‘The Shame of Me and My Poor Ruinate House’: The Fourth Earl of Huntingdon and the Decline of Aristocratic Power in Elizabethan Leicestershire

ABSTRACT This article focusses on the Leicester parliamentary election of 1601 as a moment that exposed the rapid decline in the power of an aristocratic family. It analyses the various components of the third earl of Huntingdon’s dominance of Leicestershire for much of Elizabeth’s reign and the causes of the unravelling of this following his death in 1595. Foremost among these were the political failings of the fourth earl which destroyed the family’s dynastic solidarity, forfeited religious leadership of the shire, undermined their position at court and led to a loss of influence over the county gentry and Leicester corporation. Gorge Belgrave’s defiance of him in the 1601 election accentuated these faults. However, under the fifth earl, during the early Stuart period, the family recovered much of its power and authority which highlighted the political resources and advantages enjoyed by ‘ancient noble’ families, such as the Hastings.