Sir John Mason
Encyclopedia
Sir John Mason was an English diplomat, spy
and Member of Parliament.
Mason was born in Abingdon
in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire
), southern England. He was educated at Abingdon School
, part of the local abbey
in his native town, where his uncle, Thomas Rowland, was abbot. Later, he went to All Souls College, Oxford
and was ordained a priest. He was ordained an acolyte in 1521 and, later that year, he was elected a fellow of All Souls and admitted to the BA degree, and in 1525 he incepted MA.
's visit to the university in 1529. With More's support he secured a royal exhibition to study in Paris. In 1531 his old patron, the abbot of Abingdon, presented him to the first of his many ecclesiastical benefices: the rectory of Kingston Bagpuize
, Berkshire; but he remained in France. In 1532 he attended the meeting between Francis I of France
and Henry VIII at Calais
.
On leaving Paris in 1533, Mason embarked upon a diplomatic career, and was soon employed carrying letters between London and Paris. To further his knowledge of foreign lands, he went from France to Spain, and by July 1534 he was at Valladolid. That year he seemed to exhibit conservative religious views, lamenting the imprisonment of Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. In 1535 he was with Emperor Charles V's court in Sicily, from where he wrote to his colleague Thomas Starkey at Padua. Both men belonged to the cadre of young scholars and diplomats recruited and directed by Thomas Cromwell. By late 1536 Mason was back in England, his basic diplomatic training complete. At this time he was rewarded by Cromwell with the canonry of Crediton
(Exeter
), and was named a chaplain to the Bishop of Lincoln
.
In 1537, Mason received his first major assignment, as secretary to the new English ambassador to the emperor, Sir Thomas Wyatt
. The embassy included Edmund Bonner, at that time an anti-papalist and loyal servant of Cromwell, and almost immediately relations between Bonner and Mason were tense. Bonner complained that Wyatt listened only to Mason, relying upon him ‘as a God almighty’. Denouncing the secretary as ‘as glorious and as malicious a harlot as any that I know’, Bonner also accused Mason of treasonous contact with Cardinal Pole and described him as a papist. Aware that these complaints derived from malice, Cromwell protected Mason, and throughout 1539 and 1540 the secretary remained at work in the Netherlands. As a token of Cromwell's continued favour, in February 1540 Mason added the canonry of Timsbury, Hampshire to his growing sheaf of benefices.
During a brief visit to England, in late December that year he married Elizabeth (d. 1594), widow of Richard Hill (d. 1539) of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, and daughter of Thomas Isley of Kent. Although he acquired Hill's estate through his marriage, and was licensed to continue holding his benefices despite it, Mason soon set off to rejoin Wyatt. His journey was cut short, however, for in the turmoil following the fall of Cromwell Bonner's earlier charges of treason were revived, and on 25 January 1541 Mason was urgently recalled to London, to join Wyatt in the Tower. With Wyatt's support, however, he was soon cleared, and on 21 March Mason and his master were pardoned.
Following his release Mason did not immediately return abroad, but instead remained in England, where his acknowledged administrative acumen led to his appointment in late September 1541 as a clerk of the privy council, as a deputy for William Paget. In October 1542 Mason replaced Sir Brian Tuke as French secretary. He also regularly acted for Paget as clerk of parliaments and, upon Paget's appointment as principal secretary, in May 1543 Mason was named clerk of the council for life. The summer of 1544 found him once more across the channel, serving as a royal secretary at the siege of Boulogne
. In November 1545 Mason and Paget were appointed joint masters of the posts, while at the same time a second French secretary was appointed to alleviate Mason's heavy workload.
Mason finally resumed diplomatic work in April 1546, when he visited a number of German princes to promote a league with England (designed to frustrate French diplomacy) and to propose a council to resolve religious differences within the empire. Neither suggestion found much favour, forcing Mason to admit failure and to seek speedy recall. While waiting to return, he attended the emperor's court at Speyer; and then – briefly – Khortoza as a special guest of the Cardinal. He arrived home some time between July and November.
Mason's labours were rewarded with a knighthood at the coronation of Edward VI in February 1547. Although not a member of Protector Somerset's inner circle, he remained active in royal service, and there were rumours in April 1547 that he was to become English ambassador to the emperor. On 11 May his stepdaughter Mary Hill married the king's tutor John Cheke. Mason prepared a manuscript treatise on the superiority of the English crown over Scotland, apparently for the protector. With the overthrow of Somerset in the council coup of October 1549, Secretary Paget's power was further enhanced, which in turn had important consequences for his friend and protégé Mason, whose wife was also a relative of the Dudleys. Despite being a married layman, on 2 November Mason was presented by the crown to the deanery of Winchester.
He had no chance for leisure, however, for in January 1550 it was reported that he was soon to be sent to France to negotiate peace. To enhance his diplomatic stature, on 19 April he was sworn of the privy council, and four days later he departed for France. By mid-June he was in Paris, and then joined the peripatetic French court. Negotiations dragged on (from Poissy
to Blois
to Amboise
), while Mason complained repeatedly about the twin curses of early modern diplomatic life: ill health and poverty.
His appeals to return to England were not ignored: by February 1551 he had been joined in France by his replacement, but the council ordered Mason to remain until a peace treaty was settled. At last, on 20 July 1551, a marriage treaty was concluded at Angers (between Edward VI and a daughter of Henry II), and a relieved Mason departed for England. By mid-September he was back at the council board, but one lasting legacy of his stay in Paris was the publication, which he had arranged while there, of Edward Wotton's treatise on botany, De differentiis animalium (1552).
Mason was an active member of the Edwardian privy council: hearing the case against Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall (1551); investigating tampering with the coinage (1552); and reporting on Irish mines (1553). His standing is illuminated by the fact that, after a by-election in Reading
in which the borough had unsuccessfully tried to return a kinsman of Somerset, on 18 January 1552 Mason was certified as its new MP; he had no previous connection with the town. He also served as a clerk of parliament.
In early 1553, he was to be sent as ambassador to the emperor, but excused himself as too old. As a councillor Mason witnessed the will of Edward VI which altered the succession, and was directly involved in the crisis which followed the king's death on 6 July. On 12 July Mason was chosen to meet the anxious imperial ambassadors to discuss the fate of Princess Mary, and the council's intentions. Despite his role as a spokesman, Mason was an astute political survivor and, realising that Jane Grey's cause was doomed, quickly made his peace with Mary. Indeed, by 30 July he had joined Mary's privy council.
Suspicions undoubtedly remained, for in early September reports circulated that Mason (and Paget) would retire from court. Before the month was over, however, Mason had been named to replace Thomas Thirlby as English ambassador to the emperor.
In late 1553, Thirlby briefly returned to Brussels and Mason to England. Misfortune befell his family in early 1554 when two of his brothers-in-law were executed for their parts in Wyatt's rebellion, despite Mason's anxious appeals for clemency. Nonetheless, he was elected MP for Hampshire
to the parliament which opened on 2 April. He was in London on 15 April, but soon after returned to the Netherlands. Still mistrusted in some quarters, he was reported by the imperial ambassador that year to be hostile to Catholicism, yet in 1555 he was rumoured as a possible candidate for the post of chief secretary.
Although opposed to Mary's proposed Habsburg
marriage, Mason remained as ambassador to Charles V
but he was in Windsor
in March 1556 and finally recalled to England that summer. As a layman, and married, Mason was stripped of his ecclesiastical benefices that year and in October was compelled to resign his chancellorship at Oxford in favour of Cardinal Pole. However, he was compensated with a substantial pension.
In October 1557, there were rumours that Mason, an active Marian councillor, would shortly replace William Petre as principal secretary, and on 31 October 1558 (not long before her death) the queen appointed him treasurer of the chamber. He served again as knight of the shire for Hampshire in that year's parliament.
Upon the accession of Elizabeth I
in November 1558 Mason was the sole senior household officer (treasurer of the chamber) to retain his post (and also the richest): testimony to his strong administrative ability and sound political judgement. Despite the distrust of some Protestants, Mason also remained at the council board, where during the early weeks of the reign he pressed for peace with France, even at the price of abandoning claims to Calais
.
Elizabeth soon drew upon his considerable diplomatic experience, unhappy with the lack of progress by English negotiators at the peace talks at Le Cateau-Cambrésis
. Dispatched to the conference in mid-March 1559 to deliver a royal rebuke to the English commissioners, Mason found that a treaty had been concluded a few days earlier. He was soon back in England as a councillor; rumours that he was to be sent as ambassador to Madrid
came to nothing. While he was personally closer to his old friends Paget and Petre than to William Cecil
, Mason's opposition to the secretary's intervention in Scotland and the Newhaven
(Le Havre
) expedition owed more to his pragmatism than to factional politics.
Despite recurring bouts of ill health, Mason continued freely to offer counsel, warning of the perils of foreign military adventures and urging the queen to pursue peace. He last attended the council in June 1565. Meanwhile he was again MP for Hampshire in the parliaments of 1559 and 1563, and was re-elected chancellor of Oxford in June 1559, serving until his resignation in December 1564.
Throughout his career, Mason worked to protect and promote the interests of his native Abingdon. As a Berkshire chantry commissioner he was involved in the suppression of the Hospital of St Helen, which he later restored as Christ's Hospital
(May 1553), serving as its first master. In 1549 Mason became steward of the lands of the dissolved abbey, and was a patron of the local grammar school. Although in 1551 he wrote to William Cecil opposing Abingdon's bid for a borough charter, it seems likely that he assisted in securing that charter in 1556, earning him the effusive praise of Francis Little in A Monument of Christian Munificence (1627), as one ‘whose memory deserves and ought to be honoured with a statue advanced in the most conspicuous place of this town’ (p. 47).
, Middlesex
. The ambiguity surrounding Mason's religious views was shared by many of his colleagues, and continued to the end of his life: in 1564, the Bishop of Winchester
reported that he was favourable to true religion, while at his death the Spanish ambassador claimed he was a Catholic. There is no evidence of Catholicism in his will, in which he asked forgiveness for his sins from God ‘who hathe saved us not according unto workes of Justice that we have doon but according unto his Mercie’.
