William Whittingham - Return To England

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Whittingham took formal leave of the council at Geneva on 30 May 1560. In January 1561 he was appointed to attend on Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, during his embassy to the French court. In the following year he became chaplain to Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, and one of the ministers at Le Havre, which was then occupied by the English under Warwick. He won general praise; but William Cecil complained of his neglect of conformity to the English prayer-book. He was collated on 19 July 1563 to the deanery of Durham, a promotion which he owed to the support of Warwick and Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. On his way to Durham he preached before the queen at Windsor on 2 September 1563.

Whittingham took his religious duties seriously, holding two services a day, devoting time to his grammar school and song school, and church music. Before the outbreak of the Rising of the North in 1569 he unsuccessfully urged James Pilkington, the bishop of Durham, to put the city in a state of defence, but he was more successful at Newcastle, which resisted the rebels. In 1572, when Lord Burghley became lord treasurer, Whittingham was suggested, probably by Leicester, as his successor in the office of secretary. In 1577 Leicester also promised Whittingham his aid in securing the see of York or Durham, both of which were vacant; but Whittingham did not press for preferment.