BRUDENELL, Thomas (1578-1663)

The head of an old recusant family, over the course of his long life Brudenell succeeded in acquiring a clutch of honours in spite of his Catholicism. He inherited the family’s extensive estates spread across eight counties. Brudenell did much to improve his inheritance and by 1635 his income was estimated at some £5,500 a year. The extent of his wealth was reflected in his ability to give his daughter a dowry of £7,000 on her marriage to John Constable, 2nd Viscount Dunbar [S], in 1635. Wake, Brudenells, 105; M.E. Finch, Wealth of Five Northamptonshire Families, (Northants. Rec. Soc. xix), 153, 163.

In 1628 Brudenell was raised to the peerage through the influence of George Villiers^†, duke of Buckingham. Finch, 164; Northants. RO, Brudenell ms I, xii. 14; Wake, Brudenells, 120; HMC Buccleuch, iii. 325. Bridges recorded fancifully that the award was made for ‘his general knowledge in literature, and other accomplishments.’ Bridges, ii. 301. More prosaically Brudenell secured his barony by paying a fee of £6,000 along with a £600 bribe to his patron. CSP Dom. 1629-31, p. 182; Wake, Brudenells, 112. He took his seat in the House during the Short Parliament and he was also present in the House during the early stages of the Long Parliament. At the Restoration Brudenell was eager to emphasize his service in the king’s cause during the Civil War, but it is unlikely that he played an active role in the conflict. HMC Buccleuch, i. 313-4. Tales of the sixty-four year old Brudenell riding to the relief of Newark at the head of his troops are probably apocryphal. HMC 6th Rep. 185. Brudenell’s later emphasis on his war service contrasted starkly with his petition to Parliament in the mid-1640s in which he insisted that he had, ‘never raised any regiment or marched at the head of any regiment’ and explained his presence at Newark as being entirely accidental. Ibid. 89. Nevertheless, Brudenell’s estates were sequestered for delinquency and recusancy. He was also excepted from pardon by Parliament. CSP Dom. 1648-9, p. 304. Refused permission to compound, Brudenell later claimed to have lost £50,000 in the king’s cause. HMC Buccleuch, i. 313-4. In 1648 he was promised an earldom in return for £1,000 to help fund Charles I’s escape from Carisbrooke, but the escape failed and the king’s death robbed him of the coveted title. Ibid. 310; C.H. Firth, House of Lords during the Civil War, 27.

Already an octogenarian by the time of the Restoration, Brudenell’s active political life was effectively over long before 1660. Thus, although a regular attender during the latter stages of the Convention and the first session of the Cavalier Parliament, his role in the House’s proceedings appears to have been limited. Noted a papist in an assessment drawn up by Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton, before the Convention, Brudenell took his seat on 23 July 1660, the day on which the names of those excepted from the Act of Oblivion were debated. He then retired for the remainder of the session. On 26 July he was granted permission to go to Bath for his health, and he was given leave of absence at a call of the House on 31 July. He resumed his seat following the adjournment on 6 Nov., after which he was present on 27 sitting days (60 per cent of the whole) and was named to two committees. On 13 Dec. he entered his protest along with a number of other peers over the House’s decision to pass an act vacating fines levied by Sir Edward Powell. Brudenell remained eager to see his own possessions restored to him, and on 24 Aug. he was granted an order authorizing him to search for goods estimated to be worth some £10,000. HMC 7th Rep. 128. He also took advantage of his improved circumstances to undertake further improvements on Deene Park, spending perhaps as much as £900 on the house. Wake, Brudenells, 169.

Resolute in his desire to see Charles I’s promise of an earldom fulfilled, Brudenell petitioned the new king to honour his father’s promise, securing the intercession of the king’s younger brother, Prince Henry, duke of Gloucester. Ibid. 166. Brudenell’s request that the patent be forwarded to him before the coronation was ignored, and he was compelled to present himself in person to receive the award. Cardigan also made a contribution of £300 to the peers’ subscription to the king. Northants. RO, Brudenell pprs. I, xiv. 70. Cardigan took his seat at the opening of the new Parliament on 8 May 1661, but it was not until 11 May that he was introduced formally as earl of Cardigan, between Francis Talbot, 11th earl of Shrewsbury, and Philip Stanhope, 2nd earl of Chesterfield. Present on 39 per cent of all sitting days in the session, at some point (the precise date is not recorded) he was entrusted with Shrewsbury’s proxy. On 28 June he was named to the committee considering the bill for cleaning the streets of Westminster, the only committee to which he was named during the session. The following month, on 3 July, he was present in the House for the reading of the naturalization bill for his grandson, Francis Brudenell. The bill was passed on 6 July and gained royal assent at the end of the month.

Cardigan failed to sit after 18 Mar. 1662, but he ensured that his proxy was entrusted to his co-religionist, Henry Arundell, Baron Arundell of Wardour. On 13 July he was noted by Wharton as being likely to support (via his proxy) the attempt by George Digby, 2nd earl of Bristol, to impeach Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon. Cardigan died on 16 Sept. 1663 and was buried at Deene Park. In his will he bequeathed an annuity of £5 to his kinsman, Lawrence Taylard, ‘being the last of his name and fallen into poverty’. He was succeeded by his son, Robert Brudenell, as 2nd earl of Cardigan.