Among its many beneficiaries were his half-brother Thomas Wikes, or Wykes, of Drayton, near Abingdon, Thomas's children, and the children of another half-brother, John Wikes. His overseers were named as Secretary of State Sir William Cecil, the master of the rolls, Sir William Cordell, the archdeacon of Surrey, John Watson
, and Robert Creswell. He died on 20 or 21 April 1566 and was buried in the north choir aisle of St Paul's Cathedral in London, where his widow and his heir, his nephew Anthony Wyckes (later Mason), erected a monument; his son Thomas had predeceased him, although he was survived by several stepdaughters.
The monument proclaimed that Mason had faithfully served four Tudor
monarchs as ambassador and councillor, successfully weathering a succession of religious and political storms. His political longevity testified to his discretion in keeping his own counsel, and his adroitness in rendering himself indispensable to the crown. His diplomatic skill and personal affability were noticed by his contemporaries. On one occasion, during a dinner-table debate the scholar Roger Ascham observed how Mason, ‘after his maner, was verie merie with both parties, pleasantlie playing both’. Mason himself claimed that his motto was ‘do and say nothing’. Yet he had consistently promoted scholarship, and his scholarly interests were praised by John Leland in his Encomia. He bequeathed at least a dozen volumes to the library of All Souls.
John Mason School
, a secondary school in Abingdon, is named after him.
Sir John Mason (1503 – 20 April 1566) was an English diplomat, spy
and Member of Parliament.
Mason was born in Abingdon
in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire
), southern England. He was educated at Abingdon School
, part of the local abbey
in his native town, where his uncle, Thomas Rowland, was abbot. Later, he went to All Souls College, Oxford
and was ordained a priest. He was ordained an acolyte in 1521 and, later that year, he was elected a fellow of All Souls and admitted to the BA degree, and in 1525 he incepted MA.
's visit to the university in 1529. With More's support he secured a royal exhibition to study in Paris. In 1531 his old patron, the abbot of Abingdon, presented him to the first of his many ecclesiastical benefices: the rectory of Kingston Bagpuize
, Berkshire; but he remained in France. In 1532 he attended the meeting between Francis I of France
and Henry VIII at Calais
.
On leaving Paris in 1533, Mason embarked upon a diplomatic career, and was soon employed carrying letters between London and Paris. To further his knowledge of foreign lands, he went from France to Spain, and by July 1534 he was at Valladolid. That year he seemed to exhibit conservative religious views, lamenting the imprisonment of Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. In 1535 he was with Emperor Charles V's court in Sicily, from where he wrote to his colleague Thomas Starkey at Padua. Both men belonged to the cadre of young scholars and diplomats recruited and directed by Thomas Cromwell. By late 1536 Mason was back in England, his basic diplomatic training complete. At this time he was rewarded by Cromwell with the canonry of Crediton
(Exeter
), and was named a chaplain to the Bishop of Lincoln
.
In 1537, Mason received his first major assignment, as secretary to the new English ambassador to the emperor, Sir Thomas Wyatt
. The embassy included Edmund Bonner, at that time an anti-papalist and loyal servant of Cromwell, and almost immediately relations between Bonner and Mason were tense. Bonner complained that Wyatt listened only to Mason, relying upon him ‘as a God almighty’. Denouncing the secretary as ‘as glorious and as malicious a harlot as any that I know’, Bonner also accused Mason of treasonous contact with Cardinal Pole and described him as a papist. Aware that these complaints derived from malice, Cromwell protected Mason, and throughout 1539 and 1540 the secretary remained at work in the Netherlands. As a token of Cromwell's continued favour, in February 1540 Mason added the canonry of Timsbury, Hampshire to his growing sheaf of benefices.
During a brief visit to England, in late December that year he married Elizabeth (d. 1594), widow of Richard Hill (d. 1539) of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, and daughter of Thomas Isley of Kent. Although he acquired Hill's estate through his marriage, and was licensed to continue holding his benefices despite it, Mason soon set off to rejoin Wyatt. His journey was cut short, however, for in the turmoil following the fall of Cromwell Bonner's earlier charges of treason were revived, and on 25 January 1541 Mason was urgently recalled to London, to join Wyatt in the Tower. With Wyatt's support, however, he was soon cleared, and on 21 March Mason and his master were pardoned.
Following his release Mason did not immediately return abroad, but instead remained in England, where his acknowledged administrative acumen led to his appointment in late September 1541 as a clerk of the privy council, as a deputy for William Paget. In October 1542 Mason replaced Sir Brian Tuke as French secretary. He also regularly acted for Paget as clerk of parliaments and, upon Paget's appointment as principal secretary, in May 1543 Mason was named clerk of the council for life. The summer of 1544 found him once more across the channel, serving as a royal secretary at the siege of Boulogne
. In November 1545 Mason and Paget were appointed joint masters of the posts, while at the same time a second French secretary was appointed to alleviate Mason's heavy workload.
Mason finally resumed diplomatic work in April 1546, when he visited a number of German princes to promote a league with England (designed to frustrate French diplomacy) and to propose a council to resolve religious differences within the empire. Neither suggestion found much favour, forcing Mason to admit failure and to seek speedy recall. While waiting to return, he attended the emperor's court at Speyer; and then – briefly – Khortoza as a special guest of the Cardinal. He arrived home some time between July and November.
Mason's labours were rewarded with a knighthood at the coronation of Edward VI in February 1547. Although not a member of Protector Somerset's inner circle, he remained active in royal service, and there were rumours in April 1547 that he was to become English ambassador to the emperor. On 11 May his stepdaughter Mary Hill married the king's tutor John Cheke. Mason prepared a manuscript treatise on the superiority of the English crown over Scotland, apparently for the protector. With the overthrow of Somerset in the council coup of October 1549, Secretary Paget's power was further enhanced, which in turn had important consequences for his friend and protégé Mason, whose wife was also a relative of the Dudleys. Despite being a married layman, on 2 November Mason was presented by the crown to the deanery of Winchester.
He had no chance for leisure, however, for in January 1550 it was reported that he was soon to be sent to France to negotiate peace. To enhance his diplomatic stature, on 19 April he was sworn of the privy council, and four days later he departed for France. By mid-June he was in Paris, and then joined the peripatetic French court. Negotiations dragged on (from Poissy
to Blois
to Amboise
), while Mason complained repeatedly about the twin curses of early modern diplomatic life: ill health and poverty.
His appeals to return to England were not ignored: by February 1551 he had been joined in France by his replacement, but the council ordered Mason to remain until a peace treaty was settled. At last, on 20 July 1551, a marriage treaty was concluded at Angers (between Edward VI and a daughter of Henry II), and a relieved Mason departed for England. By mid-September he was back at the council board, but one lasting legacy of his stay in Paris was the publication, which he had arranged while there, of Edward Wotton's treatise on botany, De differentiis animalium (1552).
Mason was an active member of the Edwardian privy council: hearing the case against Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall (1551); investigating tampering with the coinage (1552); and reporting on Irish mines (1553). His standing is illuminated by the fact that, after a by-election in Reading
in which the borough had unsuccessfully tried to return a kinsman of Somerset, on 18 January 1552 Mason was certified as its new MP; he had no previous connection with the town. He also served as a clerk of parliament.
In early 1553, he was to be sent as ambassador to the emperor, but excused himself as too old. As a councillor Mason witnessed the will of Edward VI which altered the succession, and was directly involved in the crisis which followed the king's death on 6 July. On 12 July Mason was chosen to meet the anxious imperial ambassadors to discuss the fate of Princess Mary, and the council's intentions. Despite his role as a spokesman, Mason was an astute political survivor and, realising that Jane Grey's cause was doomed, quickly made his peace with Mary. Indeed, by 30 July he had joined Mary's privy council.
Suspicions undoubtedly remained, for in early September reports circulated that Mason (and Paget) would retire from court. Before the month was over, however, Mason had been named to replace Thomas Thirlby as English ambassador to the emperor.
In late 1553, Thirlby briefly returned to Brussels and Mason to England. Misfortune befell his family in early 1554 when two of his brothers-in-law were executed for their parts in Wyatt's rebellion, despite Mason's anxious appeals for clemency. Nonetheless, he was elected MP for Hampshire
to the parliament which opened on 2 April. He was in London on 15 April, but soon after returned to the Netherlands. Still mistrusted in some quarters, he was reported by the imperial ambassador that year to be hostile to Catholicism, yet in 1555 he was rumoured as a possible candidate for the post of chief secretary.
Although opposed to Mary's proposed Habsburg
marriage, Mason remained as ambassador to Charles V
but he was in Windsor
in March 1556 and finally recalled to England that summer. As a layman, and married, Mason was stripped of his ecclesiastical benefices that year and in October was compelled to resign his chancellorship at Oxford in favour of Cardinal Pole. However, he was compensated with a substantial pension.
In October 1557, there were rumours that Mason, an active Marian councillor, would shortly replace William Petre as principal secretary, and on 31 October 1558 (not long before her death) the queen appointed him treasurer of the chamber. He served again as knight of the shire for Hampshire in that year's parliament.
Upon the accession of Elizabeth I
in November 1558 Mason was the sole senior household officer (treasurer of the chamber) to retain his post (and also the richest): testimony to his strong administrative ability and sound political judgement. Despite the distrust of some Protestants, Mason also remained at the council board, where during the early weeks of the reign he pressed for peace with France, even at the price of abandoning claims to Calais
.
Elizabeth soon drew upon his considerable diplomatic experience, unhappy with the lack of progress by English negotiators at the peace talks at Le Cateau-Cambrésis
. Dispatched to the conference in mid-March 1559 to deliver a royal rebuke to the English commissioners, Mason found that a treaty had been concluded a few days earlier. He was soon back in England as a councillor; rumours that he was to be sent as ambassador to Madrid
came to nothing. While he was personally closer to his old friends Paget and Petre than to William Cecil
, Mason's opposition to the secretary's intervention in Scotland and the Newhaven
(Le Havre
) expedition owed more to his pragmatism than to factional politics.
