Robert Throckmorton
Encyclopedia
Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court
, MP
, KG
(c. 1513, Coughton Court, Coughton, Warwickshire
- 12 February 1581, Coughton Court, Coughton, Warwickshire) was a distinguished English
Tudor courtier
.
and his wife Katherine Vaux, and brother of Anthony, Clement
, George, John
, Kenelm and Nicholas
.
, the inn attended by his father. At least three of his younger brothers and his own eldest son studied at Middle Temple, but as the heir to extensive estates he had little need to seek a career at court or in government. He was joined with his father in several stewardships from 1527 and was perhaps the servant of Robert Tyrwhitt, a distant relative by marriage of the Throckmortons, who in 1540 took an inventory of Cromwell's
goods at Mortlake
. He attended the reception of Anne of Cleves
and with several of his brothers served in the French war of 1544. Three years later he was placed on the Warwickshire bench and in 1553 was appointed High Sheriff of Warwickshire
. He was also elected as a knight of the shire (MP
) for Warwickshire
in 1553 and 1555. Three of his brothers also sat for Parliament, Nicholas as knight of the shire for Northamptonshire
.
Throckmorton's role in the succession crisis of 1553
is unknown, but his standing with Queen Mary
is shown by her reputed answer to the news of Edward VI's
death sent her by four of his brothers: ‘If Robert had been there she durst have gaged her life and hazarded the hap’.
In the autumn of 1553, Throckmorton was knighted and appointed constable of Warwick Castle
. He continued to sit as MP for the shire until 1558, when he gave way to his eldest son, Thomas.
explains his disappearance from the Commons
in the new reign, although the most Catholic of his brothers, Anthony Throckmorton, was to sit in the Parliament of 1563. Judged an ‘adversary of true religion’ in 1564, Throckmorton remained active in Warwickshire
until his refusal to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity led to his removal from the commission of the peace
.
In 1577, the Bishop of Worcester, John Whitgift
, listed Throckmorton as a Catholic and reckoned him to be worth 1,000 marks a year in lands and £1,000 in goods.
in 1583. Mary kept an excellent record of a woman persecuted for recusancy, documenting the fines and searches made at Coughton Court, that is still in the family archives. A nephew, Francis Throckmorton, was executed in 1584 for acting as a go-between for Mary, Queen of Scots and the Spanish Ambassador in an attempt to invade England and place Mary on the throne. A niece Elizabeth
; also known as Bess, the daughter of Sir Nicholas, and lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, also got into trouble by secretly marrying Sir Walter Raleigh.
but asked to be buried at Coughton, where an alabaster and marble tomb was accordingly erected to his memory: there is a portrait at Coughton Court. He named as executors his eldest son Thomas and his sons-in-law Sir John Goodwin and Ralph Shelton, and as overseers another son-in-law Sir Thomas Tresham
and his ‘loving friend’ Edmund Plowden.
.
Issue of Robert and Muriel include:
Sir Robert married secondly, Elizabeth Hussey, Baroness Hungerford of Heystesbury (c.1510-23 Jan 1554) circa 1542. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford
(1465/7-29 Jun / 27 Aug 1537) and his second wife, Lady Anne Grey (c.1490-aft. 1537).
Issue of Robert and Elizabeth:
Robert and his second wife Elizabeth Hussey are ancestors of prominent nobility and royalty, such as the former Princess of Wales
, the Duchess of York
, the Duchess of Cornwall, and notably HM
Queen Elizabeth II.
Coughton Court
Coughton Court is an English Tudor country house, situated on the main road between Studley and Alcester in Warwickshire. It is a Grade I listed building....
, MP
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,...
, KG
Order of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry, or knighthood, existing in England. The order is dedicated to the image and arms of St...
(c. 1513, Coughton Court, Coughton, 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...
- 12 February 1581, Coughton Court, Coughton, Warwickshire) was a distinguished English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Tudor courtier
Courtier
A courtier is a person who is often in attendance at the court of a king or other royal personage. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
.
