Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron Vaux of Harrowden

Last updated

The Lord Vaux of Harrowden
Thomas, Lord Vaux, detail, by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg
Portrait of Thomas, Lord Vaux, circa unknown.
Born25 April 1509
Died15 October 1556(1556-10-15) (aged 47)
OccupationPoet, dramatist, essayist, novelist
Alma mater Cambridge University
SpouseElizabeth Cheney (m. 1523–1556; his death)

Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron Vaux of Harrowden KB (25 April 1509 [1] – October 1556), English poet, was the eldest son of Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux and his second wife, Anne Green, daughter of Sir Thomas Green, Lord of Nortons Green, and Joan Fogge. [2] [3] He was educated at Cambridge University. [4] His mother was the maternal aunt of Queen Consort Katherine Parr, while his wife, Elizabeth Cheney, was her paternal cousin through Katherine's father's sister, Anne Parr.

Contents

Life

In 1527, he accompanied Cardinal Wolsey on his embassy in France. Vaux privately disapproved of King Henry VIII's divorce from his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. In 1531, he took his seat in the House of Lords. In 1532, he attended Henry VIII to Calais and Boulogne and was made Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Anne Boleyn. [5] He was Lieutenant Governor of Jersey in 1536. Schism from Rome caused him to sell his offices; he did not attend Parliament between 1534 and 1554. [6] Instead, Vaux retired to his country seat until the accession of Mary I, when he returned to London for her coronation. [6] Vaux was the friend of other court poets such as Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. [6]

Family and issue

Elizabeth Cheney, Lady Vaux. Black and coloured chalks; Royal Collection, Windsor Castle. Elizabeth, Lady Vaux, by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg
Elizabeth Cheney, Lady Vaux. Black and coloured chalks; Royal Collection, Windsor Castle.

Thomas's father, Nicholas, had been previously married to Elizabeth FitzHugh, daughter of Henry FitzHugh, 5th Lord FitzHugh of Ravensworth Castle and Lady Alice Neville, as her second husband. [3] From that marriage, Vaux had three older paternal half-sisters; Katherine Throckmorton; Alice Sapcote; and Anne Le Strange. [3] By Elizabeth's first marriage to Sir William Parr, she was the mother of Anne Parr, the mother of Thomas' wife, Elizabeth Cheney. [3] Elizabeth FitzHugh was also the mother to Sir Thomas Parr, thus making her the paternal grandmother of Queen Katherine Parr. [3] After the death of Elizabeth in about 1507, his father married secondly to Anne Green, who was the older sister of Maud Green who had married Sir Thomas Parr; thus making Vaux a first cousin to Queen Katherine. [3]

On 6 May 1511, Sir Thomas, aged two, was contracted to marry Elizabeth Cheney, [3] the daughter of Sir Thomas Cheyne of Irthlingborough [7] (d. 1514 [8] ) and Anne Parr. [9] Thomas married Elizabeth between 25 April 1523 and 10 November 1523. [3] They had three children.

Thomas Vaux died in October 1556. Sketches of Vaux and his wife by Holbein are held at Windsor Castle and a finished portrait of Lady Vaux at Hampton Court. [5]

Works

Two of his poems were included in the Songes and Sonettes of Surrey ( Tottel's Miscellany ), published in 1557: "The assault of Cupid upon the fort where the lover's hart lay wounded, and how he was taken," and the "Dittye ... representinge the Image of Deathe," which the gravedigger in Shakespeare's Hamlet misquotes. [5]

Thirteen pieces in the Paradise of Dainty Devices, published in 1576, are signed by him. These are reprinted in Alexander Grosart's Miscellanies of the Fuller Worthies Library (vol. iv, 1872). [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baron Vaux of Harrowden</span> Title in the Peerage of England

Baron Vaux of Harrowden is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1523 for Sir Nicholas Vaux. The barony was created by writ, which means that it can pass through both male and female lines. Vaux was succeeded by his son, the second Baron. He was a poet and member of the courts of Henry VIII and Edward VI. The Vaux family was related to queen consort Catherine Parr by the first baron's two wives; Elizabeth FitzHugh and Anne Green. On the death in 1663 of his great-grandson, the fifth Baron, the title fell into abeyance between the late Baron's surviving sister Joyce, and the heirs of his deceased sisters Mary, Lady Symeon, and Catherine, Baroness Abergavenny.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Cheney</span> Member of the Parliament of England

