(5) “He is frequently styled . . . Earl of Huntingdon, a title to which, for the latter part of his life at least, he actually appears to have had some sort of pretension.”] In Grafton’s “olde and auncient pamphlet,” though the author had, as already noticed, said “this man discended of a NOBLE PARENTAGE,” he adds, “or rather beyng of a base stocke {xx} and linage, was for his manhood and chivalry advaunced to the noble dignitie of an ERLE.”
In the MS. note (Bib. Har. 1233) is the following passage: “It is said that he was of noble blood no lesse then an earle.” Warner, in his Albion’s England, already cited, calls him “a county.” The titles of Mundy’s two plays are: “The downfall” and “The death of Robert earle of Huntington.” He is likewise introduced in that character in the same author’s Metropolis Coronata, hereafter cited. In his epitaph we shall find him expressly styled “Robert, Earl of Huntingtun.”
In “A pleasant commodie called Looke about you,” printed in 1600, our hero is introduced, and performs a principal part. He is represented as the young Earl of Huntington, and in ward to Prince Richard, though his brother Henry, the young king, complains of his having “had wrong about his wardship.” He is described as
“A gallant youth, a proper gentleman;”
and is sometimes called “pretty earle” and “little wag.” One of the characters thus addresses him:
“But welcome, welcome, and young Huntington,
Sweet Robyn Hude, honor’s best flowing bloome,”
and calls him
“
an honourable youth,
Vertuous and modest, Huntington’s right heyre.”
It is also said that
“His father Gilbert was the smoothst fac’t lord
That ere bare armes in England or in Fraunce.”