Walter Erle

A virginal, the musical instrument played by Walter Erle, this one contemporaneous with his life, made in Venice in 1566. Germanic National Museum, Nuremberg

Walter Erle (c.1515/20–1581) (alias Erley, Erell, etc. ) of Colcombe in the parish of Colyton, of Bindon in the parish of Axmouth, both in Devon, and of Charborough in Dorset, England, was a courtier and servant of the Royal Household to two of the wives of King Henry VIII, namely Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr, and successively to his son King Edward VI (1547–1553) and two daughters, Queen Mary I (1553–1558) and Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) during their successive reigns.

According to Sandon (1983) his popularity as a royal courtier was in part due to his ability as a musician, particularly as a player of the virginal. He is known to have composed at least one work of church music, namely Ave Vulnus Lateris ("Hail, O Wound of the Side"), a short votive antiphon in honour of one of the Five Holy Wounds of Jesus, his authorship of which is recorded in Peterhouse College manuscripts 471–474, held in the Cambridge University Library, comprising four partbooks from a set of five copied late in the reign of King Henry VIII, which contain seventy-two pieces of Latin church music. As a courtier-musician he well represents the ideal royal courtier described in The Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione (d.1529) and also in The Boke Named The Governour by Sir Thomas Elyot (d.1546).

Although he was born into a minor gentry family of Devonshire, he founded a dynasty of substantial landed gentry that survives to the present day, his heir (albeit via several female lines) being the Conservative Member of Parliament Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax (born 1958), of Charborough House.

Origins No record of Erle's birth survives, but circumstantial evidence suggests a birthdate between 1515 and 1520. He was the son of John III Erle of Cullompton in Devon, by his wife Thomasyn. Walter's grandfather was John II Erle of Cullompton, the second son of John I Erle of Ashburton, Devon. entitled The booke of Certayne of the Quenys Ordynary as yet to no place Appoynted, a list of 127 above-stairs members of a queen's existing household whose appointment to new positions is envisaged but not completed, in which Erle is named last among three Pagis of the Chamber Ordynary. Sandon deduced the queen in question to be Katherine Howard (beheaded 1542), the 5th wife of Henry VIII. Erle was thus a page in her service at the time of her downfall in November 1541 due to adultery. Erle however retained a position at court after Katherine's execution, having been transferred to the household of Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford (later 1st Duke of Somerset), the eldest brother of Queen Jane Seymour (d.1537), the third wife of Henry VIII, and the future Lord Protector of England from 1547 until 1549 during the minority of his nephew, King Edward VI (1547–1553).

Erle is mentioned in Hertford's household accounts drawn up by his steward John Thynne, including on 30 June 1542 a payment of 40 shillings to Water Erley by my lady's comandement for a payre of virginalls, the lady in question being Anne Stanhope, Hertford's second wife. According to Sandon this reference to Erle is highly significant for several reasons, namely: it is the earliest dated reference to Erle in the orbit of the royal household; it is the earliest to link him with the Seymour family; it is—by several decades—the earliest to place him explicitly in a musical context and to associate him with a keyboard instrument; and it is the only known reference that spells his name in a manner identical with one of the spellings in the Peterhouse College manuscripts, in which his musical work Ave Vulnus Lateris is recorded.

Erle's continuing presence at court is suggested by a payment of 40 shillings received by him in April 1543 from Princess (and future Queen) Mary (eldest daughter of Henry VIII), after which the records concerning him are silent for several months. yt Walter Earle shoud yearly have ye Wages of £ x in lieu of a Gent Wayter to ye Queens Grace.

King Edward VI Following the death of King Henry VIII in 1547, Erle's career at court depended on Queen Katherine Parr (d.1548), the king's widow. He became a member of her household, apparently due to his connection with the Seymour family, when three months after the king's death she remarried to Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley (d.1549), Lord Admiral of England, the younger brother of Queen Jane Seymour, an uncle of King Edward VI and brother of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (d.1552), Lord Protector of England. As former fellow courtiers to Henry VIII, Thomas Seymour was well-acquainted with Erle, whom he referred to in a letter to his wife as "my old friend". Furthermore, in 1544 Thomas Seymour had purchased from Erle various of the latter's speculative acquisitions of former monastic lands.

