Humphrey, sixth baron, died _s.p._, a minor, in 1422. Walter, his
brother, seventh baron, was summoned from 1429 and died in 1432, the
last of the line of the Fitzwalters. He fought under Henry V. in the
French wars with great distinction, and for his services had a grant of
lands in Normandy. His daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, conveyed the
baronies by marriage to Sir John Radcliffe, Kt., an eminent military
commander, who became Baron Fitzwalter, _jure uxoris_. Dying 39th Henry
VI., he was succeeded by his son, Sir John, Kt., who was beheaded in
1495 for implication in the Perkin Warbeck Conspiracy, attainted, and
the barony forfeited. Nevertheless, his son, Robert, finding favour
at the court of Henry VII. was restored in blood and estates; and
in the 1st Henry VIII. to the forfeited barony. For bravery in the
French Wars, and other services to the State, he was created Viscount
Fitzwalter in 1529, and four years after further elevated in the
peerage to the Earldom of Sussex, and was decorated with the order
of the Garter. He was thrice married, having issue by all his wives,
and died in 1542, when he was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Henry,
K.B. and K.G., who died in 1556, from whom descended Sir Edward, sixth
Viscount and Earl, who died, _s.p._, 1641, when these honours became
extinct, the barony falling into abeyance, as it remained during the
civil wars and after the Restoration, until 1669, when it was called
out, in the person of Benjamin Mildmay, descended from Frances, second
daughter of Sir Henry, second Earl of Sussex, who married Sir Thomas
Mildmay, of Mulsho, Essex. He died in 1679, was succeeded by his eldest
son Charles, who died _s.p._ 1728, to whom followed his brother Henry,
who in 1730 was created Viscount Harwich and Earl Fitzwalter; but
dying, in 1753, without surviving issue, the two latter titles became
extinct, and the barony fell into abeyance, which was terminated
in 1868, in the person of Sir Brook William Bridges, fifth baronet,
who was called to the House of Peers as Baron Fitzwalter, of Woodham
Walter, in the county of Essex, and who died in December, 1875. Having
thus disposed of the Barons, Viscounts, and Earls Fitzwalter, it
becomes us to inquire into the subsequent history of the old Norman
castle, which, flinging its shadow over the then silvery Thames, was
the home of the Castellans of London. We have no record of what the
Castle of Ralph Baynard was like, but may presume that it was in the
usual Norman style, heavy and ungainly, and in its general features not
unlike that given in Aggas's Map, _temp._ Elizabeth, as it appeared
after its restoration in the 15th century. A view of it was published
in 1780, and its site is indicated in the map of Baynard Castle Ward
in Northouk's _History of London_. It appears to have been a huge,
quadrangular block, the body presenting five gabled divisions, with
sextangular corner towers, each division and the towers containing two
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