Sir Thomas Cheney KG of the Blackfriars, City of London and Shurland, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, was an English administrator and diplomat, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in south-east England from 1536 until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden</span> English soldier and courtier

Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden was a soldier and courtier in England and an early member of the House of Commons. He was the son of Lancastrian loyalists Sir William Vaux of Harrowden and Katherine Penyson, a lady of the household of Queen Margaret of Anjou, wife of the Lancastrian king, Henry VI of England. Katherine was a daughter of Gregorio Panizzone of Courticelle, in Piedmont, Italy which was at that time subject to King René of Anjou, father of Queen Margaret of Anjou, as ruler of Provence. He grew up during the years of Yorkist rule and later served under the founder of the Tudor dynasty, Henry VII.

William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Horton was the son of Sir William Parr and his second wife, the Hon. Elizabeth Fitzhugh, later Lady Vaux of Harrowden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Parr (died 1483)</span> Member of the Parliament of England

Sir William Parr, KG (1434–1483) was an English courtier and soldier. He was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Parr (1405–1461) and his wife Alice, daughter of Sir Thomas Tunstall of Thurland, Lancashire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baron FitzHugh</span> Abeyant title in the Peerage of England

Baron FitzHugh, of Ravensworth in North Yorkshire, is an abeyant title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1321 for Sir Henry FitzHugh. The title passed through the male line until the death in 1513 of George FitzHugh, 7th Baron FitzHugh, when it became abeyant between his great-aunts Alice, Lady Fiennes and Elizabeth, Lady Parr, and to their descendants living today, listed below. The family seat was Ravensworth Castle in North Yorkshire, situated 4.5 miles north-west of Richmond Castle, caput of the Honour of Richmond, one of the most important fiefdoms in Norman England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Parr (courtier)</span> English courtier and official

Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal in Westmorland, England, was a courtier and is best known as the father of Queen Catherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Vaux, 3rd Baron Vaux of Harrowden</span> English peer

William Vaux, 3rd Baron Vaux of Harrowden was an English peer. He was noted for his Roman Catholic faith and support of Catholic missionary activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Throckmorton</span> 16th-century English politician

Sir George Throckmorton of Coughton Court in Warwickshire, England, was a Member of Parliament during the reign of King Henry VIII.

Sir Thomas Neville or Nevill was a younger son of George Neville, 4th Baron Bergavenny. He was a prominent lawyer and a trusted councillor of King Henry VIII, and was elected Speaker of the House of Commons in 1515.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby de Broke</span>

Robert Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby de Broke, de jure 9th Baron Latimer, KG, of Brook, near Westbury, Wiltshire, was one of the chief commanders of the royal forces of King Henry VII against the Cornish rebellion of 1497.

Lady Alice Fiennes was the eldest daughter and co-heiress of Henry FitzHugh, 5th Baron FitzHugh, and Alice Neville. Alice was born at the ancestral castle of Ravensworth. She married Sir John Fiennes, the son of Sir Richard Fiennes and Joan Dacre, 7th Baroness Dacre. Alice was a first cousin of Queen consort Anne Neville and a great-aunt of Queen consort Catherine Parr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Throckmorton</span> English politician and courtier (c. 1513–1581)

Sir Robert Throckmorton, KG, of Coughton Court in Warwickshire, was a Member of Parliament and a distinguished English courtier. His public career was impeded by remaining a Roman Catholic.

Elizabeth FitzHugh also known as Lady Elizabeth Parr. She was an English noblewoman and lady-in-waiting to her cousin, Anne Neville, queen consort of King Richard III. She was grandmother of Catherine Parr, sixth queen consort to King Henry VIII, and her siblings Anne Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, and William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Thomas Green</span>

Sir Thomas Green was a member of the English gentry who died in the Tower of London, where he had been imprisoned for treason. He is best known as the grandfather of Catherine Parr, last wife of King Henry VIII.

