Gawain Carew

Funerary monument of Gawain Carew in Exeter Cathedral

Sir Gawain Carew (also Gawen Carew ) (* around 1503; † before June 30, 1585 ) was an English nobleman, military man and politician who was elected at least four times as a member of the House of Commons .

Origin and youth

Gawein Carew came from the Carew family , an old gentry family who had lived in south-west England since the late Middle Ages. He was the fourth son of Sir Edmund Carew of Mohun's Ottery and his wife Catherine Huddesfield. His father was killed in the war in France as early as 1513. In his recently issued will, he had made special provisions for his two younger sons, George and Gawain, which he entrusted to his older son Nicholas Carew, who was about 30 years old at the time of his death . Not only did he leave money for their upbringing, but £ 200 each to be given to them when they married. Nicholas Carew apparently gave his two young brothers to his relative Henry Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon , in whose household they grew up.

Rise as politician and military under Henry VIII.

In October 1532 Carew's brother-in-law, the Duke of Suffolk , tried to get him the office of Sheriff of Devon , but this failed. As a younger son, he had not inherited any land, so he had to trade in wood, wine and the metal of melted down church bells instead. In 1538 he was arrested because he and a servant had stabbed an enemy with a sword and seriously wounded another. Apparently, however, he was not sentenced for this act. In January 1540 he was a member of the welcoming committee that greeted Anne of Cleves , the new wife of King Henry VIII , on her arrival at Blackheath . In the same year he was able to lease the lands of Launceston Priory in Cornwall, which was dissolved during the Reformation . Although he lived mostly in London or at the royal court, he had good contacts to Devon through his own family and the families of his wives, where he was probably first elected Knight of the Shire in the 1542 general election. When the war with France broke out in 1543 , Carew was to raise four horsemen and four infantrymen and serve under the Duke of Norfolk in the Netherlands. In 1544 he took part in the successful siege of Boulogne , while in 1545 as commander of the warship Matthew Gonson took part in the naval battle in the Solent , in which his nephew George Carew sank as admiral with the Mary Rose . He had been re-elected as Knight of the Shire of Devon on January 20, 1545, and was knighted between March 29 and October 18, 1545, presumably for his military service . From 1540 to 1547 or 1549 he was a member of the Gentlemen Pensioneers . In 1542 he had testified against her in the trial of Queen Catherine Howard , and in January 1547 against the accused Earl of Surrey . Carew had become a staunch Protestant who, in April 1543, was among the Protestants who defended the right to eat meat during Lent before the Privy Council . However, he received a reprimand for falsely claiming that he had royal permission to do so. On October 19, 1545 he became administrator of the estates of the Marquess of Exeter , convicted in 1538 , in whose household he had grown up.

Role in cracking down on the Prayer Book Rebellion

With the death of Henry VIII in January 1547, Parliament was dissolved, but due to his numerous connections and perhaps also because of his staunch attitude as a Protestant, Carew was re-elected as Knight of the Shire of Devon in the fall of 1547. In 1547 he was made Justice of the Peace of Devon, in the same year he was sheriff of the county for one year. When the first news of Catholic unrest in south-west England reached London in June 1549, the Lord Protector Somerset sent him and his nephew Peter Carew to Devon, where they were supposed to assist Sheriff Sir Thomas Denys in restoring order. However, you should expressly adopt a mediating stance and not use force. After negotiations with the rebels at Crediton failed, however, violent riots broke out and ultimately the so-called Prayer Book Rebellion . Carew still hoped to be able to end the rebellion peacefully. Together with Sheriff Denys, who was his nephew, and with Sir Hugh Pollard , he offered the rebels at Clyst St Mary again negotiations, which, however, quickly failed because of the violence of the rebels. Carew encouraged John Russell, 1st Baron Russell , who should now put down the rebellion, to attack the rebels at Fenny Bridges in order to relieve the besieged Exeter . In a loss-making battle that was victorious for the government, Carew was wounded in the arm by an arrow. Nonetheless, he continued to take a leading role in suppressing the rebellion. For this, Carew was enfeoffed with confiscated possessions from Humphry Arundell von Lanherne and Tiverton Castle . At the end of 1550, together with Baron Russell, his nephew Peter Carew and Richard Duke, he received the valuable license to dig for iron ore and coal in Exmoor and Dartmoor .

Involvement in the Wyatt conspiracy under Mary the Catholic

In March 1553, Carew did not appear to run again for the House of Commons, and after the death of Edward VI. Carew apparently supported his nephew Peter Carew, who proclaimed the succession to the throne of Mary the Catholic in Devon . However, Peter Carew soon supported the Wyatt conspiracy , in which Gawain Carew became involved. The conspiracy quickly failed, however. While Peter Carew was able to escape into exile, Gawain Carew was arrested along with other conspirators. After spending a month in Exeter Prison, he was transferred to the Tower of London on March 3, 1554 . However, he was not tried, although in September 1554 papers were found in Exeter that seriously incriminated him. He was released on January 17, 1555 on bail of £ 500. On May 22, 1555 he was to stand ready in London for a trial against him, and two weeks later he was given permission to return to Devon in order to arrange his affairs beforehand. In July, however, he was pardoned without trial. After that he was not active politically until the death of Queen Maria.

Politician under Elizabeth I.

When, after the death of Maria I, her half-sister Elizabeth I ascended the throne, Carew was elected in early 1559, probably with the support of the Earl of Bedford , who was influential in Devon, as a member of Parliament for the Borough of Plympton , and he was again Justice of the Peace for Devon. Although he was officially included in the household of the new Queen, he continued to live mainly in Devon and, along with Bedford and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, was one of the most important supporters of the Queen's claim to the throne in south-west England. In the general election in 1563 he was re-elected as Knight of the Shire for Devon. The Queen rewarded his loyalty in 1565 with an annual pension of 100 marks . Like Bedford, Carew was now one of the radical Protestants who, along with Peter Carew , had to protect William Alley , the Bishop of Exeter, from angry citizens during a sermon. Carew was apparently active as a merchant in Exeter, while his brother George Carew had meanwhile risen to become Dean of Exeter. In the House of Commons, however, he apparently did not emerge politically and no longer ran in the elections from 1571 onwards. From 1569 he served as Deputy Lieutenant for Devon and Cornwall.

Marriages and inheritance

Carew was married three times. His first marriage was after January 28, 1531 Anne, the widow of Sir John Shilston from Wood and daughter of Sir William Brandon . After her death, before July 1540, he married Mary († 1558), the widow of Sir Henry Guildford of Leeds Castle and daughter of Sir Robert Wotton from Boughton Malherbe in Kent . In his third marriage before December 1565 he married Elizabeth, a daughter of Sir John Norwich . He died at the age of 80 a few weeks before June 30, 1585. At his request, he wanted to be buried in Exeter Cathedral, where a funerary memorial was later erected for him. Since his three marriages remained childless, he had bequeathed his property to his third wife and, after her death, to his distant cousin George Carew .

Web links

• ADK Hawkyard: CAREW, Gawain (c.1503-85), of Exeter and Wood, Devon and London. (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1509–1558)
• PW Hasler: CAREW, Sir Gawain (c.1503-85), of Exeter and Wood, Devon and of London. (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1558–1603)