Despite recurring bouts of ill health, Mason continued freely to offer counsel, warning of the perils of foreign military adventures and urging the queen to pursue peace. He last attended the council in June 1565. Meanwhile he was again MP for Hampshire in the parliaments of 1559 and 1563, and was re-elected chancellor of Oxford in June 1559, serving until his resignation in December 1564.
Throughout his career, Mason worked to protect and promote the interests of his native Abingdon. As a Berkshire chantry commissioner he was involved in the suppression of the Hospital of St Helen, which he later restored as Christ's Hospital
(May 1553), serving as its first master. In 1549 Mason became steward of the lands of the dissolved abbey, and was a patron of the local grammar school. Although in 1551 he wrote to William Cecil opposing Abingdon's bid for a borough charter, it seems likely that he assisted in securing that charter in 1556, earning him the effusive praise of Francis Little in A Monument of Christian Munificence (1627), as one ‘whose memory deserves and ought to be honoured with a statue advanced in the most conspicuous place of this town’ (p. 47).
, Middlesex
. The ambiguity surrounding Mason's religious views was shared by many of his colleagues, and continued to the end of his life: in 1564, the Bishop of Winchester
reported that he was favourable to true religion, while at his death the Spanish ambassador claimed he was a Catholic. There is no evidence of Catholicism in his will, in which he asked forgiveness for his sins from God ‘who hathe saved us not according unto workes of Justice that we have doon but according unto his Mercie’.
Among its many beneficiaries were his half-brother Thomas Wikes, or Wykes, of Drayton, near Abingdon, Thomas's children, and the children of another half-brother, John Wikes. His overseers were named as Secretary of State Sir William Cecil, the master of the rolls, Sir William Cordell, the archdeacon of Surrey, John Watson
, and Robert Creswell. He died on 20 or 21 April 1566 and was buried in the north choir aisle of St Paul's Cathedral in London, where his widow and his heir, his nephew Anthony Wyckes (later Mason), erected a monument; his son Thomas had predeceased him, although he was survived by several stepdaughters.
The monument proclaimed that Mason had faithfully served four Tudor
monarchs as ambassador and councillor, successfully weathering a succession of religious and political storms. His political longevity testified to his discretion in keeping his own counsel, and his adroitness in rendering himself indispensable to the crown. His diplomatic skill and personal affability were noticed by his contemporaries. On one occasion, during a dinner-table debate the scholar Roger Ascham observed how Mason, ‘after his maner, was verie merie with both parties, pleasantlie playing both’. Mason himself claimed that his motto was ‘do and say nothing’. Yet he had consistently promoted scholarship, and his scholarly interests were praised by John Leland in his Encomia. He bequeathed at least a dozen volumes to the library of All Souls.
John Mason School
, a secondary school in Abingdon, is named after him.
Sir John Mason (1503 – 20 April 1566) was an English diplomat, spy
and Member of Parliament.
Mason was born in Abingdon
in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire
), southern England. He was educated at Abingdon School
, part of the local abbey
in his native town, where his uncle, Thomas Rowland, was abbot. Later, he went to All Souls College, Oxford
and was ordained a priest. He was ordained an acolyte in 1521 and, later that year, he was elected a fellow of All Souls and admitted to the BA degree, and in 1525 he incepted MA.
's visit to the university in 1529. With More's support he secured a royal exhibition to study in Paris. In 1531 his old patron, the abbot of Abingdon, presented him to the first of his many ecclesiastical benefices: the rectory of Kingston Bagpuize
, Berkshire; but he remained in France. In 1532 he attended the meeting between Francis I of France
and Henry VIII at Calais
.
On leaving Paris in 1533, Mason embarked upon a diplomatic career, and was soon employed carrying letters between London and Paris. To further his knowledge of foreign lands, he went from France to Spain, and by July 1534 he was at Valladolid. That year he seemed to exhibit conservative religious views, lamenting the imprisonment of Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. In 1535 he was with Emperor Charles V's court in Sicily, from where he wrote to his colleague Thomas Starkey at Padua. Both men belonged to the cadre of young scholars and diplomats recruited and directed by Thomas Cromwell. By late 1536 Mason was back in England, his basic diplomatic training complete. At this time he was rewarded by Cromwell with the canonry of Crediton
(Exeter
), and was named a chaplain to the Bishop of Lincoln
.
In 1537, Mason received his first major assignment, as secretary to the new English ambassador to the emperor, Sir Thomas Wyatt
. The embassy included Edmund Bonner, at that time an anti-papalist and loyal servant of Cromwell, and almost immediately relations between Bonner and Mason were tense. Bonner complained that Wyatt listened only to Mason, relying upon him ‘as a God almighty’. Denouncing the secretary as ‘as glorious and as malicious a harlot as any that I know’, Bonner also accused Mason of treasonous contact with Cardinal Pole and described him as a papist. Aware that these complaints derived from malice, Cromwell protected Mason, and throughout 1539 and 1540 the secretary remained at work in the Netherlands. As a token of Cromwell's continued favour, in February 1540 Mason added the canonry of Timsbury, Hampshire to his growing sheaf of benefices.
During a brief visit to England, in late December that year he married Elizabeth (d. 1594), widow of Richard Hill (d. 1539) of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, and daughter of Thomas Isley of Kent. Although he acquired Hill's estate through his marriage, and was licensed to continue holding his benefices despite it, Mason soon set off to rejoin Wyatt. His journey was cut short, however, for in the turmoil following the fall of Cromwell Bonner's earlier charges of treason were revived, and on 25 January 1541 Mason was urgently recalled to London, to join Wyatt in the Tower. With Wyatt's support, however, he was soon cleared, and on 21 March Mason and his master were pardoned.
Following his release Mason did not immediately return abroad, but instead remained in England, where his acknowledged administrative acumen led to his appointment in late September 1541 as a clerk of the privy council, as a deputy for William Paget. In October 1542 Mason replaced Sir Brian Tuke as French secretary. He also regularly acted for Paget as clerk of parliaments and, upon Paget's appointment as principal secretary, in May 1543 Mason was named clerk of the council for life. The summer of 1544 found him once more across the channel, serving as a royal secretary at the siege of Boulogne
. In November 1545 Mason and Paget were appointed joint masters of the posts, while at the same time a second French secretary was appointed to alleviate Mason's heavy workload.
Mason finally resumed diplomatic work in April 1546, when he visited a number of German princes to promote a league with England (designed to frustrate French diplomacy) and to propose a council to resolve religious differences within the empire. Neither suggestion found much favour, forcing Mason to admit failure and to seek speedy recall. While waiting to return, he attended the emperor's court at Speyer; and then – briefly – Khortoza as a special guest of the Cardinal. He arrived home some time between July and November.
Mason's labours were rewarded with a knighthood at the coronation of Edward VI in February 1547. Although not a member of Protector Somerset's inner circle, he remained active in royal service, and there were rumours in April 1547 that he was to become English ambassador to the emperor. On 11 May his stepdaughter Mary Hill married the king's tutor John Cheke. Mason prepared a manuscript treatise on the superiority of the English crown over Scotland, apparently for the protector. With the overthrow of Somerset in the council coup of October 1549, Secretary Paget's power was further enhanced, which in turn had important consequences for his friend and protégé Mason, whose wife was also a relative of the Dudleys. Despite being a married layman, on 2 November Mason was presented by the crown to the deanery of Winchester.
He had no chance for leisure, however, for in January 1550 it was reported that he was soon to be sent to France to negotiate peace. To enhance his diplomatic stature, on 19 April he was sworn of the privy council, and four days later he departed for France. By mid-June he was in Paris, and then joined the peripatetic French court. Negotiations dragged on (from Poissy
to Blois
to Amboise
), while Mason complained repeatedly about the twin curses of early modern diplomatic life: ill health and poverty.
His appeals to return to England were not ignored: by February 1551 he had been joined in France by his replacement, but the council ordered Mason to remain until a peace treaty was settled. At last, on 20 July 1551, a marriage treaty was concluded at Angers (between Edward VI and a daughter of Henry II), and a relieved Mason departed for England. By mid-September he was back at the council board, but one lasting legacy of his stay in Paris was the publication, which he had arranged while there, of Edward Wotton's treatise on botany, De differentiis animalium (1552).
Mason was an active member of the Edwardian privy council: hearing the case against Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall (1551); investigating tampering with the coinage (1552); and reporting on Irish mines (1553). His standing is illuminated by the fact that, after a by-election in Reading
in which the borough had unsuccessfully tried to return a kinsman of Somerset, on 18 January 1552 Mason was certified as its new MP; he had no previous connection with the town. He also served as a clerk of parliament.
In early 1553, he was to be sent as ambassador to the emperor, but excused himself as too old. As a councillor Mason witnessed the will of Edward VI which altered the succession, and was directly involved in the crisis which followed the king's death on 6 July. On 12 July Mason was chosen to meet the anxious imperial ambassadors to discuss the fate of Princess Mary, and the council's intentions. Despite his role as a spokesman, Mason was an astute political survivor and, realising that Jane Grey's cause was doomed, quickly made his peace with Mary. Indeed, by 30 July he had joined Mary's privy council.
Suspicions undoubtedly remained, for in early September reports circulated that Mason (and Paget) would retire from court. Before the month was over, however, Mason had been named to replace Thomas Thirlby as English ambassador to the emperor.
In late 1553, Thirlby briefly returned to Brussels and Mason to England. Misfortune befell his family in early 1554 when two of his brothers-in-law were executed for their parts in Wyatt's rebellion, despite Mason's anxious appeals for clemency. Nonetheless, he was elected MP for Hampshire
to the parliament which opened on 2 April. He was in London on 15 April, but soon after returned to the Netherlands. Still mistrusted in some quarters, he was reported by the imperial ambassador that year to be hostile to Catholicism, yet in 1555 he was rumoured as a possible candidate for the post of chief secretary.
