William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke
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William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke (8 April 158010 April 1630) , of
Wilton House Wilton House is an English country house at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire, which has been the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years. It was built on the site of the medieval Wilton Abbey. Following the dissolution o ...
in
Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
, was an English nobleman, politician and courtier. He served as Chancellor of the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
and together with King
James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
founded
Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named after ...
. In 1608 he was appointed Warden of the
Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to the n ...
, Constable of
St Briavels Castle St Briavels Castle is a moated Norman castle at St Briavels in the English county of Gloucestershire. The castle is noted for its huge Edwardian gatehouse that guards the entrance. St Briavels Castle was originally built between 1075 and 1129 a ...
, Gloucestershire, and in 1609 Governor of Portsmouth, all of which offices he retained until his death. He served as
Lord Chamberlain The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main cha ...
from 1615 to 1625. In 1623 the
First Folio ''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...
of
Shakespeare's William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
plays was dedicated to him and his brother and successor Philip Herbert, 1st Earl of Montgomery.


Origins

He was the eldest son and heir of
Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, KG, KB (in or after 153819 January 1601) was a Welsh nobleman, peer and politician of the Elizabethan era. He was the nephew of Catherine Parr, and brother-in-law of Lady Jane Grey, through his first wife ...
, of Wilton House, by his third wife
Mary Sidney Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (born Sidney, 27 October 1561 – 25 September 1621) was among the first Englishwomen to gain notice for her poetry and her literary patronage. By the age of 39, she was listed with her brother Philip Sidney ...
.


Career

Herbert was a bookish man, once tutored by the poet
Samuel Daniel Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) was an English poet, playwright and historian in the late- Elizabethan and early- Jacobean eras. He was an innovator in a wide range of literary genres. His best-known works are the sonnet cycle ''Delia'', the epi ...
, and preferred to keep to his study with heavy pipe-smoking to keep his "migraines" at bay. Nevertheless, he was a conspicuous figure in the society of his time and at the court of King James I. William Herbert and his brother Philip performed in ''
The Masque of Indian and China Knights ''The Masque of Indian and China Knights'' was performed at Hampton Court in Richmond, England on 1 January 1604. The masque was not published, and no text survives. It was described in a letter written by Dudley Carleton. The historian Leeds B ...
'' at
Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chief ...
on 1 January 1604. Several times he found himself opposed to the schemes of the
Duke of Buckingham Duke of Buckingham held with Duke of Chandos, referring to Buckingham, is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. There have also been earls and marquesses of Buckingham. ...
and was keenly interested in the
colonization of the Americas During the Age of Discovery, a large scale European colonization of the Americas took place between about 1492 and 1800. Although Norse colonization of North America, the Norse had explored and colonized areas of the North Atlantic, colonizin ...
. He was
Lord Chamberlain of the Royal Household The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main ch ...
from 1615 to 1625 and
Lord Steward The Lord Steward or Lord Steward of the Household is an official of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom, Royal Household in England. He is always a peerage, peer. Until 1924, he was always a member of the Government. Until 1782, the offic ...
from 1626 to 1630. He was Chancellor of the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
in 1624 when Pembroke College was named in his honour.


Marriage

On 4 November 1604 Herbert married Mary Talbot (1580–1649), a daughter of
Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury, 7th Earl of Waterford, 13th Baron Talbot, KG (20 November 1552 – 8 May 1616), styled Lord Talbot from 1582 to 1590, was a peer in the peerage of England. He also held the subsidiary titles of 16th Baron ...
. By her, he had two sons, James Herbert (born 1616) and Henry Herbert (born 1621, neither of whom survived infancy:


Arranged marriages and mistresses


Elizabeth Carey

Around 1595, Herbert had been urged to wed Elizabeth Carey, granddaughter of
Henry Carey Henry Carey may refer to: *Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (1526–1596), politician, general, and potential illegitimate son of Henry VIII *Henry Carey, 1st Earl of Dover (1580–1666), English peer *Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth (1596–1661), ...
, the Lord Chamberlain who ran Shakespeare's company. But he refused to marry her.


Bridget de Vere

In 1597, his father negotiated a marriage between Herbert and
Bridget de Vere Bridget Norris (née de Vere), Countess of Berkshire (6 April 1584 – December 1630/March 1631) was an English noblewoman, the daughter of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Bridget was brought up by her maternal grandfather, the powerful st ...
, a granddaughter of
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 15204 August 1598) was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from 1 ...
. A
marriage settlement A marriage settlement in England was a historic arrangement whereby, most commonly and in its simplest form, a trust of land or other assets was established jointly by the parents of a bride and bridegroom. The trustees were established as legal ow ...
was drawn up offering £3,000 and an annuity to begin at Burghley's death, which was not acceptable to the young William, who wanted the annuity to begin immediately, and so the negotiations ended.


Mary Fitton

At the age of 20, William had an affair with
Mary Fitton Mary Fitton (or Fytton) (baptised 24 June 1578 – 1647) was an Elizabethan gentlewoman who became a maid of honour to Elizabeth I of England, Queen Elizabeth. She is noted for her scandalous affairs with William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, V ...
, who has incidentally been suggested as a possible model for the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's sonnets. She became pregnant, but although he admitted paternity he refused to marry her and was sent to the Fleet Prison, where he wrote verse. In 1601 Mary gave birth to a boy who died immediately, perhaps from syphilis, from which William may have suffered. He petitioned Sir Robert Cecil and was eventually released, though he and Mary were both barred from court.