Alice Neville, Baroness FitzHugh or Lady Alice FitzHugh, was the wife of Henry FitzHugh, 5th Baron FitzHugh. She is best known for being the great-grandmother of queen consort Catherine Parr and her siblings, Anne and William, as well as one of the sisters of Warwick the 'Kingmaker'. Her family was one of the oldest and most powerful families of the North. They had a long-standing tradition of military service and a reputation for seeking power at the cost of the loyalty to the crown as was demonstrated by her brother, the Earl of Warwick.

Richard Lestrange of Hunstanton and King's Lynn, Norfolk; later of Kilkenny, Ireland, was an English politician.

Origins

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Thomas Le Strange</span>

Sir Thomas Le Strange (1494–1545) of Hunstanton, Norfolk, born in 1494, son of Robert le Strange (d. 1511), sixth in descent from Hamo le Strange, brother of John le Strange, 6th Baron of Knockyn, was Esquire of the Body to Henry VIII, and attended the King when he went to the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520; he was knighted by Henry at Whitehall in 1529, and served as High Sheriff of Norfolk in 1532.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Fogge</span> English courtier (1492–1531)

Joan Fogge, Lady Green was an English noblewoman. She was the mother of Maud Green,and therefore the maternal grandmother of Catherine Parr the sixth wife of King Henry VIII of England.

References

  1. George Edward Cokayne. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, Vol. XII/2, pp. 219-221.
  2. Unknown author, David Faris. Plantagenet Ancestry of 17th Century Colonists, p. 39.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, pp. 326, 561–562 and 566.
  4. Dominic Head. The Cambridge Guide To Literature in English, Cambridge University Press, 26 January 2006. p. 1151.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Chisholm 1911.
  6. 1 2 3 John Saward, John Morrill, Michael Tomko. Firmly I Believe and Truly: The Spiritual Tradition of Catholic England, Oxford University Press, 15 November 2011. p. 92.
  7. "Parishes: Pytchley | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 6 October 2023. Elizabeth and Lawrence de Pabenham. Elizabeth predeceased her husband, and at his death in 1399 their heir was their daughter Katharine, aged 27. Katharine married first Sir William Cheyne of Fen Ditton (Cambs.), and secondly Sir Thomas Aylesbury, in whose hands the two Pytchley manors are consequently found at his death in September 1418. The manor of Engaynes then consisted of three parcels, one being held by the hunting serjeanty, another of the Abbot of Peterborough, and the remainder of John Knyvet as of his manor of Weldon. On the death of Katharine Aylesbury, in 1436, her son Lawrence Cheyne inherited the manor, and in 1449 settled it on himself and his wife Elizabeth, with remainder to their son John. Sir Thomas Cheyney, son of the last-named Sir John, in 1503 granted the manor of Pytchley to Ralph Lane and Katharine his wife, kinswoman of the said Sir Thomas Cheyney, for life, with remainder for life to John Dockwra, son of the said Katherine. In 1511, when a marriage was proposed between Elizabeth, the daughter and heir of this Sir Thomas Cheyney (of Irtlingborough), and Thomas Vaux, son and heir apparent of Sir Nicholas Vaux, the reversion of the manor was settled in tail on Elizabeth. Sir Thomas Cheyney died seised of the manor on 13 January 1514, his daughter being then 9 years old. Her subsequent marriage with Sir Thomas Vaux conveyed Pytchley to the Vaux of Harrowden (q.v.), who did not long hold it however. Sir Thomas Vaux, Lord Harrowden, with William Vaux his son and heir, sold the manor of Pytchley called Geynes in 1555 to Gregory Isham, citizen and merchant of London.
  8. Catalogue description: Will of Sir Thomas Cheyne of Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire. Date: 23 February 1514. Reference: PROB 11/17/518. Held by: The National Archives, Kew. 23 February 1514.
  9. Emerson, Kathy Lynn (11 October 2020). A Who's Who of Tudor Women. Kathy Lynn Emerson. pp. Entry for ‘Elizabeth Cheney (1505 – 20 November 1556)’.

Sources

Political offices
Preceded by
Sir Arthur Darcy
Lieutenant Governor of Jersey
1536
Succeeded by
Peerage of England
Preceded by Baron Vaux of Harrowden
1523–1556
Succeeded by