Although opposed to Mary's proposed Habsburg
marriage, Mason remained as ambassador to Charles V
but he was in Windsor
in March 1556 and finally recalled to England that summer. As a layman, and married, Mason was stripped of his ecclesiastical benefices that year and in October was compelled to resign his chancellorship at Oxford in favour of Cardinal Pole. However, he was compensated with a substantial pension.
In October 1557, there were rumours that Mason, an active Marian councillor, would shortly replace William Petre as principal secretary, and on 31 October 1558 (not long before her death) the queen appointed him treasurer of the chamber. He served again as knight of the shire for Hampshire in that year's parliament.
Upon the accession of Elizabeth I
in November 1558 Mason was the sole senior household officer (treasurer of the chamber) to retain his post (and also the richest): testimony to his strong administrative ability and sound political judgement. Despite the distrust of some Protestants, Mason also remained at the council board, where during the early weeks of the reign he pressed for peace with France, even at the price of abandoning claims to Calais
.
Elizabeth soon drew upon his considerable diplomatic experience, unhappy with the lack of progress by English negotiators at the peace talks at Le Cateau-Cambrésis
. Dispatched to the conference in mid-March 1559 to deliver a royal rebuke to the English commissioners, Mason found that a treaty had been concluded a few days earlier. He was soon back in England as a councillor; rumours that he was to be sent as ambassador to Madrid
came to nothing. While he was personally closer to his old friends Paget and Petre than to William Cecil
, Mason's opposition to the secretary's intervention in Scotland and the Newhaven
(Le Havre
) expedition owed more to his pragmatism than to factional politics.
Despite recurring bouts of ill health, Mason continued freely to offer counsel, warning of the perils of foreign military adventures and urging the queen to pursue peace. He last attended the council in June 1565. Meanwhile he was again MP for Hampshire in the parliaments of 1559 and 1563, and was re-elected chancellor of Oxford in June 1559, serving until his resignation in December 1564.
Throughout his career, Mason worked to protect and promote the interests of his native Abingdon. As a Berkshire chantry commissioner he was involved in the suppression of the Hospital of St Helen, which he later restored as Christ's Hospital
(May 1553), serving as its first master. In 1549 Mason became steward of the lands of the dissolved abbey, and was a patron of the local grammar school. Although in 1551 he wrote to William Cecil opposing Abingdon's bid for a borough charter, it seems likely that he assisted in securing that charter in 1556, earning him the effusive praise of Francis Little in A Monument of Christian Munificence (1627), as one ‘whose memory deserves and ought to be honoured with a statue advanced in the most conspicuous place of this town’ (p. 47).
, Middlesex
. The ambiguity surrounding Mason's religious views was shared by many of his colleagues, and continued to the end of his life: in 1564, the Bishop of Winchester
reported that he was favourable to true religion, while at his death the Spanish ambassador claimed he was a Catholic. There is no evidence of Catholicism in his will, in which he asked forgiveness for his sins from God ‘who hathe saved us not according unto workes of Justice that we have doon but according unto his Mercie’.
Among its many beneficiaries were his half-brother Thomas Wikes, or Wykes, of Drayton, near Abingdon, Thomas's children, and the children of another half-brother, John Wikes. His overseers were named as Secretary of State Sir William Cecil, the master of the rolls, Sir William Cordell, the archdeacon of Surrey, John Watson
, and Robert Creswell. He died on 20 or 21 April 1566 and was buried in the north choir aisle of St Paul's Cathedral in London, where his widow and his heir, his nephew Anthony Wyckes (later Mason), erected a monument; his son Thomas had predeceased him, although he was survived by several stepdaughters.
The monument proclaimed that Mason had faithfully served four Tudor
monarchs as ambassador and councillor, successfully weathering a succession of religious and political storms. His political longevity testified to his discretion in keeping his own counsel, and his adroitness in rendering himself indispensable to the crown. His diplomatic skill and personal affability were noticed by his contemporaries. On one occasion, during a dinner-table debate the scholar Roger Ascham observed how Mason, ‘after his maner, was verie merie with both parties, pleasantlie playing both’. Mason himself claimed that his motto was ‘do and say nothing’. Yet he had consistently promoted scholarship, and his scholarly interests were praised by John Leland in his Encomia. He bequeathed at least a dozen volumes to the library of All Souls.
John Mason School
, a secondary school in Abingdon, is named after him.
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
and Member of Parliament.
Mason was born in Abingdon
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon or archaically Abingdon-on-Thames is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Vale of White Horse district. Previously the county town of Berkshire, Abingdon is one of several places that claim to be Britain's oldest continuously occupied town, with...
in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
), southern England. He was educated at Abingdon School
Abingdon School
Abingdon School is a British day and boarding independent school for boys situated in Abingdon, Oxfordshire , previously known as Roysse's School. In 1998 a formal merger took place between Abingdon School and Josca's, a preparatory school four miles to the west at Frilford...
, part of the local abbey
Abingdon Abbey
Abingdon Abbey was a Benedictine monastery also known as St Mary's Abbey located in Abingdon, historically in the county of Berkshire but now in Oxfordshire, England.-History:...
in his native town, where his uncle, Thomas Rowland, was abbot. Later, he went to All Souls College, Oxford
All Souls College, Oxford
The Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford or All Souls College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England....
and was ordained a priest. He was ordained an acolyte in 1521 and, later that year, he was elected a fellow of All Souls and admitted to the BA degree, and in 1525 he incepted MA.
Life
His career path changed at Oxford, after he attracted the attention of Sir Thomas More, perhaps by delivering the welcome oration for Henry VIIIHenry 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...
's visit to the university in 1529. With More's support he secured a royal exhibition to study in Paris. In 1531 his old patron, the abbot of Abingdon, presented him to the first of his many ecclesiastical benefices: the rectory of Kingston Bagpuize
Kingston Bagpuize
Kingston Bagpuize is a village in the civil parish of Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor, about west of Abingdon, Oxfordshire. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes.-Geography:...
, Berkshire; but he remained in France. In 1532 he attended the meeting between Francis I of France
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
and Henry VIII at Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
.
On leaving Paris in 1533, Mason embarked upon a diplomatic career, and was soon employed carrying letters between London and Paris. To further his knowledge of foreign lands, he went from France to Spain, and by July 1534 he was at Valladolid. That year he seemed to exhibit conservative religious views, lamenting the imprisonment of Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. In 1535 he was with Emperor Charles V's court in Sicily, from where he wrote to his colleague Thomas Starkey at Padua. Both men belonged to the cadre of young scholars and diplomats recruited and directed by Thomas Cromwell. By late 1536 Mason was back in England, his basic diplomatic training complete. At this time he was rewarded by Cromwell with the canonry of Crediton
Crediton
Crediton is a town and civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon in England. It stands on the A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, about north west of Exeter. It has a population of 6,837...
(Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
), and was named a chaplain to the Bishop of Lincoln
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...
.
In 1537, Mason received his first major assignment, as secretary to the new English ambassador to the emperor, Sir Thomas Wyatt
Thomas Wyatt (poet)
Sir Thomas Wyatt was a 16th-century English lyrical poet credited with introducing the sonnet into English. He was born at Allington Castle, near Maidstone in Kent – though his family was originally from Yorkshire...
. The embassy included Edmund Bonner, at that time an anti-papalist and loyal servant of Cromwell, and almost immediately relations between Bonner and Mason were tense. Bonner complained that Wyatt listened only to Mason, relying upon him ‘as a God almighty’. Denouncing the secretary as ‘as glorious and as malicious a harlot as any that I know’, Bonner also accused Mason of treasonous contact with Cardinal Pole and described him as a papist. Aware that these complaints derived from malice, Cromwell protected Mason, and throughout 1539 and 1540 the secretary remained at work in the Netherlands. As a token of Cromwell's continued favour, in February 1540 Mason added the canonry of Timsbury, Hampshire to his growing sheaf of benefices.
During a brief visit to England, in late December that year he married Elizabeth (d. 1594), widow of Richard Hill (d. 1539) of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, and daughter of Thomas Isley of Kent. Although he acquired Hill's estate through his marriage, and was licensed to continue holding his benefices despite it, Mason soon set off to rejoin Wyatt. His journey was cut short, however, for in the turmoil following the fall of Cromwell Bonner's earlier charges of treason were revived, and on 25 January 1541 Mason was urgently recalled to London, to join Wyatt in the Tower. With Wyatt's support, however, he was soon cleared, and on 21 March Mason and his master were pardoned.
Following his release Mason did not immediately return abroad, but instead remained in England, where his acknowledged administrative acumen led to his appointment in late September 1541 as a clerk of the privy council, as a deputy for William Paget. In October 1542 Mason replaced Sir Brian Tuke as French secretary. He also regularly acted for Paget as clerk of parliaments and, upon Paget's appointment as principal secretary, in May 1543 Mason was named clerk of the council for life. The summer of 1544 found him once more across the channel, serving as a royal secretary at the siege of Boulogne
Siege of Boulogne
There were two sieges of Boulogne, in the Pas-de-Calais, during the Italian War of 1542–1546. Boulogne was fortified and defended as an English possession on the French mainland between 14 September 1544 and March 1550.- First siege :...
. In November 1545 Mason and Paget were appointed joint masters of the posts, while at the same time a second French secretary was appointed to alleviate Mason's heavy workload.
Mason finally resumed diplomatic work in April 1546, when he visited a number of German princes to promote a league with England (designed to frustrate French diplomacy) and to propose a council to resolve religious differences within the empire. Neither suggestion found much favour, forcing Mason to admit failure and to seek speedy recall. While waiting to return, he attended the emperor's court at Speyer; and then – briefly – Khortoza as a special guest of the Cardinal. He arrived home some time between July and November.
Mason's labours were rewarded with a knighthood at the coronation of Edward VI in February 1547. Although not a member of Protector Somerset's inner circle, he remained active in royal service, and there were rumours in April 1547 that he was to become English ambassador to the emperor. On 11 May his stepdaughter Mary Hill married the king's tutor John Cheke. Mason prepared a manuscript treatise on the superiority of the English crown over Scotland, apparently for the protector. With the overthrow of Somerset in the council coup of October 1549, Secretary Paget's power was further enhanced, which in turn had important consequences for his friend and protégé Mason, whose wife was also a relative of the Dudleys. Despite being a married layman, on 2 November Mason was presented by the crown to the deanery of Winchester.
