Evening star., 1923-07-15
BY THE MARaUIsE DE FoNTENoY

BY THE MARaUIsE DE FoNTENo1.
| Peculiarly tragic was the death ol
Lady Bewicke-Copley of Sprotooroueh
Hall, Doncaster. who on the occaslon
of the obsequies of her husband. Gen.
Sir Abingdon Bewicke-Copley. Tort
night ago. fell in a faint on his CONN
while the funeral service was in prog
ress, and, when an attempt was mace
to restore her, was found to nave
! succumbed to disease of the heart. On
| the previous day she had received an
official notification from the commit
tee of privileges in the house OF LORDS
to the effect that it had come to Ia
yorable decision about her claims 10
the barony Of Cromwell, created by
Edward III in 1873. and which had
fallen into allegiance a little over
century later, that is to say, in 1897.
| The committee officially INFORMED
| Lady Bewicke-Copley that they had
| sent their report on her pretensions
to the sovereign, together with their
recommendation of the revival of the
peerage in question in her favor
OF course. the monarch is not IN any
way compelled to accept or to act on
the verdict of the committee of privi-
lleges Of the house Of lords. which is
merely a recommendation and in no
sense binding on the crown. But the
king. as a rule defers to the advice OF
| the committee. and 1t is. therefore,
] quite on the cards that before the end
: of the year King George VIII issue a
decree embodying the recommenda-
| tion of the committee and reviving
! the old and attainted barony of
! Cromwell in favor of Lady Bewicke-
| Copleys only surviving son, Capt.
Robert Bewicke-Copley of the Kings
Royal Rifle Corps. who won the mill
great war, and who will thus become
Lord Cromwell.
The original Lord Cromwell, whose
peerage the young subaltern of the
Kings Royal Rifles will now inherit
was lord high treasurer in 1856, and
he hailed from Norwell. in Noting
hamshire. That barony fell into
abeyance in 1897. But in 1886 Henry
VIII raised another member of the
| family-namely. Thomas Cromwell
to the peerage as Lord Cromwell, and
as Earl of Essex. for his services as
| the executor of his DEGREES in con-
nection with the confiscation of the
| Immensely valuable property of the
Roman Catholic Church in England
! in the sixteenth century, and the
| foundation of the entire Anglican de-
nomination under the supremacy of
the king. instead of that of the Pope.
! Indeed. this Lord Cromwell of Henry
WIS creation will live in history as
the real father and chief promoter in
the reformation. and is responsible
| for the epoch making secularization
and conflscation of all the property
| of the Roman Catholic Church and
religious orders in England.
Thomas, Lord Cromwell, ultimately
| incurred the displeasure of Henry
VIII by bringing about and negotiat
ing the bluebeard monarch's uncon-
; genial marriage by proxy with Ouch
whom the king conceived most pro-
nounced repugnance as soon as he
had set eyes on her uncomely face.
She may be described as having been
one of the kings picture brides. and
1T was the glaring contrast between
the Duchess Anne of Cleves. on can
vas and in miniature, and the Ouch
ess Anne of Cleves, with her smallpox
SCARED face, pimply complexion, abb
sence of eyelashes and even eye
! m -.
form that caused the. indignant king
TO hastily divorce the lady, and to
send Thomas Lord Cromwell and
Earl of Essex to the scaffold on
Tower Hill on a charge of high trea-
son, his peerages, being on the de-,
mand Of the crown, attainted by par
lament and put out of existence.
X X
1t Is necessary to explain this to
70 prevent any confusion between the
two former Cromwell baronies. 1t Is
not the peerage of Thomas Lord
Cromwell who negotiated the matri-
monial alliance between Henry VIII
and the homely Duchess Anne Of
CIeves, but the peerage which was
created nearly two centuries earlier
by Richard ii in favor of Ralph
Cromwell, who was his lord high
treasurer, which is on the advice of
the committee of privileges of the
house of lords about to be called by
the king out of allegiance in favor of
Capt. Robert Bewicke-Copley of the
Kings Royal Rife Corps.
oliver Cromwell was a scion of the
same family, and when one recalls
the contempt which this despotic
president of the ephemeral republic
of Great Britain and Ireland, mani
tested for the house Of lords after