[6] George's fellow courtier commented on his northern upbringing, writing to the steward of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, that he disliked Clifford as "the rudest Earll by reson of his northerly bringen up".

[7] George Clifford was described as a man of great personal beauty, strong and active, accomplished in all knightly exercises, splendid in his dress, and of romantic valour.

[1] Clifford rose in the world as an accomplished jouster, and became Queen Elizabeth's second Champion on the retirement of Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley.

A portrait miniature by Nicholas Hilliard, around 1590, commemorates the appointment, showing him in tilting attire with the Queen's glove, set in diamonds, pinned as a plume to his hat as a sign of her favour.

[8] Clifford was a man of irregular life, and having run through a great part of his very handsome property, seized on the opportunity offered by the war with Spain to re-establish himself.

Clifford was often spoken of as a sort of nautical Quixote, a title curiously unsuitable to the courtier, gambler, and buccaneer, in all of which guises history presents him.

[clarification needed] By his wife Margaret, George had the following children: Clifford's two sons, Robert and Francis, had both died young, before the age of 5, thus his only surviving child and daughter Anne became his sole heiress.

The painting is replete with significant elements, referring to her life and to her succession to her paternal inheritance, gained after a lengthy legal dispute, only settled in 1617.

[12] The House of Lords postponed the hearing of the matter of the barony, which remained dormant until 1678, when Nicholas Tufton, 3rd Earl of Thanet, was allowed to claim the peerage and become the fifteenth Baron de Clifford.

It was made at the Greenwich armoury established by King Henry VIII, and a drawing of it is included in the Jacob Album, a book of designs for 29 different armours for various Elizabethan gentlemen.

The armour is of blued steel and is etched and inlaid with elaborate gilded designs, incorporating columns of alternating fleurs-de-lis and Tudor roses, with the letter E for Queen Elizabeth I.

It is on display in the Armor Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, next to the two suits of armour of Sir James Scudamore, which were also made at the Greenwich armoury.