Clement Throckmorton was an English landowner and Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 in the middle years of the 16th century.

A member of a distinguished Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

 family, son of Sir George Throckmorton

George Throckmorton

Sir George Throckmorton of Coughton Court was an English politician and a member of Parliament during the reign of Henry VIII...

 and the brother of the influential diplomat Sir Nicholas Throckmorton

Nicholas Throckmorton

Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was an English diplomat and politician, who was an ambassador to France and played a key role in the relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots.-Early years:...

 and Robert Throckmorton

Robert Throckmorton

Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court, MP, KG was a distinguished English Tudor courtier.-Overview:...

 and cousin of Henry VIII's

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 last Queen, Catherine Parr

Catherine Parr

Catherine Parr ; 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen consort of England and Ireland and the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII of England. She married Henry VIII on 12 July 1543. She was the fourth commoner Henry had taken as his consort, and outlived him...

, Throckmorton sat in nine Parliaments between 1542 and 1572, representing Warwick

Warwick (UK Parliament constituency)

Warwick was a parliamentary borough consisting of the town of Warwick, within the larger Warwickshire constituency of England. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of England from 1295 to 1707, to the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and then to the...

 four times and Warwickshire

Warwickshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Warwickshire was a parliamentary constituency in the Warwickshire in England. It returned two Members of Parliament , traditionall known as knights of the shire, to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the bloc vote system.-Boundaries and franchise:The...

 twice as well as three other scattered boroughs (Devizes

Devizes (UK Parliament constituency)

Devizes is a parliamentary constituency in Wiltshire, England, which is now represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and before 1707 in the House of Commons of England....

, Sudbury

Sudbury (UK Parliament constituency)

Sudbury was a parliamentary constituency which was represented in the British House of Commons. A parliamentary borough consisting of the town of Sudbury in Suffolk, it returned two Members of Parliament from 1559 until it was disenfranchised for corruption in 1844...

 and West Looe

West Looe (UK Parliament constituency)

West Looe was a rotten borough represented in the House of Commons of England from 1535 to 1707, in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1797 to 1800, and in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It elected two Members of Parliament by the bloc vote system of election...

). He also had a successful military record, and was appointed Constable of Kenilworth Castle

Kenilworth Castle

Kenilworth Castle is located in the town of the same name in Warwickshire, England. Constructed from Norman through to Tudor times, the castle has been described by architectural historian Anthony Emery as "the finest surviving example of a semi-royal palace of the later middle ages, significant...

 in 1553, a post he held until his death. He acquired the estate of Haseley

Haseley

Haseley is a small village in Warwickshire, UK. It is four miles north-west of the county town of Warwick and nine miles south-east of Solihull, in the civil parish of Beausale, Haseley, Honiley and Wroxall, created in 2007. The village is on the A4177 and is easily accessible as it is only five...

 in Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

 in 1554 from his uncle, who had himself acquired it from the Crown after the attainder

Attainder

In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura is the metaphorical 'stain' or 'corruption of blood' which arises from being condemned for a serious capital crime . It entails losing not only one's property and hereditary titles, but typically also the right to pass them on to one's heirs...

 of its previous owner, the Duke of Northumberland

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, KG was an English general, admiral, and politician, who led the government of the young King Edward VI from 1550 until 1553, and unsuccessfully tried to install Lady Jane Grey on the English throne after the King's death...

. He also enhanced his fortune through successful trading, and was a founder member of the Muscovy Company

Muscovy Company

The Muscovy Company , was a trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint stock company, the precursor of the type of business that would soon flourish in England, and became closely associated with such famous names as Henry Hudson and William Baffin...

.

Throckmorton was a reliable but moderate Protestant, although one of his brothers remained a Catholic, which cast a shadow of doubt over Clement's allegiances, and he himself was loyal to Queen Mary

Mary I of England

Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...

 while she was on the throne. However, his son, Job

Job Throckmorton

Job Throckmorton was an English religious pamphleteer and Member of Parliament. Possibly with John Penry and John Udall, he authored the Martin Marprelate anonymous anti-clerical satires; scholarly consensus now makes him the main author.-Life:He was of the Warwickshire gentry, resident at...

, was later one of the most active lay supporters of the Puritan

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

 opposition, and was deeply involved in the publication of the Marprelate Tracts

Marprelate Controversy

The Marprelate Controversy was a war of pamphlets waged in England and Wales in 1588 and 1589, between a puritan writer who employed the pseudonym Martin Marprelate, and defenders of the Established Church....

. He married Katherine Neville, daughter of Sir Edward Neville of Addington and Eleanor Windsor, daughter of Sir Andrew Windsor, 1st Baron Windsor

Andrew Windsor, 1st Baron Windsor

Sir Andrew Windsor, 1st Baron Windsor was an English nobleman. He inherited the manor of Stanwell in Middlesex. In 1542, during a visit by King Henry VIII, he was obliged to surrender the manor to the crown. In return he was offered the lands of Tardebigge and the seat of Hewell Grange in modern...

.