Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset (c1635). Watercolor on vellum. 10 x 8. Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset KG was an English courtier, soldier and politician. He sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1622 and became Earl of Dorset in 1624. He fought a duel in his early life, and was later involved in colonisation in North America. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. Sackville was the younger surviving son of Robert Sackville, 2nd Earl of Dorset. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, with his brother Richard, on 26 July 1605. He was awarded MA at Cambridge University and was incorporated at Oxford from Cambridge on 9 July 1616. He was one of the handsomest men of his time, and in August 1613 became notorious by killing in a duel Edward Bruce, 2nd Lord Kinloss. The duel concerned Venetia Stanley, a society beauty and a granddaughter of Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby. The meeting took place on a piece of ground purchased for the purpose two miles from Bergen-op-Zoom, Netherlands, which even in 1814 was known as Bruceland. Sackville was run through the body and lost a finger while attempting to disarm Kinloss, but ultimately dispatched his opponent with two thrusts to the chest. Though gravely wounded, Sackville survived, but Venetia Stanley ultimately married Sir Kenelm Digby who after his marriage maintained friendly relations with Sackville, referring to him as the Mardontius' in his memoirs. Sackville sent, in self-justification, a long narrative from Louvain, dated 8 September 1613, with copies of Bruce's challenges. Sackville's life was attempted soon after his return to England. Some sources claim that in 1614, Sackville was elected MP for Sussex and was one of the leaders of the popular party but this is disputed in other records of the Addled Parliament. In 1616 he visited Lyons and procured the release of Sir Edward Herbert who had been arrested there. He was made a Knight of the Bath on 3 November 1616 when Charles I was created Prince of Wales. From 1619 he was a leading member of the party of the Virginia Company which supported Sir Edwin Sandys. On 22 July 1620 he sailed as a commander in the forces sent under Sir Horatio Vere to assist the king of Bohemia. He was present at the Battle of White Mountain on 8 November 1620. In 1621 Sackville was elected MP for Sussex. In March he was nominated chairman of the commons committee for the inspection of the courts of justice, but did not act. He spoke on behalf of Francis Bacon in parliament on 17 March 1621, and often pleaded for him with Buckingham. In July 1621 he was briefly ambassador to Louis XIII of France. In November 1621 he vigorously defended the proposal to vote a subsidy for the recovery of the palatinate, declaring that the passing-bell was now tolling for religion. This speech has been wrongly dated as of 1623, when parliament was not sitting. In April 1623, the King roundly and soundly reproved Sackville at a meeting of the directors of the Virginia company. He was governor of the Bermuda Islands Company in 1623. On 23 May 1623 he received a license to travel for three years and was nominated ambassador to Louis XIII again in September 1623. He was at Rome in 1624, and visited Marc Antonio de Dominis archbishop of Spalatro, in his dungeon. While he was at Florence he received the news of the death of his elder brother Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset, which took place on 28 March 1624 and he thereupon became fourth Earl of Dorset. Dorset succeeded to family estates which were heavily encumbered and he was selling land to pay off his brother's debts on 26 June 1626. He became joint Lord Lieutenant of Sussex and joint Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, and held several other offices, including the mastership of Ashdown Forest, and stewardship of Great Yarmouth from 1629. He was made K.G. on 15 May 1625, and installed by proxy on 23 December. At the coronation of Charles I on 2 February 1626 he was a commissioner of claims, and carried the first sword, and he was called to the privy council 3 Aug. 1626. His influence at court was fully established by his appointment as lord chamberlain to Queen Henrietta Maria on 16 July 1628. As such, he was a prime mover in theatre and drama in London, and was the force behind the founding of the Salisbury Court Theatre at Salisbury Court off Fleet Street where he lived. He was a commissioner for planting Virginia in 1631 and 1634. As a peer and privy councillor Dorset showed great activity. He was a commissioner on 30 May 1635 and 10 April 1636 for dealing with the new buildings which had been erected in or about London and Westminster. He was a lord commissioner of the admiralty, one of the adventurers with the Earl of Lindsey and others for draining various parts of Lincolnshire and a commissioner for improving the supply of saltpetre. On 13 June 1636 he was constable of Beaumar