x. The Earl of Essex’s Men

Walter Devereux, s. of Sir Richard Devereux and g.s. of Walter, Lord Bourchier and 1st Viscount Hereford; nat. 1541; succ. as 2nd Viscount Hereford, 1558; m. Lettice, d. of Sir Francis Knollys, c. 1561; 1st Earl of Essex, 4 May 1572; ob. 22 Sept. 1576.

Lettice, Countess of Essex, b. c. 1541; m. (2) Robert, Earl of Leicester, 21 Sept. 1578, (3) Sir Christopher Blount, July 1589; ob. 25 Dec. 1634.

Robert Devereux, s. of 1st Earl of Essex; b. 19 Nov. 1566; succ. as 2nd Earl, 1576; m. Frances, Lady Sidney, d. of Sir Francis Walsingham, 1590; Master of the Horse, 23 Dec. 1587; Earl Marshal, 28 Dec. 1597; Chancellor of Cambridge University, 10 Aug. 1598; rebelled, 8 Feb. 1601; executed, 25 Feb. 1601.

The Bourchiers, Earls of Essex, whom the Devereux succeeded through an heiress, had their players well back into the fifteenth century. In fact, the earliest household troop on record is that of Henry Bourchier, first earl of the senior creation, which is found at Maldon in 1468–9 and at Stoke-by-Nayland on 9 January 1482.

Walter Devereux had a company, which visited Bath, Bristol, Gloucester, and Nottingham in 1572–3, Wollaton (Francis Willoughby’s) in July 1574, Coventry on 29 August, and Leicester before 29 September 1574, Gloucester, Dover, and Coventry in 1574–5, Coventry and Leicester in 1575–6, Nottingham in September 1576, and Bristol in September 1577. On the Earl’s death the Countess retained the company, and under her name it appeared at Coventry and Oxford in 1576–7. On 11 February 1578 it gave its only performance at Court, taking the place of Leicester’s men, to whom that day had originally been assigned. It was included in the list of Court companies sent to the Lord Mayor in December 1578 (App. D, No. xl), but gave no play that winter. The Privy Council described it as the Earl of Essex’s men, and it played under that name at Coventry in 1577–8 and at Ipswich in 1579–80; but at Oxford, Coventry, and Stratford-on-Avon in 1578–9, and at Oxford in 1579–80, it is still called the Countess of Essex’s. It could hardly have borne that name after August 1579, when the Countess’s secret marriage with Leicester was revealed to Elizabeth, and doubtless her disgrace debarred it from any further Court favour.

Robert Earl of Essex had a provincial company from 1581 to 1596. In 1581–2 it was at Exeter, in July 1584 at Ludlow, in 1583–4 at Leicester, Stratford-on-Avon, and Ipswich, and in 1584–5 at Bath. On 26 June 1585 it played at Thorpe in Norwich, in spite of a prohibition by the Corporation, and was sentenced to be excluded from civic reward in future. In 1585–6 it was at Coventry and Ipswich, in 1586 before 29 September at Leicester, and possibly about May at Oxford, on 27 February 1587 at York, on 16 July at Leicester, and in the course of the year at Stratford-on-Avon. In 1587–8 it was at Coventry, Ipswich, Saffron Walden, and Leicester, in 1588–9 at Bath, Saffron Walden, and Reading, on 7 September 1589 at Knowsley, on 31 October at Ipswich, and in the same year at Faversham. It was also at Coventry and Faversham in 1589–90, at Maldon in 1590, and twice at Faversham in 1590–1, and is last recorded at Ludlow in April 1596. Murray adds some intermediate dates. A company of Essex’s men which appeared at Coventry in 1600–1 is probably distinct. The execution of Essex on 25 February 1601 must have brought it to a premature end.