Mary Wroth

Herbert had another affair with his first cousin
Lady Mary Wroth Lady Mary Wroth (née Sidney; 18 October 1587 – 1651/3) was an English noblewoman and a poet of the English Renaissance. A member of a distinguished literary family, Lady Wroth was among the first female English writers to have achieved an en ...
, a daughter of his uncle
Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester (19 November 1563 – 13 July 1626), second son of Sir Henry Sidney, was a statesman of Elizabethan era, Elizabethan and James I of England, Jacobean England. He was also a patron of the arts and a poet ...
. The relationship produced at least two illegitimate children, a boy named William and a girl named Catherine. His cousin Sir Thomas Herbert records William's paternity of the two children in his ''Herbertorum Prosapia'' a 17th-century genealogy of the Herbert family, now held at the Cardiff Library.


Death and succession

William Herbert, 3rd Earl, died in 1630, two days after his 50th birthday, without male issue. His titles passed to his younger brother,
Philip Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...
. He was buried in
Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury. The buildi ...
in Wiltshire, in his family's vault in front of the altar.


Herbert and Shakespeare's sonnets

Herbert has been seen by some as the " Fair Youth" in William Shakespeare's
sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...
s, whom the poet urges to marry. Some years Shakespeare's junior, he was a patron of the playwright and his initials match with the dedication of the ''Sonnets'' to one "Mr. W.H.", "the only begetter of these ensuing sonnets". The identification was first proposed by
James Boaden James Boaden (23 May 1762 – 16 February 1839) was an English biographer, dramatist, and journalist. Biographer He was the son of William Boaden, a merchant in the Russia trade. He was born at Whitehaven, Cumberland, on 23 May 1762, and at ...
in an 1837 tract, ''On the Sonnets of Shakespeare''. E. K. Chambers, who had previously considered
Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, (pronunciation uncertain: "Rezley", "Rizely" (archaic), (present-day) and have been suggested; 6 October 1573 – 10 November 1624) was the only son of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of So ...
to be the Fair Youth, changed his mind when he encountered the evidence in letters that Herbert had been urged to wed Elizabeth Carey. Katherine Duncan-Jones, in her Arden Shakespeare edition of the Sonnets, argues that Herbert is the likelier candidate. No evidence suggests that Herbert ever met William Shakespeare of Stratford, beyond the initials "W.H." in the Sonnets dedication. The
First Folio ''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...
of
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's plays, published many years after Shakespeare's death, was dedicated to the "incomparable pair of brethren" William Herbert and his brother Philip Herbert. Herbert was also an important patron of the arts. and a member of the Whitehall group


Statue by Le Sueur

A life-size bronze standing statue of William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, was sculpted by
Hubert Le Sueur Hubert Le Sueur (c. 1580 – 1658) was a French sculptor with the contemporaneous reputation of having trained in Giambologna's Florentine workshop. He assisted Giambologna's foreman, Pietro Tacca, in Paris, in finishing and erecting the equestria ...
(c. 1580-1658) and stood at the family seat of
Wilton House Wilton House is an English country house at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire, which has been the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years. It was built on the site of the medieval Wilton Abbey. Following the dissolution o ...
, Wiltshire. In 1723
Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke and 5th Earl of Montgomery, (c. 165622 January 1733), styled The Honourable Thomas Herbert until 1683, was an English and later British statesman during the reigns of William III and Anne. Background Her ...
(1656–1733) donated the statue to the
Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
at
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
in recognition of his office as Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1617 until his death, for having promoted the founding of Pembroke College, Oxford and for having donated many manuscripts to the Bodleian Library in 1629. The statue was first housed in the Bodleian Picture Gallery on the third floor, but in 1950 it was moved outdoors to its present location in front of the main entrance to the Old Bodleian Library, looking east across the Schools Quadrangle. The statue is
Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
listed. The square stone plinth is inscribed on two sides in Latin: ''Gulielmus Pembrochiae Comes regnantibus Jacobo et Carolo Primis hospitii regii camerarius et senescallus Academiae Oxoniensis Cancellarius munificentissimus'' ("William, Earl of Pembroke, Chamberlain and Steward of the Royal Household in the reign of James I and Charles I, and most munificent Chancellor of the University"). On the opposite side: ''Hanc patrui sui magni effigiem ad formam quam tinxit Petrus Paulus Rubens aere fuso expressam Academiae Oxoniensi d(edit) (et) d(edicavit) Thomas Pembrochiae et Montgom(eriae) Comes honorum et virtutum haeres A.D. MDCCXXIII'' ("Thomas, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, inheritor of his titles and qualities, gave and dedicated to the University of Oxford this statue of his great-uncle cast in bronze in the form that Peter Paul Rubens had painted. A.D. 1723")


See also

*
Codex Baroccianus Baroccianus is an adjective applied to manuscripts indicating an origin in the ''Baroccianum'', a Venetian collection assembled by the humanist Francesco Barozzi (Barocius). A large part of that collection was sold after the death of Iacopo Barozz ...


Notes


References

*Alan Haynes, ''Sex in Elizabethan England''. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Limited, 1997.


External links

, - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Pembroke, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of 3
William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
1580 births 1630 deaths Herbert, William Chancellors of the University of Oxford Founders of English schools and colleges Knights of the Garter Lord-Lieutenants of Cornwall Lord-Lieutenants of Somerset Lord-Lieutenants of Wiltshire Members of the Privy Council of England 16th-century English nobility 17th-century English nobility 17th-century philanthropists