Thomas Clere

Last updated April 25, 2024

Sir Thomas Clere (died 14 April 1545) was a successful poet at the court of Henry VIII. He is commemorated in several poems by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, with whom he had a very close friendship. He was engaged to Mary Shelton, a former mistress of the King's, in 1545,^[1] but died before their love match could be made into a marriage.

Thomas Clere was the third son of Sir Robert Clere (c.1493 - 10 August 1529) of Ormesby St. Margaret, Norfolk, and his wife Alice, the daughter of Sir William Boleyn and his wife Margaret Ormond (otherwise Butler), daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond. Alice was the sister of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and the aunt of King Henry VIII's second Queen, Anne Boleyn. Sir Thomas Clere was thus Queen Anne Boleyn's first cousin.^[2]

His mother Alice Clere died in 1538, and left the family estates to his older brother John Clere. She left Thomas "a salt of gold with a cover having a rose in the knop, and a pair of beads of gold" set with stones (a rosary) which had been gifts from Anne Boleyn.^[3]

Thomas Clere was buried in the Church of St Mary at Lambeth in Surrey. His monumental brass is currently in storage.^[4] His nephew, Edward Clere was killed at the battle of Pinkie in 1547.

Footnotes

↑ Hart, Kelly (1 June 2009). The Mistresses of Henry VIII (First ed.). The History Press. pp. 126–128. ISBN 978-0-7524-4835-0.
↑ Richardson 2004 , pp. 35, 179.
↑ Descriptive catalogue of ancient deeds in the Public Record Office, 5 (London: HMSO, 1906), p. 255, A. 12173
↑ Thomas Clere memorial, IWM

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References

Bindoff, S.T. (1982). The House of Commons 1509-1558. Vol. III. London: Secker & Warburg.
Block, Joseph S. (2006). "Shelton family (per. 1504–1558), gentry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/70835.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Heale, Elizabeth (2004). "Shelton, Mary (married names Mary Heveningham, Lady Heveningham; Mary Appleyard) (1510x15–1570/71), contributor to manuscript miscellany". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/68085.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Herman, Peter C., ed. (1994). Rethinking the Henrician Era: Essays on Early Tudor Texts and Contexts . University of Illinois Press. pp. 40–77. ISBN 9780252063404. rethinking the Henrician era.
Ives, E. W. (2004). "Anne (Anne Boleyn) (c.1500–1536), queen of England, second consort of Henry VIII". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/557.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Richardson, Douglas (2004). Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company Inc. ISBN 9780806317502.
Weir, Alison (1991). The Six Wives of Henry VIII. New York: Grove Weidenfeld.

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[1] Hart, Kelly (1 June 2009). The Mistresses of Henry VIII (First ed.). The History Press. pp. 126–128. ISBN 978-0-7524-4835-0.

[2] Richardson 2004 , pp. 35, 179.

[3] Descriptive catalogue of ancient deeds in the Public Record Office, 5 (London: HMSO, 1906), p. 255, A. 12173

[4] Thomas Clere memorial, IWM

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