Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset

His wife wife Mary Curzon, daughter and heiress of George Curzon (d.1622) of Croxall Hall in Derbyshire, was appointed governess of the royal children for the Stuart family, her duties involved the upbringing of the princes and princesses during the turbulent lead-up to the English Civil War. Her payment ensured that Knole House remained in the Dorset (Sackville) family. She was given a lavish funeral in Westminster Abbey.

Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset KG, KB (baptized 5 March 1590 17 July 1652) was an English courtier, soldier and politician. He sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1622 and became Earl of Dorset in 1624. He fought a duel in his early life, and was later involved in colonisation in North America. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.

Early life

Baptized at the parish church of St Mary le Strand, Westminster,

In August 1613 he became notorious for killing Edward Bruce, 2nd Lord Kinloss in a duel. The duel may have concerned Venetia Stanley, a society beauty and a granddaughter of Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby , or possibly over Sackville having seduced Kinloss' sister. In 1616 he visited Lyons and procured the release of Sir Edward Herbert who had been arrested there. He was made a Knight of the Bath on 3 November 1616 when Charles I was created Prince of Wales. From 1619 he was a leading member of the party of the Virginia Company which supported Sir Edwin Sandys. On 22 July 1620 he sailed as a commander in the forces sent under Sir Horatio Vere to assist Frederick I, the Bohemian king, who was James I's son-in-law. He was present at the Battle of White Mountain on 8 November 1620. Their children were: Mary, died young on 30 October 1632 Richard (1622–1677), fifth earl Edward, wounded at the First Battle of Newbury on 20 September 1643, and murdered by Parliamentary forces at Chawley in the parish of Cumnor, near Oxford, on 11 April 1646.

In 1630 Lady Mary was appointed royal governess for a term of twelve years of Charles, Prince of Wales and James, Duke of York, both later Kings of England and Scotland. She succeeded Jean Ker, Countess of Roxburghe, who was removed because she was a Catholic. She received charge of the younger children, Henry and his sister Elizabeth, on 20 July 1643, and was allowed £600 a year, with Knole House and Dorset House, in recognition of her services. She died in 1645 when she was about to be relieved of her duties, and, as a reward for her "godly and conscientious care and pains," received a public funeral in Westminster Abbey.

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