Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland

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Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland (August 18, 1542/August 28, 1543 – November 16, 1601, Nieuwpoort, Flanders) was the son of Henry Neville, 5th Earl of Westmorland, by his first wife, Lady Anne Manners, second daughter of Thomas, 1st Earl of Rutland. He married in 1563 Jane, daughter of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and sister of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk.

One of the leaders of the Northern Rebellion, Lord Westmorland was a Roman Catholic by birth and connected to the powerful Howard family by marriage.

Lord Westmorland found protection and concealment for a long time at Fernyhurst Castle, Lord Kerr's house in Roxburghshire, but meanwhile the Earl's cousin Robert Constable, was hired by Sir Ralph Sadler to endeavor to track the unfortunate nobleman, and, under the guise of friendship, to betray him. Constable's correspondence appears among the Sadler State papers — an infamous memorial of treachery and baseness.

In the summer of 1570, the Earl of Westmoreland, fearing that the same betrayal that happened to the Earl of Northumberland might also happen to him, left Scotland for Flanders with Simon Digby of Bedale to join the Northern Rebellion (1569) led by Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland against Queen Elizabeth I; but his vast inheritance was confiscated, and he suffered the extremity of poverty and would never see his wife, Jane Howard (d. 1593) and four daughters again. Brencepeth, the stronghold of the Nevilles in war, and Raby, their festive Hall in peace, had passed into strangers' hands, and nothing remained for the exiled Lord.

The rebels captured Durham and held a Catholic mass. Forces loyal to the queen mustered and crushed the rebellion which failed in its attempt to rescue Mary, Queen of Scots from prison.

A spy-report sent from Paris to London in August 1585 states that Charles Neville, the fugitive earl of Westmoreland, might, as part of a concerted Catholic invasion of England, land in Cumberland or Lancashire, bringing with him the son or sons of Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland. The historians wonder which son(s) the spy-report refers to, as sources indicate that all sons were in England at the time of their father's suicide/murder.

In 1588, Westmoreland commanded a force of 700 English fugitives in the seaports of Flanders, who with the army of 103 companies of foot and 4000 horse, making together 30,000 men under the Duke of Parma; and besides 12,000 men brought by the Duke of Guise to the coast of Normandy, intended for an attack on the West of England, under cover and protection of the Spanish Armada.

Westmorland fled, to live in exile on the Continent; he was attainted by Parliament in 1571 (Act 13 Eliz. I c. 16). He subsisted on a miserable pittance from the King of Spain, dying penniless and forgotten November 16, 1601.

[edit] Ancestry

**Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland's ancestors in three generations**
Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland	Father: Henry Neville, 5th Earl of Westmorland	Paternal Grandfather: Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland	Paternal Great-grandfather: Ralph Neville, Baron Neville
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Elizabeth (Edith) Sandys
		Paternal Grandmother: Catherine Stafford, Countess of Westmorland	Paternal Great-grandfather: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Eleanor Percy, Duchess of Buckingham
	Mother: Anne Manners	Maternal Grandfather: Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland	Maternal Great-grandfather: George Manners, 12th Baron de Ros
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Anne St. Leger, Baroness de Ros
		Maternal Grandmother: Eleanor Paston, Countess of Rutland	Maternal Great-grandfather: Sir William Paston
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Bridget Heydon