Series 3 > Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot

xlii MARY STUART AND THE BABINGTON PLOT
was the son of John Gifford, of Chillington, whose family
was noted for its firm adhesion to the ancient faith. A
couple of generations later (by which time the family name
had taken the form Giffard) they won themselves an hon¬
oured place in the history of the country by their heroism
in helping to save Charles n. after the Battle of Worcester.1
Gilbert was a somewhat distant cousin of the George
Gifford of whom we have spoken above, the Hampshire
branch having, as it seems, migrated from Staffordshire
when William de Gifford (d. 1129) became Bishop of
Winchester. The Doctor William Gifford, whom we shall
meet with further on, was of this Hampshire branch, and
brother to George. It will be our misfortune to see little
else here but the weak side of this William, though in later
life, when the unfortunate ascendancy which Gilbert won
over him during their college career had passed away, his
career became much more honourable. A great preacher,
a man of learning, a distinguished member of the Bene¬
dictine Order, he rose to be Archbishop of Rheims and
Primate of France, perhaps the only Englishman who
ever occupied that post.
Gilbert Gifford seems to have gone abroad about 1577,
and after a stay at Paris, to have reached the English
College at Rome, where he took the college oath on the
23rd of April 1579, being then nineteen years of age. Six
months later he was joined by his cousin William, who was
two years his senior in age, but over whom he soon gained
an unfortunate predominance. Gilbert had been at college
during the disturbances which were occasioned by the
inefficiency of the first Rector, Maurice Clenog, an old
Welsh churchman. But when the Welsh Rector had been
removed, Gilbert became more unmanageable than ever.
1 G. Wrottesley, The Giffards, 1902. At pp. 143-159 numerous extracts
about Gilbert Gifiord.