LEICESTER AS RANGER OF SNOWDON.
(Vol. ix., p. 125.)
In a note to Parry's Royal Visits and Progresses in Wales, p. 317., I find the following allusion to the circumstances mentioned in Elffin ap Gwyddno's Query regarding Leicester's Rangership of Snowdon, and the patriotic opposition offered to his oppressions. I regret I am unable to afford the desired information respecting the imprisonment of the Welsh gentleman in the Tower. Could not this be furnished by some of your readers who have access to public documents and records of the period? This imprisonment is not mentioned either in the account I append, or in a longer one to be found in Appendix XVI. vol. iii. of Pennant's Tour in Wales:
"Among the Welsh nobility who formed a part of her Majesty's household, were Sir Richard Bulkeley, Bart., and Mrs. Blanche Parry, both of whom seem to have been brought up in the court from their infancy, and, consequently, in great esteem with her Majesty; so much so, that the Earl of Leicester, the Queen's favourite, began to be jealous of Sir Richard: and with a view of having him removed from court, he made an attempt to have him accused, upon false evidence, of treason. With this wicked design, the Earl of Leicester informed her Majesty that the council had been examining Sir Richard Bulkeley, and that they found him a dangerous person; that he dwelt in a suspicious corner of the world, and should be committed to the Tower. 'What! Sir Richard Bulkeley!' said the Queen; 'he never intended us any harm. We have brought him up from a boy, and have had special trial of his fidelity; ye shall not commit him.' 'We have the care of your Majesty's person,' said the Earl, 'and see more and hear more of the man than you do: he is of an aspiring mind, and lives in a remote place.' 'Before God!' replied the Queen; 'we will be sworn upon the Holy Evangelists, he never intended any harm.' And then her Majesty ran to the Bible, and kissing it, said: 'You shall not commit him; we have brought him up from a boy.' Sir Richard, however, was too high-minded to suffer such an imputation to be laid to his character. He insisted on an inquiry; during which it appeared, that Lord Dudley, Earl of Leicester, had been appointed a ranger of the Royal Forest of Snowdon, which, in the Queen's time, included some portion of Merioneth and Anglesey. This nobleman's insolence to the inhabitants of the forest was more than could be brooked. He tried to bring many freeholders' estates within the boundary; juries were empannelled, but the commissioners rejected their returns as unfavourable to the Earl. Those honest jurors, however, persisted, and found a verdict for the country. But in the year 1538, he succeeded by a packed jury, who appeared in his livery, blue, with ragged staves on the sleeves; men who, after this nefarious act, were stigmatised with the title of 'The Black Jury who sold their country.' Sir Richard Bulkeley, who, with Sir William Herbert and others, superseded a prior commission, resisted this oppression with great firmness, and laid those odious grievances before the Queen, whose regard for her loyal subjects in Wales was evinced by the recalling of the first commission, by proclamation at Westminster, in 1579. The Earl being worsted, sought the life of Sir Richard by having him charged as above. But this generous and patriotic nobleman, by his excellent and manly conduct, overthrew every malevolent design of his enemy; and came out of this fiery trial as clear as the pellucid crystal of Snowdon."
R. E. G. C.