HENRY RADCLIFFE, or RADCLYFFE, fourth Earl of Sussex (1530?-1593), [son of Henry, 2nd Earl and
younger brother of Thomas, 3rd Earl] was knighted by the Earl of Arundel on 2 Oct. 1553, and sat in parliament
as member for Maiden in 1555. Next year he removed to Ireland, to aid his brother in the civil and military organisation of that country.
He was appointed a privy councillor in 1557, and commanded a band of horsemen.
In 1558 he became lieutenant of Maryborough Fort, and was besieged there by the native Irish under Donogh O'Conor. He sat in the Irish
parliament as member for Carlingford in 1559, and two years later was nominated to the responsible post of lieutenant of Leix and Offaly.
He managed to keep the district quiet, but in 1564, when commissioners were sent from England to report on the condition of the Irish
government, charges of corruption in dealing with funds appointed for the payment of the soldiers were brought against Radcliffe. He was
ordered to refund at once £8,000, and on his refusal was committed to prison (January 1565). His release was ordered by the home
government, and he left Ireland permanently soon afterwards. In 1577 he was granted some property there, in cos. Kilkenny and Wexford.2
In England he had already been appointed constable for life of Porchester Castle, and lieutenant of Southbere Forest (14 June 1560). In
1571, when he was elected M.P. for Hampshire, he received the office of warden and captain of the town, castle, and isle of Portsmouth,
and he was actively employed in that capacity until his death. He succeeded his brother [Thomas Radclyffe]
as fourth earl of Sussex on 9 June 1583, and on 6 Nov. 1589 wrote a piteous letter to the queen, stating that, unless she showed him
some mercy, he was hopelessly bankrupt; his brother's estate brought in £460, but was burdened with a debt to the crown which
entailed the payment of £500 a year3. In August 1586 he was tracking out an alleged catholic conspiracy at Portsmouth,
and was watching suspicious vessels off the coast.
During 1588 he was busy in furnishing with stores and gunpowder the ships commissioned to resist the Spanish Armada.4
For such services he was made K.G. on 22 April 1589. He died on 14 Dec. 1593, and was buried at Boreham, Essex, beside his brother and
his wife Honora, daughter of Anthony Pounde, esq., of Hampshire, whom he married before 24 Feb. 1561. His only son,
Robert Radcliffe, fifth Earl of Sussex (1569?-1629), was known as Viscount Fitzwalter from 1583 until he
succeeded his father as fifth earl on 4 Dec. 1593.
1. cf. Cal. State Papers, Ireland, Eliz. i. 136, 263-4.
2. ib. ; Morrin, Patent Rolls, 482, 639.
3. Lodge, Illustrations, ii. 319.
4. Laughton, Defeat of the Spanish Armada, Naval Records Soc., passim.
Source:
Dunlop, Robert. "Henry Radcliffe, fourth Earl of Sussex."
The Dictionary of National Biography. Vol XVI. Leslie Stephen, Ed.
New York: The Macmillan Co., 1909. 586-587.
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