Lionel Cranfield, third Earl of Middlesex

Lord Bridgewater was taken into the custody of Black Rod, the disciplinary officer of the royal household, to prevent his fighting a duel with Lord Middlesex . His wife, Lady Bridgewater , hurried to join...

In May 1663 an orphan heiress aged about fifteen, Lady Elizabeth Cranfield , ran away from her grandmother, who had been appointed her guardian. (Her father, the second Earl of Middlesex, had died when she...

Lionel Cranfield, third Earl of Middlesex , challenged Lord Bridgewater (who had just been appointed guardian of his niece) to a duel in deliberately insulting language—Billingsgate dialect, Bridgewater called it, from the notoriously...