On 9 April 1551, with effect from the previous Christmas, he was appointed a Groom of the Privy Chamber to King Edward VI, at a yearly salary of £20. on New Year's Day 1556 Erle made a gift to Queen Mary of "a booke covered with blacke vellat of the Comentary of Warre, in Englishe". On 3 July 1558 he was granted a licence to export English wheat to Spain. A payment to him made in June 1542 by Edward Seymour for a pair of virginals. However, this was not unusual as a similar payment is recorded as having been made to the courtier Hugh Denys (c.1440–1511), who is not supposed to have been a musician. Money is recorded having been paid in August 1502 by Elizabeth of York, Queen of Henry VII, to Hugh Denys, reimbursing him for paying a deliveryman, or possibly their maker come in person, for a pair of clavichords, a form of virginal, thought to be amongst the earliest imported into England. The transaction is recorded in the Privy Purse expenses of Elizabeth of York, August 1502: "Item, the same day, Hugh Denys, for money by him delivered to a stranger (i.e. foreigner) that gave the Queen a payre of clavycordes. In crowns for his reward, iiii libres" (£4). The reward was four times greater than the estimated value of the gift, perhaps signifying the royal mark of approval and appreciation of the maker's generosity. As Alison Weir wrote of King Henry VIII "It was common for subjects to bring gifts to royalty in the expectation of a reward and such largesse or tipping was expected of a monarch". A note in "a collection of vocal music copied in 1742 by John Immyns, founder of the Madrigal Society, where folio 1 recto is annotated The following Seven from a Manuscript written in ye year 1551 and wch belonged to Walterus Erle one of the Gentlemen of ye Bedchamber to K. Henry ye 8th".(Sandon) "A pavan ascribed to Erle in several later sources of keyboard music" (Sandon), namely: entitled "Walter Earles Pavan" in the FitzWilliam Virginal Book (341/2–343/1); "Maister Earles Pavane" in Anthony Holborne's The Cittharn Schoole (London, 1597), H1v–H2r; and "Walter Erles Paven" in Cul, ms Dd.4.23, ff. 2–3. "The record of a later court appointment: Virginalls Orlando Gibbons to attend in His Highnesses Privy Chamber which was heretofore supplied by Walter Earle deceased at £46 per annum from Michaelmas 1619". (Sandon).

Sandon concludes, concerning the career of Erle: "It appears, then, that whatever may have been the other qualities – gentle birth, influential connections, a pleasing countenance, an engaging manner, a quick wit – that helped to gain for Erle his admission to the Privy Chamber, the attribute that kept him there and assured his success was his musical ability. He was lucky that Henry VIII and his daughters were so fond of music and so generous in their patronage of it. A significant part of Erle’s contribution to the life of the royal household must have been musical, as a solo keyboard player, a participant in instrumental and vocal consorts, and a composer".

Marriage and children In November 1546 "an official letter was written to one of Walter’s relations in support of his intention to marry". This proposed wife appears to have been his cousin Nicola Erle. The letter is listed in the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII as: A let[ter] to Nicolas (sic) Erle doughter (sic) and heire to John Erle deceased in the favour of Walter Erle the quenes servant for mariage preferred by Mr Dennye.

22 October 1549 at Colyton, he married Mary Wyke, the third of four daughters and co-heiresses of Richard Wyke of Bindon in the parish of Axmouth, Devon, three miles south-east of Colcombe. Richard Wyke was a great-grandson of Roger Wyke (died c. 1467) (alias Wykes, Wycke, Wick, Wicks, Weeke, etc.), a Member of Parliament for Plympton Erle, Devon, in 1413, a younger son of William Wyke of North Wyke in the parish of South Tawton in Devon. Richard Wyke died without sons, leaving four daughters and co-heiresses. Mary's share of her paternal inheritance included Bindon and a moiety of her father's larger estate at Charborough in Dorset. Erle re-purchased the other moiety from Alice Wykes, Mary's elder sister, and made it his principal residence. Dorothy's mother was Katherine Popham (died 1588), the sister of John Popham (1531–1607), Lord Chief Justice. Dorothy survived her husband and remarried to Sir Walter Vaughan (c.1572–1639), of Falstone (alias Fallersdon) in the parish of Bishopstone, Wiltshire, Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1599–1600 and a Member of Parliament for Wiltshire in 1606. Thomas Erle commenced building a pier at Axmouth, which manor had been acquired by his father. By his wife he had children including: Col. Sir Walter Erle (1586–1665) of Charborough, eldest surviving son and heir, a Member of Parliament and a vigorous opponent of King Charles I in the Parliamentary cause both before and during the English Civil War. John Erle (born 1557), baptised at Colyton on 23 January 1557, died young; who married John Gifford (d.1622) of Brightley in the parish of Chittlehampton, Devon. Her grandson was the prominent Royalist leader during the Civil War, Col. John Giffard (1602–1665) of Brightley. The arms of Erle are displayed (impaled by Giffard quartered) on top of the monument containing the recumbent effigy of her husband in Chittlehampton Church. Bridget Erle (born 1558), baptised at Colyton 21 June 1558. deer from the park for the queen. The grant was as follows: Newenham Priory, Devon, lease of, which was prolonged to him by patent dated 18 December 1555. East Morden and land in East and West Morden, Lytchett and Wareham, Dorset, acquired on 8 April 1564 from Philip Steynynges. Morden, rectory and advowson of, reversion granted by Queen Elizabeth I on 18 November 1578 to "Walter Erle, of the Queen’s privy chamber".

Death, burial and will He died shortly before 8 November 1581, the date of his burial at Morden. In his will was dated 4 January 1581 he bequeathed to his wife Mary £20 in cash, the income from the manor and parsonage of Axmouth, the income from four hundred sheep, six cows, six bullocks and six calves, and the use of the house at Bindon and its contents during her life. The reversion of these properties and all his other assets and lands, including Charborough and the contents of his house, he left to his eldest son Thomas Erle, whom he required to pay the sum of £400 each to his two unmarried sisters Bridget and Mary, towards their marriage or maintenance. To the parishes of Morden and Axmouth he left 40 shillings each, for the upkeep of the poor. The executor of his will was his son Thomas.