He had no chance for leisure, however, for in January 1550 it was reported that he was soon to be sent to France to negotiate peace. To enhance his diplomatic stature, on 19 April he was sworn of the privy council, and four days later he departed for France. By mid-June he was in Paris, and then joined the peripatetic French court. Negotiations dragged on (from Poissy
Poissy
Poissy is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the center.In 1561 it was the site of a fruitless Catholic-Huguenot conference, the Colloquy at Poissy...
to Blois
Blois
Blois is the capital of Loir-et-Cher department in central France, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours.-History:...
to Amboise
Amboise
Amboise is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. It lies on the banks of the Loire River, east of Tours. Today a small market town, it was once home of the French royal court...
), while Mason complained repeatedly about the twin curses of early modern diplomatic life: ill health and poverty.
His appeals to return to England were not ignored: by February 1551 he had been joined in France by his replacement, but the council ordered Mason to remain until a peace treaty was settled. At last, on 20 July 1551, a marriage treaty was concluded at Angers (between Edward VI and a daughter of Henry II), and a relieved Mason departed for England. By mid-September he was back at the council board, but one lasting legacy of his stay in Paris was the publication, which he had arranged while there, of Edward Wotton's treatise on botany, De differentiis animalium (1552).
Mason was an active member of the Edwardian privy council: hearing the case against Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall (1551); investigating tampering with the coinage (1552); and reporting on Irish mines (1553). His standing is illuminated by the fact that, after a by-election in Reading
Reading (UK Parliament constituency)
Reading was a parliamentary borough, and later a borough constituency, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It comprised the town of Reading in the county of Berkshire....
in which the borough had unsuccessfully tried to return a kinsman of Somerset, on 18 January 1552 Mason was certified as its new MP; he had no previous connection with the town. He also served as a clerk of parliament.
In early 1553, he was to be sent as ambassador to the emperor, but excused himself as too old. As a councillor Mason witnessed the will of Edward VI which altered the succession, and was directly involved in the crisis which followed the king's death on 6 July. On 12 July Mason was chosen to meet the anxious imperial ambassadors to discuss the fate of Princess Mary, and the council's intentions. Despite his role as a spokesman, Mason was an astute political survivor and, realising that Jane Grey's cause was doomed, quickly made his peace with Mary. Indeed, by 30 July he had joined Mary's privy council.
Suspicions undoubtedly remained, for in early September reports circulated that Mason (and Paget) would retire from court. Before the month was over, however, Mason had been named to replace Thomas Thirlby as English ambassador to the emperor.
In late 1553, Thirlby briefly returned to Brussels and Mason to England. Misfortune befell his family in early 1554 when two of his brothers-in-law were executed for their parts in Wyatt's rebellion, despite Mason's anxious appeals for clemency. Nonetheless, he was elected MP for Hampshire
Hampshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Hampshire was a county constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which returned two Knights of the Shire to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1832...
to the parliament which opened on 2 April. He was in London on 15 April, but soon after returned to the Netherlands. Still mistrusted in some quarters, he was reported by the imperial ambassador that year to be hostile to Catholicism, yet in 1555 he was rumoured as a possible candidate for the post of chief secretary.
Although opposed to Mary's proposed Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
marriage, Mason remained as ambassador to Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
but he was in Windsor
Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....
in March 1556 and finally recalled to England that summer. As a layman, and married, Mason was stripped of his ecclesiastical benefices that year and in October was compelled to resign his chancellorship at Oxford in favour of Cardinal Pole. However, he was compensated with a substantial pension.
In October 1557, there were rumours that Mason, an active Marian councillor, would shortly replace William Petre as principal secretary, and on 31 October 1558 (not long before her death) the queen appointed him treasurer of the chamber. He served again as knight of the shire for Hampshire in that year's parliament.
Upon the accession of Elizabeth I
Elizabeth 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 November 1558 Mason was the sole senior household officer (treasurer of the chamber) to retain his post (and also the richest): testimony to his strong administrative ability and sound political judgement. Despite the distrust of some Protestants, Mason also remained at the council board, where during the early weeks of the reign he pressed for peace with France, even at the price of abandoning claims to Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
.
Elizabeth soon drew upon his considerable diplomatic experience, unhappy with the lack of progress by English negotiators at the peace talks at Le Cateau-Cambrésis
Le Cateau-Cambrésis
Le Cateau-Cambrésis is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.The term Cambrésis indicates that it lies in the county of that name which fell to the Prince-Bishop of Cambrai.-History:...
. Dispatched to the conference in mid-March 1559 to deliver a royal rebuke to the English commissioners, Mason found that a treaty had been concluded a few days earlier. He was soon back in England as a councillor; rumours that he was to be sent as ambassador to Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
came to nothing. While he was personally closer to his old friends Paget and Petre than to William Cecil
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572...
, Mason's opposition to the secretary's intervention in Scotland and the Newhaven
Newhaven, East Sussex
Newhaven is a town in the Lewes District of East Sussex in England. It lies at the mouth of the River Ouse, on the English Channel coast, and is a ferry port for services to France.-Origins:...
(Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
) expedition owed more to his pragmatism than to factional politics.
Despite recurring bouts of ill health, Mason continued freely to offer counsel, warning of the perils of foreign military adventures and urging the queen to pursue peace. He last attended the council in June 1565. Meanwhile he was again MP for Hampshire in the parliaments of 1559 and 1563, and was re-elected chancellor of Oxford in June 1559, serving until his resignation in December 1564.
Throughout his career, Mason worked to protect and promote the interests of his native Abingdon. As a Berkshire chantry commissioner he was involved in the suppression of the Hospital of St Helen, which he later restored as Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital of Abingdon
Christ's Hospital of Abingdon is a charity with a long history, based in Abingdon, England.Christ's Hospital was established in 1553 by royal charter under the full name of the Master and Governors of the Hospital of Christ of Abingdon. Sir John Mason, an Elizabethan diplomat, served as the first...
(May 1553), serving as its first master. In 1549 Mason became steward of the lands of the dissolved abbey, and was a patron of the local grammar school. Although in 1551 he wrote to William Cecil opposing Abingdon's bid for a borough charter, it seems likely that he assisted in securing that charter in 1556, earning him the effusive praise of Francis Little in A Monument of Christian Munificence (1627), as one ‘whose memory deserves and ought to be honoured with a statue advanced in the most conspicuous place of this town’ (p. 47).
Final years
During his final years he divided his time between his principal estate at Hartley Wintney and the house of his son-in-law Francis Spelman at GunnersburyGunnersbury
Gunnersbury is a place in the London Borough of Hounslow, with its northern edge in the London Borough of Ealing, west London. It has an area of less than half a square kilometre and is within the west area of the Chiswick W4 postal district of London....
, Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
. The ambiguity surrounding Mason's religious views was shared by many of his colleagues, and continued to the end of his life: in 1564, the Bishop of Winchester
Bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England diocese of Winchester, with his cathedra at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.The bishop is one of five Church of England bishops to be among the Lords Spiritual regardless of their length of service. His diocese is one of the oldest and...
reported that he was favourable to true religion, while at his death the Spanish ambassador claimed he was a Catholic. There is no evidence of Catholicism in his will, in which he asked forgiveness for his sins from God ‘who hathe saved us not according unto workes of Justice that we have doon but according unto his Mercie’.
Among its many beneficiaries were his half-brother Thomas Wikes, or Wykes, of Drayton, near Abingdon, Thomas's children, and the children of another half-brother, John Wikes. His overseers were named as Secretary of State Sir William Cecil, the master of the rolls, Sir William Cordell, the archdeacon of Surrey, John Watson
John Watson (Bishop)
-Life:He was born in Evesham, Worcestershire England, the son of Thomas Watson and Agnes nee Weeks. Thomas Watson was born in Evesham around 1491 and in 1544 purchased part of the former Evesham Abbey lands and the lordship of Bengeworth, across the River Avon from Evesham town. On those lands he...
, and Robert Creswell. He died on 20 or 21 April 1566 and was buried in the north choir aisle of St Paul's Cathedral in London, where his widow and his heir, his nephew Anthony Wyckes (later Mason), erected a monument; his son Thomas had predeceased him, although he was survived by several stepdaughters.
The monument proclaimed that Mason had faithfully served four Tudor
Tudor dynasty
The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...
monarchs as ambassador and councillor, successfully weathering a succession of religious and political storms. His political longevity testified to his discretion in keeping his own counsel, and his adroitness in rendering himself indispensable to the crown. His diplomatic skill and personal affability were noticed by his contemporaries. On one occasion, during a dinner-table debate the scholar Roger Ascham observed how Mason, ‘after his maner, was verie merie with both parties, pleasantlie playing both’. Mason himself claimed that his motto was ‘do and say nothing’. Yet he had consistently promoted scholarship, and his scholarly interests were praised by John Leland in his Encomia. He bequeathed at least a dozen volumes to the library of All Souls.
John Mason School
John Mason School
John Mason School, or JMS, is a state secondary school in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. It has a specialist Arts College status.-History:Established as an old grammar school in 1960, JMS has now grown considerably, with, as of 2007, approximately 1000 students. Ms Di Mashiter began as the...
, a secondary school in Abingdon, is named after him.
Sources
External links
Sir John Mason (1503 – 20 April 1566) was an English diplomat, spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
and Member of Parliament.
Mason was born in Abingdon
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon or archaically Abingdon-on-Thames is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Vale of White Horse district. Previously the county town of Berkshire, Abingdon is one of several places that claim to be Britain's oldest continuously occupied town, with...
in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
), southern England. He was educated at Abingdon School
Abingdon School
Abingdon School is a British day and boarding independent school for boys situated in Abingdon, Oxfordshire , previously known as Roysse's School. In 1998 a formal merger took place between Abingdon School and Josca's, a preparatory school four miles to the west at Frilford...