Overview
Born by 1513, Sir Robert was the first son and successor of Sir George ThrockmortonGeorge Throckmorton
Sir George Throckmorton of Coughton Court was an English politician and a member of Parliament during the reign of Henry VIII...
and his wife Katherine Vaux, and brother of Anthony, Clement
Clement Throckmorton
Clement Throckmorton was an English landowner and Member of Parliament in the middle years of the 16th century.A member of a distinguished Warwickshire family, son of Sir George Throckmorton and the brother of the influential diplomat Sir Nicholas Throckmorton and Robert Throckmorton and cousin of...
, George, John
John Throckmorton
Sir John Throckmorton was a lawyer and member of the English Parliament during the reign of Queen Mary I. He was also a witness to Queen Mary's will.-Biography:...
, Kenelm and Nicholas
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:...
.
Politics
Robert Throckmorton may have trained at the Middle TempleMiddle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...
, the inn attended by his father. At least three of his younger brothers and his own eldest son studied at Middle Temple, but as the heir to extensive estates he had little need to seek a career at court or in government. He was joined with his father in several stewardships from 1527 and was perhaps the servant of Robert Tyrwhitt, a distant relative by marriage of the Throckmortons, who in 1540 took an inventory of Cromwell's
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, , was an English statesman who served as chief minister of King Henry VIII of England from 1532 to 1540....
goods at Mortlake
Mortlake
Mortlake is a district of London, England and part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes with East Sheen inland to the south. Mortlake was part of Surrey until 1965.-History:...
. He attended the reception of Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves was a German noblewoman and the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England and as such she was Queen of England from 6 January 1540 to 9 July 1540. The marriage was never consummated, and she was not crowned queen consort...
and with several of his brothers served in the French war of 1544. Three years later he was placed on the Warwickshire bench and in 1553 was appointed High Sheriff of Warwickshire
High Sheriff of Warwickshire
The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions...
. He was also elected as a knight of the shire (MP
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,...
) for 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...
in 1553 and 1555. Three of his brothers also sat for Parliament, Nicholas as knight of the shire for Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (UK Parliament constituency)
The county constituency of Northamptonshire, in the East Midlands of England was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832 and was represented in...
.
Throckmorton's role in the succession crisis of 1553
Mid-Tudor Crisis
The Mid-Tudor Crisis denotes the period of English history between 1547 and 1558 , when, it has been argued by Whitney Jones and others, English government and society were in imminent danger of collapse in the face of a combination of weak rulers, economic pressures, a series of rebellions, and...
is unknown, but his standing with 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...
is shown by her reputed answer to the news of Edward VI's
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...
death sent her by four of his brothers: ‘If Robert had been there she durst have gaged her life and hazarded the hap’.
In the autumn of 1553, Throckmorton was knighted and appointed constable of Warwick Castle
Warwick Castle
Warwick Castle is a medieval castle in Warwick, the county town of Warwickshire, England. It sits on a bend on the River Avon. The castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068 within or adjacent to the Anglo-Saxon burh of Warwick. It was used as a fortification until the early 17th century,...
. He continued to sit as MP for the shire until 1558, when he gave way to his eldest son, Thomas.
Religion
His CatholicismCatholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
explains his disappearance from the Commons
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
in the new reign, although the most Catholic of his brothers, Anthony Throckmorton, was to sit in the Parliament of 1563. Judged an ‘adversary of true religion’ in 1564, Throckmorton remained active 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...
until his refusal to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity led to his removal from the commission of the peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
.
In 1577, the Bishop of Worcester, John Whitgift
John Whitgift
John Whitgift was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death. Noted for his hospitality, he was somewhat ostentatious in his habits, sometimes visiting Canterbury and other towns attended by a retinue of 800 horsemen...
, listed Throckmorton as a Catholic and reckoned him to be worth 1,000 marks a year in lands and £1,000 in goods.
