William Levett
Encyclopedia
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
. Levett accompanied the King during his flight from Parliamentary forces, including his escape from Hampton Court palace, and eventually to his imprisonment in Carisbrooke Castle
Carisbrooke Castle
Carisbrooke Castle is a historic motte-and-bailey castle located in the village of Carisbrooke, near Newport, Isle of Wight, England. Charles I was imprisoned at the castle in the months prior to his trial.-Early history:...
on the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
, and finally to the scaffold on which he was executed. Following the King's death, Levett wrote a letter claiming that he had witnessed the King writing the so-called Eikon Basilike
Eikon Basilike
The Eikon Basilike , The Pourtrature of His Sacred Majestie in His Solitudes and Sufferings, was a purported spiritual autobiography attributed to King Charles I of England...
during his imprisonment, an allegation that produced a flurry of new claims about the disputed manuscript and flamed a growing movement to rehabilitate the image of the executed monarch.
The brother of Rev. Richard Levett of Ashwell, Rutland
Ashwell, Rutland
Ashwell is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is located about three miles north of Oakham....
, William Levett
Levett
Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of...
was likely born in Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray is a town in the Melton borough of Leicestershire, England. It is to the northeast of Leicester, and southeast of Nottingham...
, Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
, the son of James Levett, descendant of a knightly Sussex family of Anglo-Norman
Anglo-Norman
The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...
descent. Levett entered the Royal service as a Page of the Backstairs
Page of the Backstairs
A Page of the Backstairs is a senior servant of the British Royal Household who personally attends to the Sovereign and/or spouse ....
, eventually rising to Groom of the Bedchamber. As a courtier, Levett likely benefitted from favors dispensed by the monarchy.
Levett's appointment as courtier seems to date from the beginning of King Charles' reign. By the time the King had been captured and sent to Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, it was clear that Levett had made himself indispensable: the King requested that Levett be one of the few courtiers allowed to accompany him there. During the King's escape from Hampton Court, Levett had apparently proven his mettle, accompanying the King in his flight southward away from Parliamentary forces.
Towards the end of his life, writing from his home in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, where he owned Levett's Farm within Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest is on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately .It is privately owned by the Trustees of Savernake Estate, the Earl of Cardigan, and his family solicitor. Since 1939 the running of the forest has been...
, had long leased the Goddard mansion in Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
, and owned property at Manton as well, Levett sent a letter claiming that he had seen King Charles writing the Eikon Basilike. The letter, signed by Levet on 29 April 1691, and incorporated into later editions of the work alleged to have been authored by the monarch, was celebrated by those who wished to see the dead King as saint for having given his life for the cause of the nation.
"If anyone has a desire to know the true author of the book entitled Eikon Basilike," Levett wrote, "I, one of the servants of King Charles the First, in his bedchamber, do declare, when his said Majesty was prisoner in the Isle of Wight, that I read over the above mentioned book, (which was long before the said book was printed) in his bed-chamber, writ with his Majesty's own hand, with several underlinings."
"I can testify also," Levett continued in his letter, "that Royston
Richard Royston
Richard Royston was an English bookseller and publisher, bookseller to Charles I, Charles II and James II.Royston, the son of an Oxford tailor Richard Royston and Alice Tideman, was admitted a freeman of the Stationers' Company in 1627. In the 1630s he published work by John Donne and Thomas Heywood...
the printer told me, that he was imprisoned by Oliver Cromwell, the Protector, because he would not declare that King Charles the First, was not the author of the said Book." Besides Levett, Royston the printer figured prominently in the attempts to prove that the King himself had authored the Eikon Basilike.
In his letter, which he gave to his son Dr. Henry Levett
Henry Levett
Dr. Henry Levett was an early English physician who wrote a pioneering tract on the treatment of smallpox and served as chief physician at London Charterhouse....
of the Charterhouse London, Levett made clear that he was much in favor with Charles, which contemporary observers noted. In a later letter to Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...
barrister Seymour Bourman, Levett noted that he was nearly always in the King's presence. "I waited on his Majesty, as page of the bedchamber in ordinary, during all the time of his solitudes, (except when I was forced from him). And specially being nominated by his Majesty to be one of his servants, among others, that should attend him during the treaty at Newport, in the isle of Wight."
Following the execution of the King, Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
permitted the King's head to be sewn back onto his body for burial. Charles was buried in private on the night of February 7, 1649, inside the Henry VIII vault in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. William Levett Esq. and four other royal retainers -- Sir Thomas Herbert, Capt. Anthony Mildmay, Sir Henry Firebrace
Sir Henry Firebrace
Sir Henry Firebrace was a courtier to Charles I, serving during his conflicts with Parliament throughout the era of the English Civil Wars...
and Abraham Dowcett (sometimes spelled Dowsett) -- conveyed the King's body to Windsor
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
. The King's son, King Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
, later planned an elaborate royal mausoleum, but it was never built.
