Sir Thomas Cheney KG

Order of the Garter

The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry, or knighthood, existing in England. The order is dedicated to the image and arms of St...

 (c. 1485 – 15 December 1558) was the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports

Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports

The Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports is a ceremonial official in the United Kingdom. The post dates from at least the 12th century but may be older. The Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports was originally in charge of the Cinque Ports, a group of five port towns on the southeast coast of England...

 in South-East England, from 1536 until his death.

Early life

Thomas was born around 1485 at Shurland House, Eastchurch

Eastchurch

Eastchurch is a village on the Isle of Sheppey, in the English county of Kent, two miles east of Minster.The village website claims "... it has a history steeped in stories of piracy and smugglers".- Aviation history :...

 on the Isle of Sheppey

Isle of Sheppey

The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England in the Thames Estuary, some to the east of London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale...

 in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, the son of William Cheney by his second wife, Agnes (or Margaret) Young. One of his three brothers, Francis Cheney was a Governor of Queenborough Castle, Isle of Sheppey. His uncle and guardian was Sir John Cheyne, and when Sir John died in 1499 the estates of both Sir John and Thomas's father (which were also in the care of Sir John) found their way into the hands of his brother Francis. Francis died childless in 1512, leaving only Thomas's father's land to Thomas.

Career

Thomas Cheney was knighted by 1513.

He was a favourite of Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

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

's fiancée, Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...

, and she fought Cardinal Wolsey for his promotion in 1528 and 1529. However, it was not until 1535–40 that Cheney consolidated his authority as one of the most powerful men in the south-east of England. From Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

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

's coming to the throne of England in 1509, Cheyne served as Lord Warden, spanning the reigns of all five of the 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. Cheney was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold

Field of the Cloth of Gold

The Field of Cloth of Gold is the name given to a place in Balinghem, between Guînes and Ardres, in France, near Calais. It was the site of a meeting that took place from 7 June to 24 June 1520, between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France. The meeting was arranged to increase...

 in 1520, and served three times as an ambassador to France, under the authority of Henry VIII and Charles V of France

Charles V of France

Charles V , called the Wise, was King of France from 1364 to his death in 1380 and a member of the House of Valois...

, between 1549 and 1553. He was Treasurer of the Household

Treasurer of the Household

The position of Treasurer of the Household is theoretically held by a household official of the British monarch, under control of the Lord Steward's Department, but is, in fact, a political office held by one of the government's Deputy Chief Whips in the House of Commons...

 from early 1530, and he is recorded as being present at over half of the Privy Council meetings held between 1540 and 1543.

He represented Kent

Kent (UK Parliament constituency)

Kent was a parliamentary constituency covering the county of Kent in southeast England. It returned two "knights of the shire" to the House of Commons by the bloc vote system from the year 1290...

 as a knight of the shire in every parliament from 1539 to 1558 with the single exception of the election in 1555.

"Cheyne was among those councillors entrusted with the government of the realm during Somerset's Scottish campaign of 1547."

"He was among those who sanctioned Gardiner's imprisonment in June 1548, and he was involved in the interrogation of Sir Thomas Seymour in 1549."

Thomas Cheyne opposed the plan to place Lady Jane Grey

Lady Jane Grey

Lady Jane Grey , also known as The Nine Days' Queen, was an English noblewoman who was de facto monarch of England from 10 July until 19 July 1553 and was subsequently executed...

 on the throne, and although he acquiesced with Northumberland

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland

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

's policy, he pledged his support for Mary I

Mary I of England

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

 as soon as he felt it safe so to do. So fickle a courtier was he that the Marian Court privately distrusted his loyalty during the outbreak of a rebellion represented for Kent by his 'friend and neighbour' Sir Thomas Wyatt

Thomas Wyatt the younger

Sir Thomas Wyatt the younger was a rebel leader during the reign of Queen Mary I of England; his rising is traditionally called "Wyatt's rebellion".-Birth and career:...

 in the attack on London in 1554, but the very fact that he sent men against Northumberland indicates something of his position. Cheney was initially distrusted by Mary, as she confessed to the imperial(?) ambassador, his 'early show of support' proving shrewd as Cheney retained his position as 'Treasurer of the Household' whilst other household officers were replaced.

As the Constable of Saltwood

Saltwood

Saltwood is a village and civil parish in the Shepway District of Kent, England. Within the parish are two other settlements: Pedlinge and Sandling; both being small hamlets.-Geography:...

 Castle (near Hythe), Queenborough Castle (in Sheppey), Rochester Castle and Dover Castle, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports

Cinque Ports

The Confederation of Cinque Ports is a historic series of coastal towns in Kent and Sussex. It was originally formed for military and trade purposes, but is now entirely ceremonial. It lies at the eastern end of the English Channel, where the crossing to the continent is narrowest...

 and Lord Lieutenant of Kent (1551–3), Thomas Cheney was much 'involved with musters and coastal defence'. Sir Thomas Cheyne was appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports on 17 May 1536 and appears to have been deprived of the office soon after Edward VI

Edward VI of England

Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...

's accession, but was granted it back to him the following April.

Conspicuously in April 1545 Cheney suffered a bout of illness, and was temporarily replaced in his duties as the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports by Sir Thomas Seymour

Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley

Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, KG was an English politician.Thomas spent his childhood in Wulfhall, outside Savernake Forest, in Wiltshire. Historian David Starkey describes Thomas thus: 'tall, well-built and with a dashing beard and auburn hair, he was irresistible to women'...

, Hertford's brother. For the next 4 months Cheney delegated his responsibilities in the Cinque Ports and Kent to Seymour.

Death

Sir Thomas died at Minster-in-Sheppey

Minster-in-Sheppey

Minster is a small town on the north coast of the Isle of Sheppey and in the Swale district of Kent, England.-Toponymy:The name of the town derives from the monastery founded in the area...

, and was buried at the Trinity Church on Sheppey. His will and the elaborate proceedings at his funeral were entirely consistent with the orthodox Catholicism of the period, showing him to have been conservative. In his will dated 1558, Cheney mentioned various properties which together gave him an annual rent of over £950, and after his death it was estimated that he maintained between 200-300 servants and retainers. He had married firstly Frideswide Frowich, between 1509 and 1515, at Shurland House. They had three children: Frances, John and Cecily (or Catherine). He later married Anne Broughton (d. 1561), the daughter of Sir William Broughton, in 1539, at Toddington, in Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

. Their son, Henry

Henry Cheyne, 1st Baron Cheyne

Henry Cheyne, 1st Baron Cheyne was an English politician.He was the son of Sir Thomas Cheyne of Shurland, Isle of Sheppey, Kent.He was elected knight of the shire for Kent from 1562 to 1567....

, became 1st Baron Cheyne of Toddington.