Family
Sir Robert Throckmorton continued the family in the Catholic tradition. He married his children into the leading Catholic families, and in these generations the increased persecution of the Catholic spawned many relatives who became involved in plots against the throne. The sons of his daughters Anne and Muriel, were Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham, and a third daughter Mary was married to Edward Arden, who was also convicted of treason and executed for his part in a plot to assassinate Queen ElizabethElizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
in 1583. Mary kept an excellent record of a woman persecuted for recusancy, documenting the fines and searches made at Coughton Court, that is still in the family archives. A nephew, Francis Throckmorton, was executed in 1584 for acting as a go-between for Mary, Queen of Scots and the Spanish Ambassador in an attempt to invade England and place Mary on the throne. A niece Elizabeth
Elizabeth Raleigh
Elizabeth, Lady Raleigh , née Throckmorton, was Sir Walter Raleigh's wife, and a Lady of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I of England. Their secret marriage precipitated a long period of royal disfavour for Raleigh....
; also known as Bess, the daughter of Sir Nicholas, and lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, also got into trouble by secretly marrying Sir Walter Raleigh.
Death and Burial
He died on 12 Feb 1581, six days after making a will in which he styled himself of Weston UnderwoodWeston Underwood
Weston Underwood may refer to:*Weston Underwood, Buckinghamshire, England*Weston Underwood, Derbyshire, England...
but asked to be buried at Coughton, where an alabaster and marble tomb was accordingly erected to his memory: there is a portrait at Coughton Court. He named as executors his eldest son Thomas and his sons-in-law Sir John Goodwin and Ralph Shelton, and as overseers another son-in-law Sir Thomas Tresham
Thomas Tresham II
Sir Thomas Tresham was a Catholic recusant politician at the end of the Tudor dynasty and the start of the Stuart dynasty in England....
and his ‘loving friend’ Edmund Plowden.
Marriage and children
Sir Robert married twice. His first wife was Muriel Berkeley (d.1542) whom he married about 1527. Muriel was the daughter of Sir Thomas Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley (1472-1533) and his first wife, Eleanor Constable (c. 1485 - 1527), daughter or Sir Marmaduke ConstableMarmaduke Constable
Sir Marmaduke Constable, "the little" was an English soldier descended from the Hereditary Constables of Chester, hence the surname of the family...
.
Issue of Robert and Muriel include:
- Catherine (c. 1532-12 Feb 1580), married Henry (Robert) Norwood circa 1547 and had issue.
- Thomas of Coughton (1533-13 Mar 1614), married Mary Whorwood (c.1535-28 Apr 1607) about 1556 and had issue.
- Elizabeth (born c.1535), married Sir John Goodwin. No issue.
- Anne (c. 1541-16 Dec 1603), married Sir Ralph Sheldon and had issue.
- Mary (born c.1543), married Sir Edward Arden of Park Hall (1542-1583) and had issue.
Sir Robert married secondly, Elizabeth Hussey, Baroness Hungerford of Heystesbury (c.1510-23 Jan 1554) circa 1542. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford
John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford
John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford was Chief Butler of England from 1521 until his death...
(1465/7-29 Jun / 27 Aug 1537) and his second wife, Lady Anne Grey (c.1490-aft. 1537).
Issue of Robert and Elizabeth:
- Anne (d. after 1605), married Sir William Catesby (1547-1598) on 9 Jun 1566 at Ashby St. Ledgers, Northamptonshire and had issue including Robert CatesbyRobert CatesbyRobert Catesby , was the leader of a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605....
. - Elizabeth, married Sir Anthony Tyringham. No issue.
- Muriel (d.1615), married Sir Thomas TreshamThomas Tresham IISir Thomas Tresham was a Catholic recusant politician at the end of the Tudor dynasty and the start of the Stuart dynasty in England....
and had issue. - Temperance, married Sir Randal Brereton. No issue.
Robert and his second wife Elizabeth Hussey are ancestors of prominent nobility and royalty, such as the former Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
, the Duchess of York
Sarah, Duchess of York
Sarah, Duchess of York is a British charity patron, spokesperson, writer, film producer, television personality and former member of the British Royal Family. She is the former wife of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, whom she married from 1986 to 1996...
, the Duchess of Cornwall, and notably HM
Majesty
Majesty is an English word derived ultimately from the Latin maiestas, meaning "greatness".- Origin :Originally, during the Roman republic, the word maiestas was the legal term for the supreme status and dignity of the state, to be respected above everything else...
Queen Elizabeth II.