Following the rule of Cromwell and Parliament, Levett, now acting as an officer in the militia, aided the Royal forces when they retook Marlborough, a former hotbed of Roundhead sentiment. In a letter to Col. Charles Seymour
Seymour family
Seymour, or St. Maur, is the name of an English family in which several titles of nobility have from time to time been created, and of which the Duke of Somerset is the head.-Origins:...
of 1663, Levett wrote of riding into Marlborough, where he and a party of Royalist sympathizers "assaulted the burial place of the Quakers at Wanton and laid it waste, leaving all the prey to the owners' disposal."
William Levett lived out the rest of his life following his service to King Charles at his homes in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, where he had secured a sinecure as an agent and surveyor for Francis Seymour, 5th Duke of Somerset
Francis Seymour, 5th Duke of Somerset
Francis Seymour, 5th Duke of Somerset , known as 3rd Baron Seymour of Trowbridge between 1665 and 1675, was an English peer....
. Levett had leased the Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
manor house of the Goddard family property at Swindon beginning in 1658. On 22 January 1658, Francis Bowman Gent., "guardian of Thomas Goddard, leased to Levett a "mansion house lately occupied by Anne Goddard in Swindon." Later Goddard family leases to Levett, who retained his farm within Savernake Forest, would come to include other lands owned by the Goddard family in Swindon. In the lease of April 5, 1664, the lease by Goddard notes that "the Parke etc." is included as well as the Goddard mansion. Levett subsequently buried two of his children at Holy Rood Church, the church on the Goddard estate in Swindon.
Levett frequented acted in legal matters on behalf of the county, and subsequently served King Charles II of England as Page of the Backstairs
Page of the Backstairs
A Page of the Backstairs is a senior servant of the British Royal Household who personally attends to the Sovereign and/or spouse ....
, beginning at the Restoration in 1660. How long he served the Royal Household
Royal Household
A Royal Household in ancient and medieval monarchies formed the basis for the general government of the country as well as providing for the needs of the sovereign and his relations....
is his second incarnation as a courtier is unclear, and he spent the rest of his life trying to recover a pension for his time as a courtier. The former courtier did receive monies from the Crown from time to time, including two such payments in 1680, one advanced out of the "remains of the Queen's Portugal portion."
Charing
Charing is a small village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, in south-east England. The parish population is 2,750 ; it includes the settlement of Charing Heath.It is situated at the foot of the North Downs...
, Kent. There is a monument to Catherine Levett Dering on the floor of the church chancel. They had no children.
"Here lieth the Body of Catherine DERING," reads the monument to the daughter of William Levett, "wife of the Reverend Edward Dering, clerk. She was daughter of William LEVET Esquire who served King Charles the First many years and attended him on ye scaffold at the time of his martyrdom. She departed this life December 4th 1701 and left noe issue."
Levett's sworn statement about the King, once in the hands of his son Dr. Henry Levett, later disappeared. There are indications that Henry Levett, a fellow of Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...
, may given the original to the well-known Oxford antiquarian Anthony Wood
Anthony Wood
Anthony Wood or Anthony à Wood was an English antiquary.-Early life:Anthony Wood was the fourth son of Thomas Wood , BCL of Oxford, where Anthony was born...
. The mementos presented to Levett from King Charles following his death on the scaffold are still owned by the descendants of William Levett's brother, vicar Richard Levett of Rutland, who live at Milford Hall
Milford Hall
Milford Hall is a privately owned 18th-century country mansion house at Milford, near Stafford. It is the home of the Levett Haszard family and is a Grade II listed building....
in Staffordshire. It is also likely that two portraits by artist Sir Anthony van Dyck
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...
of King Charles I and his Queen, later in the possession of Sir Richard Levett
Richard Levett
Sir Richard Levett , Sheriff, Alderman and Lord Mayor of London, was one of the first directors of the Bank of England, an adventurer with the London East India Company and the proprietor of the trading firm Sir Richard Levett & Company. He had homes at Kew and in London's Cripplegate, close by...
, Lord Mayor of London
Lord Mayor of London
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
, were initially owned by courtier William Levet and found their way to his nephew the Lord Mayor.
Sources
- The Levetts of Staffordshire, Dyonese Levett Haszard, Milford, Staffordshire, privately printed
- A Narrative by John Ashburnham of His Attendance on King Charles the First, John Ashburnham, George Ashburnham Ashburnham, Payne and Foss, London, 1830
- Eikon Basilike, King Charles, John Gauden, Edward Almack, Chatto and Windus, London, 1907
- Restitution to the Royal Author, Or, A Vindication of King Charls the Martyr's Most Excellent Book Intitutled 'Eikōn Basilikē' from the False, Scandalous, and Malicious Reflections Lately Published Against it, William Levett, Samuel Keble, Samuel Keble at the Great Turk's Head, London, 1691