Lord Burghley and his Ward

Abstract

It was understandable that the Countess should object to the late Earl’s will, but also it led to prolonged trouble in itself. For one thing the bequests he made were more than the estate could bear; for another, the legacies were such that it made the wardship of the son an unprofitable matter and little was left to maintain him in his minority. The very next day after the Earl’s death Dymoke rushed off to prove the will, ‘by his own bare oath without the knowledge of any of the rest of the executors’, the Countess complained; but this put her in hope that the will might be successfully challenged, or at least some of its provisions set aside.¹