cession, he commanded the Renown, Windsor, and Malta, all in the Channel. He became rear-admiral on 23 April 1804, and vice-admiral on 28 April 1808. He was then sent out as commander-in-chief at the Cape of Good Hope, and in October 1810, when the attack on Mauritius was being prepared by the East Indian squadron, he went in the Africaine frigate to join the expedition. His unexpected arrival beyond the limits of his station, and his necessary assumption of the chief command, not unnaturally nettled Vice-admiral Drury, who, though Bertie's junior, was commander-in-chief in India, and had had the whole charge of organising the expedition. Drury expressed himself with great bitterness, and wrote to the admiralty that he considered himself to be 'insulted and injured' (8 Nov. 1810). After all, Bertie's share in the enterprise was extremely small, for the French naval force had been previously overpowered, and the surveys necessary to insure a safe landing had been made. Once on shore the troops found no enemy capable of withstanding them, and the bland surrendered on 3 Dec (James, Naval Hist., 1860, v. 204). Bertie returned to the Cape, and shortly afterwards received orders to return to England, principally, it would appear, in consequence of a disagreement with the local commissioner of the navy. On his arrival he wrote to the secretary of the admiralty (28 March 1811) requesting, almost demanding, an exact inquiry into his official conduct. This, however, was coldly refused, and Bertie had to rest content till the ministerial crisis in the following year, when the verdict of the outgoing admiralty was immediately reversed, and Bertie's services, more especially in respect of the capture of Mauritius, were acknowledged by a baronetcy, 9 Dec. He had, however, no further command. He became an admiral on 4 June 1814, was made K.C.B. on 2 Jan. 1815, and died on 24 Feb. 1824.
[Official Letters in the P.R.O.; Marshall's Naval Biog. i. 195; Gent. Mag. (1824), xciv. i. 459.]
BERTIE, CATHARINE, Duchess (Dowager) of Suffolk (1520–1580), only child of William Willoughby, eighth Lord Willoughby de Eresby, was born in 1520. Her mother, Mary de Salines or Saluces, a near relative of Katharine of Arragon, had been maid of honour to that queen, and had come with her to England on her marriage with Prince Arthur. On her father's death in 1526 she succeeded to his dignity and fortune, and was entrusted to the guardianship of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, and eventually became that nobleman's fourth wife. She was married at the early age of sixteen, and was left a widow in 1545 with two sons, Henry and Charles, both of whom died of the sweating sickness within a few hours of each other on 16 July 1551 [see Brandon, Henry and Charles]. She was married to Richard Bertie about the end of the year 1552. In the latter part of Edward VI's reign she distinguished herself by her zeal for the reformation. To escape the vengeance of Bishop Gardiner she left England with her husband, and remained abroad during the reign of Queen Mary. An account of her wanderings on the continent will be found in the memoir of her husband [see Bertie, Richard]. Her death occurred on 19 Sept. 1580. Fuller says that she was 'a lady of a sharp wit and sure hand to thrust it home and make it pierce when she pleased.' Seventeenth-century copies of a popular Elizabethan ballad (by T. Deloney), entitled 'The most Rare and Excellent History of the Dutchess of Suffolk and her husband Richard Bertie's Calamities,' are extant in the Roxburghe, Pepys, and Bagford collections of broadside ballads.
[Lady Georgina Bertie's Five Generations of a Loyal House; Biog. Brit. (Kippis), ii. 280; Courthope's Historic Peerage, 511.]
BERTIE, MONTAGUE, second Earl of Lindsey (1608?–1666), adherent of Charles I, was the eldest son of the first Earl of Lindsey by Elizabeth, sole daughter of Edward Lord Montague, of Boughton, Northamptonshire. In early life he served in the Low Countries as captain of a troop of cavalry, and on the outbreak of the civil war he assisted his father to rally the county of Lincoln on the side of the king, by himself raising a regiment of cavalry. At the battle of Edgehill, where he commanded the regiment of guards, he made a desperate attempt to rescue his father; but finding this impossible, he voluntarily delivered himself up, that he might attend upon him when wounded. For some time he remained a prisoner in Warwick Castle, from which he issued a vindication of the kings cause, which was printed under the title, 'A Declaration and Justification of the Earl of Lindsey, now Prisoner in Warwick Castle, wherein he makes apparent the Justice of his Majesty's cause in taking armes for the preservation of his Royall person and prerogative. As it was sent in a letter to the Right Honourable Henry, Earl of Newarke, now resident with his Majesty at Oxford, 26 Jan. 1643' Obtaining an exchange he was joyfully welcomed by the king at Oxford, and took part in the battles of Newbury, Copredy,
