The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. II.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Fleuez : At first sight this seemed an altogether hopeless name to identify; but a reference to Leland's roll shows it to be merely a mis-spelling of Fiennes. In his copy, this and the succeeding name are joined together as "Fenes et Felebert."
This was a baronial family, from Fiennes in the county of Guines. "Eustace, Baron of Fiennes, c. 1020, married Adela, Lady of Ardres, daughter of Everard de Furnes, and had Conon de Fiennes, who founded Beaulieu Abbey, Boulogne, and had issue Conon, father of Eustace, ancestor of the Barons de Fiennes (Des Bois). This family was seated in Kent at an early date, and held the office of hereditary Castellans of Dover."—The Norman People. Yet it is remarkable that Dugdale, in his enumeration of the family possessions, does not include a single Kentish manor. Ingelram de Fienes, the first mentioned by him, married a great niece of King Stephen, Sybil de Tingrie, daughter and heir of Faramus de Boulogne, the descendant, in the third generation, of the Count Eustace of the Conquest; and their son John, in 1216, held Mertoc in Somersetshire and Wendover in Buckinghamshire, that had been his mother's, and formed part of the Honour of Boulogne. The next heir, Ingelram II., possessed Hoyland and Tolleshunt in Essex, with lands in Northamptonshire, and purchased of Robert de Guisnes Gayton in Hampshire, where he obtained license to enclose his woods, within the bounds of Silchester Forest, and make a park. Both he and his brother Baldwin served in the Gascon wars of Henry III., and he was rewarded for his fidelity to the King during the Barons' War. His son William had been educated with Prince Edward, whom he attended to the Holy Land in 1269, and in 1281 on his campaign in Wales. At the first outbreak of the quarrel between France and England, he "favoured the French," and his lands were seized for treason; but he made his peace, received them back, and died a loyal subject in 1301. He had evidently lived much abroad, for a difficulty arose as to the succession of his son Sir John, who had been born "beyond seas," and held land in Flanders. Sir John, again, suffered forfeiture "in respect of his residence within the power of France," and had to furnish satisfactory proof of his loyalty before he could recover his estates. His wife, Maud de Monceaux, brought him the beautiful domain of Hurstmonceux in Sussex; and his son William married a still greater heiress, Joan, one of the three daughters of Geoffrey, third Lord Say, who became the co-heiresses of their brother William. The grandsons of this marriage, Roger and James, were the founders of the two branches of the family that bore the titles of Dacre and Say. The elder, one of the heroes of Agincourt, built the great castle of Hurstmonceux—the first brick castle ever seen in England—now only a majestic ruin, but still entire in the last century, when Horace Walpole walked up "a brave old avenue" (long since gone) to the gate, "with ships sailing on our left hand the whole way," and admired "the wings of the blue hills, covered with wood" beyond. The alaune or wolf-dog of the Fiennes' supports their shield on the great gateway, and once figured in most of the windows throughout the building.
Sir Roger was the father of Richard Fiennes, declared in 1459 Lord Dacre, in right of his wife Joan de Dacre, the grand-daughter and heir of the seventh and last Lord. She was dowered with all his magnificent possessions in the North; but "great disputes" arose concerning this inheritance, which was hotly contested by her uncle, Sir Humphrey Dacre, the heir male of the family. The point was at length referred, by mutual agreement, to Edward IV. and the House of Lords, and virtually decided in Sir Humphrey's favour. The title and precedence of her father was confirmed to Lady Joan; but Gillesland, the ancient seat of the De Vaux's, and the great bulk of the property, was adjudged to him, and he was created Lord Dacre, being styled Lord Dacre of the North for distinction's sake, as to the older title was assigned the designation of Lord Dacre of the South. This latter is still borne by a descendant in the female line (see Brand).
For three more generations it remained in the Fiennes family, till, when Gregory, the eleventh Baron, died without issue in 1594, it passed through his sister Margaret to the Lennards. Their father, Thomas, tenth Lord Dacre, had been executed at Tyburn for the murder of Sir Thomas Pelham's park-keeper. It was a harsh sentence; for the man died of a chance blow dealt by one of Lord Dacre's followers, when he himself was not present. It would seem that this madcap young lord (he was not more than twenty-four) with some other frolicksome Sussex gentlemen, organized a raid in humble imitation of Chevy Chase, and sallied out to hunt the deer in Sir Thomas' park at Laughton. They encountered the keepers; a fray ensued, and the foolish prank ended in a tragedy: but Lord Dacre, being in a different part of the park, did not see Sir Thomas' servant receive the hurt that afterwards proved mortal. Yet not only he, but three of his poor retainers were put to death as murderers. The King's severity towards him was attributed to some courtiers who "gaped after the estate:" but it proved too strictly entailed to be touched.