, part of the local abbey
Abingdon Abbey
Abingdon Abbey was a Benedictine monastery also known as St Mary's Abbey located in Abingdon, historically in the county of Berkshire but now in Oxfordshire, England.-History:...
in his native town, where his uncle, Thomas Rowland, was abbot. Later, he went to All Souls College, Oxford
All Souls College, Oxford
The Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford or All Souls College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England....
and was ordained a priest. He was ordained an acolyte in 1521 and, later that year, he was elected a fellow of All Souls and admitted to the BA degree, and in 1525 he incepted MA.
Life
His career path changed at Oxford, after he attracted the attention of Sir Thomas More, perhaps by delivering the welcome oration for Henry VIIIHenry 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...
's visit to the university in 1529. With More's support he secured a royal exhibition to study in Paris. In 1531 his old patron, the abbot of Abingdon, presented him to the first of his many ecclesiastical benefices: the rectory of Kingston Bagpuize
Kingston Bagpuize
Kingston Bagpuize is a village in the civil parish of Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor, about west of Abingdon, Oxfordshire. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes.-Geography:...
, Berkshire; but he remained in France. In 1532 he attended the meeting between Francis I of France
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
and Henry VIII at Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
.
On leaving Paris in 1533, Mason embarked upon a diplomatic career, and was soon employed carrying letters between London and Paris. To further his knowledge of foreign lands, he went from France to Spain, and by July 1534 he was at Valladolid. That year he seemed to exhibit conservative religious views, lamenting the imprisonment of Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. In 1535 he was with Emperor Charles V's court in Sicily, from where he wrote to his colleague Thomas Starkey at Padua. Both men belonged to the cadre of young scholars and diplomats recruited and directed by Thomas Cromwell. By late 1536 Mason was back in England, his basic diplomatic training complete. At this time he was rewarded by Cromwell with the canonry of Crediton
Crediton
Crediton is a town and civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon in England. It stands on the A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, about north west of Exeter. It has a population of 6,837...
(Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
), and was named a chaplain to the Bishop of Lincoln
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...
.
In 1537, Mason received his first major assignment, as secretary to the new English ambassador to the emperor, Sir Thomas Wyatt
Thomas Wyatt (poet)
Sir Thomas Wyatt was a 16th-century English lyrical poet credited with introducing the sonnet into English. He was born at Allington Castle, near Maidstone in Kent – though his family was originally from Yorkshire...
. The embassy included Edmund Bonner, at that time an anti-papalist and loyal servant of Cromwell, and almost immediately relations between Bonner and Mason were tense. Bonner complained that Wyatt listened only to Mason, relying upon him ‘as a God almighty’. Denouncing the secretary as ‘as glorious and as malicious a harlot as any that I know’, Bonner also accused Mason of treasonous contact with Cardinal Pole and described him as a papist. Aware that these complaints derived from malice, Cromwell protected Mason, and throughout 1539 and 1540 the secretary remained at work in the Netherlands. As a token of Cromwell's continued favour, in February 1540 Mason added the canonry of Timsbury, Hampshire to his growing sheaf of benefices.
During a brief visit to England, in late December that year he married Elizabeth (d. 1594), widow of Richard Hill (d. 1539) of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, and daughter of Thomas Isley of Kent. Although he acquired Hill's estate through his marriage, and was licensed to continue holding his benefices despite it, Mason soon set off to rejoin Wyatt. His journey was cut short, however, for in the turmoil following the fall of Cromwell Bonner's earlier charges of treason were revived, and on 25 January 1541 Mason was urgently recalled to London, to join Wyatt in the Tower. With Wyatt's support, however, he was soon cleared, and on 21 March Mason and his master were pardoned.
Following his release Mason did not immediately return abroad, but instead remained in England, where his acknowledged administrative acumen led to his appointment in late September 1541 as a clerk of the privy council, as a deputy for William Paget. In October 1542 Mason replaced Sir Brian Tuke as French secretary. He also regularly acted for Paget as clerk of parliaments and, upon Paget's appointment as principal secretary, in May 1543 Mason was named clerk of the council for life. The summer of 1544 found him once more across the channel, serving as a royal secretary at the siege of Boulogne
Siege of Boulogne
There were two sieges of Boulogne, in the Pas-de-Calais, during the Italian War of 1542–1546. Boulogne was fortified and defended as an English possession on the French mainland between 14 September 1544 and March 1550.- First siege :...
. In November 1545 Mason and Paget were appointed joint masters of the posts, while at the same time a second French secretary was appointed to alleviate Mason's heavy workload.
Mason finally resumed diplomatic work in April 1546, when he visited a number of German princes to promote a league with England (designed to frustrate French diplomacy) and to propose a council to resolve religious differences within the empire. Neither suggestion found much favour, forcing Mason to admit failure and to seek speedy recall. While waiting to return, he attended the emperor's court at Speyer; and then – briefly – Khortoza as a special guest of the Cardinal. He arrived home some time between July and November.
Mason's labours were rewarded with a knighthood at the coronation of Edward VI in February 1547. Although not a member of Protector Somerset's inner circle, he remained active in royal service, and there were rumours in April 1547 that he was to become English ambassador to the emperor. On 11 May his stepdaughter Mary Hill married the king's tutor John Cheke. Mason prepared a manuscript treatise on the superiority of the English crown over Scotland, apparently for the protector. With the overthrow of Somerset in the council coup of October 1549, Secretary Paget's power was further enhanced, which in turn had important consequences for his friend and protégé Mason, whose wife was also a relative of the Dudleys. Despite being a married layman, on 2 November Mason was presented by the crown to the deanery of Winchester.
He had no chance for leisure, however, for in January 1550 it was reported that he was soon to be sent to France to negotiate peace. To enhance his diplomatic stature, on 19 April he was sworn of the privy council, and four days later he departed for France. By mid-June he was in Paris, and then joined the peripatetic French court. Negotiations dragged on (from Poissy
Poissy
Poissy is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the center.In 1561 it was the site of a fruitless Catholic-Huguenot conference, the Colloquy at Poissy...
to Blois
Blois
Blois is the capital of Loir-et-Cher department in central France, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours.-History:...
to Amboise
Amboise
Amboise is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. It lies on the banks of the Loire River, east of Tours. Today a small market town, it was once home of the French royal court...
), while Mason complained repeatedly about the twin curses of early modern diplomatic life: ill health and poverty.
His appeals to return to England were not ignored: by February 1551 he had been joined in France by his replacement, but the council ordered Mason to remain until a peace treaty was settled. At last, on 20 July 1551, a marriage treaty was concluded at Angers (between Edward VI and a daughter of Henry II), and a relieved Mason departed for England. By mid-September he was back at the council board, but one lasting legacy of his stay in Paris was the publication, which he had arranged while there, of Edward Wotton's treatise on botany, De differentiis animalium (1552).
Mason was an active member of the Edwardian privy council: hearing the case against Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall (1551); investigating tampering with the coinage (1552); and reporting on Irish mines (1553). His standing is illuminated by the fact that, after a by-election in Reading
Reading (UK Parliament constituency)
Reading was a parliamentary borough, and later a borough constituency, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It comprised the town of Reading in the county of Berkshire....
in which the borough had unsuccessfully tried to return a kinsman of Somerset, on 18 January 1552 Mason was certified as its new MP; he had no previous connection with the town. He also served as a clerk of parliament.
In early 1553, he was to be sent as ambassador to the emperor, but excused himself as too old. As a councillor Mason witnessed the will of Edward VI which altered the succession, and was directly involved in the crisis which followed the king's death on 6 July. On 12 July Mason was chosen to meet the anxious imperial ambassadors to discuss the fate of Princess Mary, and the council's intentions. Despite his role as a spokesman, Mason was an astute political survivor and, realising that Jane Grey's cause was doomed, quickly made his peace with Mary. Indeed, by 30 July he had joined Mary's privy council.
Suspicions undoubtedly remained, for in early September reports circulated that Mason (and Paget) would retire from court. Before the month was over, however, Mason had been named to replace Thomas Thirlby as English ambassador to the emperor.
In late 1553, Thirlby briefly returned to Brussels and Mason to England. Misfortune befell his family in early 1554 when two of his brothers-in-law were executed for their parts in Wyatt's rebellion, despite Mason's anxious appeals for clemency. Nonetheless, he was elected MP for Hampshire
Hampshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Hampshire was a county constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which returned two Knights of the Shire to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1832...
to the parliament which opened on 2 April. He was in London on 15 April, but soon after returned to the Netherlands. Still mistrusted in some quarters, he was reported by the imperial ambassador that year to be hostile to Catholicism, yet in 1555 he was rumoured as a possible candidate for the post of chief secretary.
Although opposed to Mary's proposed Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
marriage, Mason remained as ambassador to Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
but he was in Windsor
Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....
in March 1556 and finally recalled to England that summer. As a layman, and married, Mason was stripped of his ecclesiastical benefices that year and in October was compelled to resign his chancellorship at Oxford in favour of Cardinal Pole. However, he was compensated with a substantial pension.
In October 1557, there were rumours that Mason, an active Marian councillor, would shortly replace William Petre as principal secretary, and on 31 October 1558 (not long before her death) the queen appointed him treasurer of the chamber. He served again as knight of the shire for Hampshire in that year's parliament.
Upon the accession of Elizabeth I
Elizabeth 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 November 1558 Mason was the sole senior household officer (treasurer of the chamber) to retain his post (and also the richest): testimony to his strong administrative ability and sound political judgement. Despite the distrust of some Protestants, Mason also remained at the council board, where during the early weeks of the reign he pressed for peace with France, even at the price of abandoning claims to Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
.
Elizabeth soon drew upon his considerable diplomatic experience, unhappy with the lack of progress by English negotiators at the peace talks at Le Cateau-Cambrésis
Le Cateau-Cambrésis
Le Cateau-Cambrésis is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.The term Cambrésis indicates that it lies in the county of that name which fell to the Prince-Bishop of Cambrai.-History:...
