished the Lower House with another grievance, and a deputation of the Commons, with Audley as speaker at their head, waited on the king in his palace at Westminster, complaining that they who had been elected as the wisest men in their several constituencies should be reproached as little better than Turks or infidels. The king (at whose secret prompting, beyond a doubt, this remonstrance was really made) assumed a tone of moderation in his reply, saying he would send for the bishop and report to them how he explained his words; after which he summoned Fisher to his presence, along with the Archbishop of Canterbury and six other bishops, to give an account of his language in the House of Peers. The bishop really had nothing to retract, as his brother prelates bore witness along with him that he had imputed lack of faith not to the

Commons, but to the Bohemians only. The warning, however, was significant.

Audley's professional advancement at this time scarcely kept pace with his political distinction. It was just two years after his election as speaker that we find him called to the degree of serjeant-at-law, and a day or two later, on 14 Nov. 1531, he was appointed a king's serjeant (DUGDALE, Origines, 83). He received, however, from the crown, on 2 March 1531, a grant of lands in Colchester and Mile End in Essex (Calendar of Henry VIII, v. 166, 1); and next year he attained all at once a degree of professional eminence which his antecedents scarcely seemed to justify. An incident related by Hall the chronicler will perhaps enable us to comprehend why this promotion was conferred on him.

During the prorogued session of parliament. held in April 1532, a motion was made in the House of Commons by a member named Temse that the king, who had now for some months separated from Queen Katharine, though he had not yet obtained his divorce, should be urged to take back his queen and avoid the grave dangers that might arise from the bastardising of his only daughter Mary. This was a degree of independence that Henry did not expect of his faithful Commons, though their remonstrances on other subjects very often suited his purposes well enough. On the last day of April he sent for Audley, the speaker, and some others, and reminded them in the first place how they had exhibited last year a bill of grievances against the clergy, which he had delivered to his spiritual subjects to make answer to, and how he had just received their reply, which he delivered into Audley's hands, intimating that he thought himself it would scarcely satisfy them. But,' said the king, 'you be a great sort of wise men. I doubt not but you will look circumspectly on the matter, and we will be indifferent between you.' Having thus, with a pretence of neu- ' trality, assured them of his support against the clergy, he went on to express his astonishment that one of their House should have ventured to speak of his separation from the queen, a matter which it was not their province to determine, seeing that it touched his conscience. He added that he wished with all his heart that he could find the marriage good, but he had received the decisions of many universities that it was invalid and detestable in the sight of God; that he had not been moved by a wanton appetite at forty-one years of age to abandon the queen for the sake of some one else; but that he felt it a positive duty to part company with

her. For nowhere but in Spain and Portugal had a man been known to marry two sisters, and as for the marriage with a brother's wife, it was so abhorred among all christian nations, that he had never heard of any christian doing so except himself. This disgraceful piece of hypocrisy Audley was commissioned to report to the House of Commons as the sincere grounds of the king's conduct, and he did so as in duty bound.

Before the session ended he was sent for again to come before the king, along with twelve of his own house and eight peers, to whom the king made an address, declaring that he had discovered that the clergy were but half his subjects. They had taken an oath, indeed, to him, but they had taken an oath to the pope as well, which was quite inconsistent with their allegiance to him. This matter he wished the Commons to take carefully into consideration, and Audley accordingly caused the two oaths to be read in parliament, thus preparing the way for the Act of Supremacy, which was passed two years later.

This conference with the king was on 11 May 1532. On the 16th of the same month Sir Thomas More, not liking the king's proceedings, was allowed to resign the office of lord chancellor, and surrendered the great seal into the king's own keeping. Four days later Henry delivered it to Audley with instructions to discharge all the duties of a lord chancellor, though he was only to be called, for the present, keeper of the great seal. That same day the king made him a knight, and on 5 June following, being the first day of Trinity term, he took his oath in the court of Chancery as keeper of the great seal. His powers were more formally set forth in a commission dated 5 Oct. following; but in the beginning of next year it was found advisable to give him the name as well as the duties of lord chancellor, and he was appointed to that office on 26 Jan. 1533 (ib. v. 1075, 1295, 1499 (9), vi. 73).

The name of lord chancellor, apparently, had been withheld from him at first in order that he might still act as speaker of the House of Commons; but now Humphrey Wingfield was chosen speaker in his place, and Audley took his seat upon the woolsack in the House of Lords. During the time he was lord keeper the king ordered the old great seal (in which the lettering was very much worn) to be destroyed and a new one to be made.

From this time his whole career is that of a submissive instrument in the hands of Henry VIII and his great minister Cromwell. Sickly in his physical constitution,