James de Fiennes, the younger grandson of Sir William de Fiennes, was created Lord Say and Sele in 1446. He was at that time high in office and in favour at the Court of Henry VI., having in earlier life done good service to his father in the French wars; and from being Esquire of the Body to his young master, became Constable of Dover and Warden of the Cinque Ports,[1] Lord Chamberlain, Constable of the Tower, and in 1449 Lord Treasurer of England But the ruinous and humiliating issue of the hundred years' war with France had roused the country to fury against the King's advisers, "the enemies to his honour, suckers of his purse, and robbers of his subjects, for rewards corrupted and for indifferency nothing doing." In the following year, he and the Duke of Suffolk were impeached by the Commons for the surrender of Maine and Anjou; and the King not only sequestered Lord Say from his office, but, on hearing that twenty thousand of the men of Kent were in arms under Jack Cade, committed him to the Tower. Yet the popular outcry was far from being appeased, and when the victorious rebel, striking his sword against London stone, proclaimed himself lord of the city, his first act of authority was to fetch Say from his prison, and bring him to a mock trial at the Guildhall. In vain he claimed his privilege to be tried by his peers, and passionately pleaded that he was no traitor:
"I sold not Maine, I lost not Normandy;
Yet, to recover them, would lose my life.
Justice with favour I have always done;
Prayers and tears have mov'd me, gifts could never.
When have I aught exacted at your hands?
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Have I affected wealth, or honour; speak?
Are my chests filled up with extorted gold?
Is my apparel sumptuous to behold?
Whom have I injured, that you seek my death?
These hands are free from guiltless blood-shedding:
This breast from harbouring foul deceitful thoughts.
O, let me live!"—Henry VI., Part II., Act IV., Scene 7.
He might have spared his eloquence, for when was remonstrance ever regarded by a raging multitude? He was dragged to the foot of the standard at Cheapside, there beheaded before the priest could shrive him, with his half spoken confession still on his lips: and his head, pitched on a high pole, was borne before Cade, "as he rode, like a lordly captain, thro' every street." Not content with this, the mob leader, proceeding to Mile End, apprehended Sir John Cromer, Say's son-in-law, and then Sheriff of Kent, "and without confession or excuse heard, caused him likewise to be beheaded, and his head fixed on a pole, and with these two heads this bloody butcher entered into the city again, and in despite caused them in every street kiss together, to the great detestation of all the beholders."—Holinshed. Say's headless body was stripped, and dragged naked at a horse's tail to St. Thomas of Waterings, "so that the flesh clave to the stones all the way from Chepe to Southwark."
His son, too, fell upon evil times, for he lost his life, and the greater part of his fortune, in the Wars of the rival Roses. "The last of the Lorde Sayes," writes Leland, "being in Renowme was twice taken Prisoner, wherby he was much punishid by the Purse. Wherapon he was fain to lay most part of his Land to Morgare, and sold clerely part of it. So that sins the name of the Barony of Say is extinctid, but the Heires Male of the Lord Say in Descent yet remainith caulled by the Name of Fines." "The fact is," explains Banks, "that Henry Fiennes, son of William, died in 1476, without having received summons to parliament; in consequence of the loss of property, as did his son Richard in 1486; though they were both called Lord Saye. But Edward, son and heir of Richard, did not even use that title; because his mother held the capital seat, and the greatest part of the estate; but his son and heir, Richard, was father of another Richard, who obtained from James I., on his accession, letters patent confirming to him the title of Saye and Sele."
In the next generation, William Fiennes was created a Viscount by James I. in 1624. "He was a man of a close and reserved temper, of a mean and narrow fortune, of great parts, and of the highest ambition. He had for many years been the oracle of those who were called Puritans in the worse sense, and steered all their counsels and designs."—Clarendon. Being poor, proud, and discontented, one strong motive of his violent opposition to the Court was the hope of extorting some preferment, for it was sagaciously observed by another contemporary that "the harshnesse of his humour was a little allayed by the sweet refreshments of Court favour." No promotion seems to have come in his way during the Commonwealth; and he died two years after the Restoration. The title that had been granted to him became extinct in 1781, on the death of the eighth Viscount, who was the last heir male of his house. The old barony of Say and Sele was then claimed by Thomas Twistleton,[2] as the representative of his great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Fiennes (eldest daughter and coheir of the second Viscount), who had married John Twistleton; and with his descendants, who have assumed the name of Fiennes, it still remains.