. Dispatched to the conference in mid-March 1559 to deliver a royal rebuke to the English commissioners, Mason found that a treaty had been concluded a few days earlier. He was soon back in England as a councillor; rumours that he was to be sent as ambassador to Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
came to nothing. While he was personally closer to his old friends Paget and Petre than to William Cecil
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572...
, Mason's opposition to the secretary's intervention in Scotland and the Newhaven
Newhaven, East Sussex
Newhaven is a town in the Lewes District of East Sussex in England. It lies at the mouth of the River Ouse, on the English Channel coast, and is a ferry port for services to France.-Origins:...
(Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
) expedition owed more to his pragmatism than to factional politics.
Despite recurring bouts of ill health, Mason continued freely to offer counsel, warning of the perils of foreign military adventures and urging the queen to pursue peace. He last attended the council in June 1565. Meanwhile he was again MP for Hampshire in the parliaments of 1559 and 1563, and was re-elected chancellor of Oxford in June 1559, serving until his resignation in December 1564.
Throughout his career, Mason worked to protect and promote the interests of his native Abingdon. As a Berkshire chantry commissioner he was involved in the suppression of the Hospital of St Helen, which he later restored as Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital of Abingdon
Christ's Hospital of Abingdon is a charity with a long history, based in Abingdon, England.Christ's Hospital was established in 1553 by royal charter under the full name of the Master and Governors of the Hospital of Christ of Abingdon. Sir John Mason, an Elizabethan diplomat, served as the first...
(May 1553), serving as its first master. In 1549 Mason became steward of the lands of the dissolved abbey, and was a patron of the local grammar school. Although in 1551 he wrote to William Cecil opposing Abingdon's bid for a borough charter, it seems likely that he assisted in securing that charter in 1556, earning him the effusive praise of Francis Little in A Monument of Christian Munificence (1627), as one ‘whose memory deserves and ought to be honoured with a statue advanced in the most conspicuous place of this town’ (p. 47).
Final years
During his final years he divided his time between his principal estate at Hartley Wintney and the house of his son-in-law Francis Spelman at GunnersburyGunnersbury
Gunnersbury is a place in the London Borough of Hounslow, with its northern edge in the London Borough of Ealing, west London. It has an area of less than half a square kilometre and is within the west area of the Chiswick W4 postal district of London....
, Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
. The ambiguity surrounding Mason's religious views was shared by many of his colleagues, and continued to the end of his life: in 1564, the Bishop of Winchester
Bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England diocese of Winchester, with his cathedra at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.The bishop is one of five Church of England bishops to be among the Lords Spiritual regardless of their length of service. His diocese is one of the oldest and...
reported that he was favourable to true religion, while at his death the Spanish ambassador claimed he was a Catholic. There is no evidence of Catholicism in his will, in which he asked forgiveness for his sins from God ‘who hathe saved us not according unto workes of Justice that we have doon but according unto his Mercie’.
Among its many beneficiaries were his half-brother Thomas Wikes, or Wykes, of Drayton, near Abingdon, Thomas's children, and the children of another half-brother, John Wikes. His overseers were named as Secretary of State Sir William Cecil, the master of the rolls, Sir William Cordell, the archdeacon of Surrey, John Watson
John Watson (Bishop)
-Life:He was born in Evesham, Worcestershire England, the son of Thomas Watson and Agnes nee Weeks. Thomas Watson was born in Evesham around 1491 and in 1544 purchased part of the former Evesham Abbey lands and the lordship of Bengeworth, across the River Avon from Evesham town. On those lands he...
, and Robert Creswell. He died on 20 or 21 April 1566 and was buried in the north choir aisle of St Paul's Cathedral in London, where his widow and his heir, his nephew Anthony Wyckes (later Mason), erected a monument; his son Thomas had predeceased him, although he was survived by several stepdaughters.
The monument proclaimed that Mason had faithfully served four Tudor
Tudor dynasty
The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...
monarchs as ambassador and councillor, successfully weathering a succession of religious and political storms. His political longevity testified to his discretion in keeping his own counsel, and his adroitness in rendering himself indispensable to the crown. His diplomatic skill and personal affability were noticed by his contemporaries. On one occasion, during a dinner-table debate the scholar Roger Ascham observed how Mason, ‘after his maner, was verie merie with both parties, pleasantlie playing both’. Mason himself claimed that his motto was ‘do and say nothing’. Yet he had consistently promoted scholarship, and his scholarly interests were praised by John Leland in his Encomia. He bequeathed at least a dozen volumes to the library of All Souls.
John Mason School
John Mason School
John Mason School, or JMS, is a state secondary school in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. It has a specialist Arts College status.-History:Established as an old grammar school in 1960, JMS has now grown considerably, with, as of 2007, approximately 1000 students. Ms Di Mashiter began as the...
, a secondary school in Abingdon, is named after him.
Sources
External links
Sir John Mason (1503 – 20 April 1566) was an English diplomat, spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
and Member of Parliament.
Mason was born in Abingdon
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon or archaically Abingdon-on-Thames is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Vale of White Horse district. Previously the county town of Berkshire, Abingdon is one of several places that claim to be Britain's oldest continuously occupied town, with...
in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
), southern England. He was educated at Abingdon School
Abingdon School
Abingdon School is a British day and boarding independent school for boys situated in Abingdon, Oxfordshire , previously known as Roysse's School. In 1998 a formal merger took place between Abingdon School and Josca's, a preparatory school four miles to the west at Frilford...
, part of the local abbey
Abingdon Abbey
Abingdon Abbey was a Benedictine monastery also known as St Mary's Abbey located in Abingdon, historically in the county of Berkshire but now in Oxfordshire, England.-History:...
in his native town, where his uncle, Thomas Rowland, was abbot. Later, he went to All Souls College, Oxford
All Souls College, Oxford
The Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford or All Souls College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England....
and was ordained a priest. He was ordained an acolyte in 1521 and, later that year, he was elected a fellow of All Souls and admitted to the BA degree, and in 1525 he incepted MA.
Life
His career path changed at Oxford, after he attracted the attention of Sir Thomas More, perhaps by delivering the welcome oration for Henry VIIIHenry 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...
's visit to the university in 1529. With More's support he secured a royal exhibition to study in Paris. In 1531 his old patron, the abbot of Abingdon, presented him to the first of his many ecclesiastical benefices: the rectory of Kingston Bagpuize
Kingston Bagpuize
Kingston Bagpuize is a village in the civil parish of Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor, about west of Abingdon, Oxfordshire. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes.-Geography:...
, Berkshire; but he remained in France. In 1532 he attended the meeting between Francis I of France
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
and Henry VIII at Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
.
On leaving Paris in 1533, Mason embarked upon a diplomatic career, and was soon employed carrying letters between London and Paris. To further his knowledge of foreign lands, he went from France to Spain, and by July 1534 he was at Valladolid. That year he seemed to exhibit conservative religious views, lamenting the imprisonment of Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. In 1535 he was with Emperor Charles V's court in Sicily, from where he wrote to his colleague Thomas Starkey at Padua. Both men belonged to the cadre of young scholars and diplomats recruited and directed by Thomas Cromwell. By late 1536 Mason was back in England, his basic diplomatic training complete. At this time he was rewarded by Cromwell with the canonry of Crediton
Crediton
Crediton is a town and civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon in England. It stands on the A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, about north west of Exeter. It has a population of 6,837...
(Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
), and was named a chaplain to the Bishop of Lincoln
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...
.
In 1537, Mason received his first major assignment, as secretary to the new English ambassador to the emperor, Sir Thomas Wyatt
Thomas Wyatt (poet)
Sir Thomas Wyatt was a 16th-century English lyrical poet credited with introducing the sonnet into English. He was born at Allington Castle, near Maidstone in Kent – though his family was originally from Yorkshire...
. The embassy included Edmund Bonner, at that time an anti-papalist and loyal servant of Cromwell, and almost immediately relations between Bonner and Mason were tense. Bonner complained that Wyatt listened only to Mason, relying upon him ‘as a God almighty’. Denouncing the secretary as ‘as glorious and as malicious a harlot as any that I know’, Bonner also accused Mason of treasonous contact with Cardinal Pole and described him as a papist. Aware that these complaints derived from malice, Cromwell protected Mason, and throughout 1539 and 1540 the secretary remained at work in the Netherlands. As a token of Cromwell's continued favour, in February 1540 Mason added the canonry of Timsbury, Hampshire to his growing sheaf of benefices.
During a brief visit to England, in late December that year he married Elizabeth (d. 1594), widow of Richard Hill (d. 1539) of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, and daughter of Thomas Isley of Kent. Although he acquired Hill's estate through his marriage, and was licensed to continue holding his benefices despite it, Mason soon set off to rejoin Wyatt. His journey was cut short, however, for in the turmoil following the fall of Cromwell Bonner's earlier charges of treason were revived, and on 25 January 1541 Mason was urgently recalled to London, to join Wyatt in the Tower. With Wyatt's support, however, he was soon cleared, and on 21 March Mason and his master were pardoned.
Following his release Mason did not immediately return abroad, but instead remained in England, where his acknowledged administrative acumen led to his appointment in late September 1541 as a clerk of the privy council, as a deputy for William Paget. In October 1542 Mason replaced Sir Brian Tuke as French secretary. He also regularly acted for Paget as clerk of parliaments and, upon Paget's appointment as principal secretary, in May 1543 Mason was named clerk of the council for life. The summer of 1544 found him once more across the channel, serving as a royal secretary at the siege of Boulogne
Siege of Boulogne
There were two sieges of Boulogne, in the Pas-de-Calais, during the Italian War of 1542–1546. Boulogne was fortified and defended as an English possession on the French mainland between 14 September 1544 and March 1550.- First siege :...
. In November 1545 Mason and Paget were appointed joint masters of the posts, while at the same time a second French secretary was appointed to alleviate Mason's heavy workload.
Mason finally resumed diplomatic work in April 1546, when he visited a number of German princes to promote a league with England (designed to frustrate French diplomacy) and to propose a council to resolve religious differences within the empire. Neither suggestion found much favour, forcing Mason to admit failure and to seek speedy recall. While waiting to return, he attended the emperor's court at Speyer; and then – briefly – Khortoza as a special guest of the Cardinal. He arrived home some time between July and November.
