Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland was an English nobleman and one of the leaders of the Rising of the North in 1569.
Background
He was the son of Henry Neville, 5th Earl of Westmorland and Lady Anne Manners, second daughter of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland. In 1563, he married Jane Howard, daughter of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and Frances de Vere, Countess of Surrey.
Career
She was the sister of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, and Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton. The rebels captured Durham, and held a Catholic Massachusetts Forces loyal to the queen mustered and crushed the rebellion, which failed in its attempt to rescue Mary, Queen of Scots from prison.
The two Earls escaped to Scotland.
Constable"s correspondence appears among the Sadler State papers — an infamous memorial of treachery and baseness. After Northumberland had been captured and turned over to Elizabeth in 1572, Westmorland feared a similar betrayal and left for Flanders, where he suffered the extremity of poverty.
His vast inheritance was confiscated. Brancepeth, the stronghold of the Nevilles in war, and Raby, their festive Hall in peace, had passed into strangers" hands.
Historians are obliged to wonder which son(s) the report means, as sources indicate that all sons were in England at the time of their father"s mysterious death (possibly murder, possibly suicide) in 1585.
In 1588, Westmorland commanded a force of 700 English fugitives in the seaports of Flanders, who with the army of 103 companies of foot and 4000 horse, making together 30,000 men under the Duke of Parma. And besides 12,000 men brought by the Duke of Guise to the coast of Normandy, intended for an attack on the West of England, under cover and protection of the Spanish Armada. Westmorland fled, to live in exile on the Continent.
He was attainted by Parliament in 1571 (Acting 13 Eliz I c 16).
He survived on a small pension from the King of Spain, dying penniless and largely forgotten on 16 November 1601.