Mason's labours were rewarded with a knighthood at the coronation of Edward VI in February 1547. Although not a member of Protector Somerset's inner circle, he remained active in royal service, and there were rumours in April 1547 that he was to become English ambassador to the emperor. On 11 May his stepdaughter Mary Hill married the king's tutor John Cheke. Mason prepared a manuscript treatise on the superiority of the English crown over Scotland, apparently for the protector. With the overthrow of Somerset in the council coup of October 1549, Secretary Paget's power was further enhanced, which in turn had important consequences for his friend and protégé Mason, whose wife was also a relative of the Dudleys. Despite being a married layman, on 2 November Mason was presented by the crown to the deanery of Winchester.
He had no chance for leisure, however, for in January 1550 it was reported that he was soon to be sent to France to negotiate peace. To enhance his diplomatic stature, on 19 April he was sworn of the privy council, and four days later he departed for France. By mid-June he was in Paris, and then joined the peripatetic French court. Negotiations dragged on (from Poissy
Poissy
Poissy is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the center.In 1561 it was the site of a fruitless Catholic-Huguenot conference, the Colloquy at Poissy...
to Blois
Blois
Blois is the capital of Loir-et-Cher department in central France, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours.-History:...
to Amboise
Amboise
Amboise is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. It lies on the banks of the Loire River, east of Tours. Today a small market town, it was once home of the French royal court...
), while Mason complained repeatedly about the twin curses of early modern diplomatic life: ill health and poverty.
His appeals to return to England were not ignored: by February 1551 he had been joined in France by his replacement, but the council ordered Mason to remain until a peace treaty was settled. At last, on 20 July 1551, a marriage treaty was concluded at Angers (between Edward VI and a daughter of Henry II), and a relieved Mason departed for England. By mid-September he was back at the council board, but one lasting legacy of his stay in Paris was the publication, which he had arranged while there, of Edward Wotton's treatise on botany, De differentiis animalium (1552).
Mason was an active member of the Edwardian privy council: hearing the case against Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall (1551); investigating tampering with the coinage (1552); and reporting on Irish mines (1553). His standing is illuminated by the fact that, after a by-election in Reading
Reading (UK Parliament constituency)
Reading was a parliamentary borough, and later a borough constituency, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It comprised the town of Reading in the county of Berkshire....
in which the borough had unsuccessfully tried to return a kinsman of Somerset, on 18 January 1552 Mason was certified as its new MP; he had no previous connection with the town. He also served as a clerk of parliament.
In early 1553, he was to be sent as ambassador to the emperor, but excused himself as too old. As a councillor Mason witnessed the will of Edward VI which altered the succession, and was directly involved in the crisis which followed the king's death on 6 July. On 12 July Mason was chosen to meet the anxious imperial ambassadors to discuss the fate of Princess Mary, and the council's intentions. Despite his role as a spokesman, Mason was an astute political survivor and, realising that Jane Grey's cause was doomed, quickly made his peace with Mary. Indeed, by 30 July he had joined Mary's privy council.
Suspicions undoubtedly remained, for in early September reports circulated that Mason (and Paget) would retire from court. Before the month was over, however, Mason had been named to replace Thomas Thirlby as English ambassador to the emperor.
In late 1553, Thirlby briefly returned to Brussels and Mason to England. Misfortune befell his family in early 1554 when two of his brothers-in-law were executed for their parts in Wyatt's rebellion, despite Mason's anxious appeals for clemency. Nonetheless, he was elected MP for Hampshire
Hampshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Hampshire was a county constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which returned two Knights of the Shire to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1832...
to the parliament which opened on 2 April. He was in London on 15 April, but soon after returned to the Netherlands. Still mistrusted in some quarters, he was reported by the imperial ambassador that year to be hostile to Catholicism, yet in 1555 he was rumoured as a possible candidate for the post of chief secretary.
Although opposed to Mary's proposed Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
marriage, Mason remained as ambassador to Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
but he was in Windsor
Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....
in March 1556 and finally recalled to England that summer. As a layman, and married, Mason was stripped of his ecclesiastical benefices that year and in October was compelled to resign his chancellorship at Oxford in favour of Cardinal Pole. However, he was compensated with a substantial pension.
In October 1557, there were rumours that Mason, an active Marian councillor, would shortly replace William Petre as principal secretary, and on 31 October 1558 (not long before her death) the queen appointed him treasurer of the chamber. He served again as knight of the shire for Hampshire in that year's parliament.
Upon the accession of Elizabeth I
Elizabeth 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 November 1558 Mason was the sole senior household officer (treasurer of the chamber) to retain his post (and also the richest): testimony to his strong administrative ability and sound political judgement. Despite the distrust of some Protestants, Mason also remained at the council board, where during the early weeks of the reign he pressed for peace with France, even at the price of abandoning claims to Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
.
Elizabeth soon drew upon his considerable diplomatic experience, unhappy with the lack of progress by English negotiators at the peace talks at Le Cateau-Cambrésis
Le Cateau-Cambrésis
Le Cateau-Cambrésis is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.The term Cambrésis indicates that it lies in the county of that name which fell to the Prince-Bishop of Cambrai.-History:...
. Dispatched to the conference in mid-March 1559 to deliver a royal rebuke to the English commissioners, Mason found that a treaty had been concluded a few days earlier. He was soon back in England as a councillor; rumours that he was to be sent as ambassador to Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
came to nothing. While he was personally closer to his old friends Paget and Petre than to William Cecil
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572...
, Mason's opposition to the secretary's intervention in Scotland and the Newhaven
Newhaven, East Sussex
Newhaven is a town in the Lewes District of East Sussex in England. It lies at the mouth of the River Ouse, on the English Channel coast, and is a ferry port for services to France.-Origins:...
(Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
) expedition owed more to his pragmatism than to factional politics.
Despite recurring bouts of ill health, Mason continued freely to offer counsel, warning of the perils of foreign military adventures and urging the queen to pursue peace. He last attended the council in June 1565. Meanwhile he was again MP for Hampshire in the parliaments of 1559 and 1563, and was re-elected chancellor of Oxford in June 1559, serving until his resignation in December 1564.
Throughout his career, Mason worked to protect and promote the interests of his native Abingdon. As a Berkshire chantry commissioner he was involved in the suppression of the Hospital of St Helen, which he later restored as Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital of Abingdon
Christ's Hospital of Abingdon is a charity with a long history, based in Abingdon, England.Christ's Hospital was established in 1553 by royal charter under the full name of the Master and Governors of the Hospital of Christ of Abingdon. Sir John Mason, an Elizabethan diplomat, served as the first...
(May 1553), serving as its first master. In 1549 Mason became steward of the lands of the dissolved abbey, and was a patron of the local grammar school. Although in 1551 he wrote to William Cecil opposing Abingdon's bid for a borough charter, it seems likely that he assisted in securing that charter in 1556, earning him the effusive praise of Francis Little in A Monument of Christian Munificence (1627), as one ‘whose memory deserves and ought to be honoured with a statue advanced in the most conspicuous place of this town’ (p. 47).
Final years
During his final years he divided his time between his principal estate at Hartley Wintney and the house of his son-in-law Francis Spelman at GunnersburyGunnersbury
Gunnersbury is a place in the London Borough of Hounslow, with its northern edge in the London Borough of Ealing, west London. It has an area of less than half a square kilometre and is within the west area of the Chiswick W4 postal district of London....
, Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
. The ambiguity surrounding Mason's religious views was shared by many of his colleagues, and continued to the end of his life: in 1564, the Bishop of Winchester
Bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England diocese of Winchester, with his cathedra at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.The bishop is one of five Church of England bishops to be among the Lords Spiritual regardless of their length of service. His diocese is one of the oldest and...
reported that he was favourable to true religion, while at his death the Spanish ambassador claimed he was a Catholic. There is no evidence of Catholicism in his will, in which he asked forgiveness for his sins from God ‘who hathe saved us not according unto workes of Justice that we have doon but according unto his Mercie’.
Among its many beneficiaries were his half-brother Thomas Wikes, or Wykes, of Drayton, near Abingdon, Thomas's children, and the children of another half-brother, John Wikes. His overseers were named as Secretary of State Sir William Cecil, the master of the rolls, Sir William Cordell, the archdeacon of Surrey, John Watson
John Watson (Bishop)
-Life:He was born in Evesham, Worcestershire England, the son of Thomas Watson and Agnes nee Weeks. Thomas Watson was born in Evesham around 1491 and in 1544 purchased part of the former Evesham Abbey lands and the lordship of Bengeworth, across the River Avon from Evesham town. On those lands he...
, and Robert Creswell. He died on 20 or 21 April 1566 and was buried in the north choir aisle of St Paul's Cathedral in London, where his widow and his heir, his nephew Anthony Wyckes (later Mason), erected a monument; his son Thomas had predeceased him, although he was survived by several stepdaughters.
The monument proclaimed that Mason had faithfully served four Tudor
Tudor dynasty
The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...
monarchs as ambassador and councillor, successfully weathering a succession of religious and political storms. His political longevity testified to his discretion in keeping his own counsel, and his adroitness in rendering himself indispensable to the crown. His diplomatic skill and personal affability were noticed by his contemporaries. On one occasion, during a dinner-table debate the scholar Roger Ascham observed how Mason, ‘after his maner, was verie merie with both parties, pleasantlie playing both’. Mason himself claimed that his motto was ‘do and say nothing’. Yet he had consistently promoted scholarship, and his scholarly interests were praised by John Leland in his Encomia. He bequeathed at least a dozen volumes to the library of All Souls.
John Mason School
John Mason School
John Mason School, or JMS, is a state secondary school in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. It has a specialist Arts College status.-History:Established as an old grammar school in 1960, JMS has now grown considerably, with, as of 2007, approximately 1000 students. Ms Di Mashiter began as the...
, a secondary school in Abingdon, is named after him.