Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden

Posthumous portrait of Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden (1569)

Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden , KG , PC , KS (* around 1488 in Earls Colne, Essex ; † April 30, 1544 in Saffron Walden , England ) was an English barrister and judge, and from 1533 to 1544 Lord Chancellor of England.

Early years

Thomas Audley was born to Geoffrey Audley in Earls Colne, Essex, and presumably studied at Buckingham College in Cambridge , now known as Magdalene College . He was trained in law, became a member of the Inner Temple and was appointed town clerk of Colchester in 1514 , and in November 1520 was appointed Justice of the Peace of Essex.

Career in parliament

From 1523 Audley represented the Essex constituency in several parliaments. In 1527 he was named Groom of the Chamber and became a member of Cardinal Wolsey's household . After his fall in 1529 he was appointed Speaker of the House of Commons and sat in this chair of the so-called Reformation Parliament, which abolished papal jurisdiction. In the same year he led a delegation from the House of Commons to King Henry VIII to complain about Bishop Fisher's speech against their actions. He presented Henry's "moral concerns" to Parliament with regard to his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and prepared the Act of Supremacy on behalf of the king.

In 1531 he was appointed Serjeant-at-law and King's serjeant (KS). On May 20, 1532 Audley was knighted and succeeded Sir Thomas More as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal . On January 26, 1533 he was appointed Lord Chancellor. Thomas Audley supported the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and his marriage to Anne Boleyn and sat the trials of Fisher and More in 1535, with his behavior and his intention to obtain a conviction, criticized by some. The following year he took part in the trial of Anne Boleyn and her "lovers" who were charged with treason and adultery. Audley was an eyewitness to Anne Boleyn's execution and recommended the new Act of Succession to Parliament, which legitimized the king's descendants with Jane Seymour .

In 1537 he sentenced the rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace to death as traitors. On November 29, 1538 he received the title of Baron Audley of Walden , a little later as Lord Steward, he presided over the negotiations of Henry Pole, Lord Montagu and Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter . From 1539 he ensured the principles of the Anglican Church by adopting the Six Articles .

Others

On April 24, 1540, Thomas Audley was accepted into the Order of the Garter and subsequently ensured the Act of Attainder by Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex , and the dissolution of Henry VIII's marriage to Anne of Cleves , although he was previously an ally of Cromwell had been.

Coat of arms of Sir Thomas Audley

After the dissolution of the English monasteries , Audley received some monastic goods, including Holy Trinity Priory in Aldgate, London , and the Abbey of Walden, Essex , where his grandson Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, had Audley End built, undoubtedly after him was named. In 1542 he restored Buckingham College in Cambridge and financed it under the new name College of St Mary Magdalene (commonly known as Magdalene College). The Thomas Audley coat of arms acts as the college's coat of arms.

The Booke of Orders for the Warre both by Sea and Land is said to have been written by him.

Death and burial

Thomas Audley laid down the Great Seal on April 21, 1544 and died shortly after, on April 30. He was buried in Saffrod Walden, where he had a magnificent grave built for himself. Since he died without a male heir, his title expired. One of his daughters, Margaret, was a second wife to Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk . Their eldest son, Thomas Howard , was made Baron Howard de Walden in 1597 and Earl of Suffolk in 1603.

Marriages and offspring

Elizabeth Gray, second wife of Thomas Audley (1569)

Thomas Audley married twice.

1. ∞ Christina (or Margaret) Barnardiston, daughter of Sir Thomas Barnardiston
2. ∞ Elizabeth Gray, daughter of Thomas Gray, 2nd Marquess of Dorset. The marriage had two daughters, including:
- Margaret Audley ∞ 2nd Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk . Their eldest son was Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk

Individual evidence

^ Audley, Thomas A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge. Retrieved July 6, 2020 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e L. L. Ford: Audley, Thomas, Baron Audley of Walden (1487 / 8–1544), lord chancellor. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, accessed July 6, 2020 .
^ ^A ^b Audley, Thomas Audley . In: Hugh Chisholm (Ed.): Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 2 . Cambridge University Press, pp. 898 .
^ Ives, Eric: Anne Boleyn . Blackwell, 1986, pp. 187 .
^ Magdalene College, Cambridge. Retrieved July 6, 2020 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Thomas More	Lord Chancellor of England 1533–1544	Thomas Wriothesley

personal data
SURNAME	Audley, Thomas, 1st Baron Audley of Walden
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Audley, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English barrister, judge and Lord Chancellor of England
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1488
PLACE OF BIRTH	Earls Colne, Essex
DATE OF DEATH	April 30, 1544
Place of death	Saffron Walden

[1] Audley, Thomas A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge. Retrieved July 6, 2020 .

[:0-2] L. L. Ford: Audley, Thomas, Baron Audley of Walden (1487 / 8–1544), lord chancellor. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, accessed July 6, 2020 .

[:1-3] A ^b Audley, Thomas Audley . In: Hugh Chisholm (Ed.): Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 2 . Cambridge University Press, pp. 898 .

[4] Ives, Eric: Anne Boleyn . Blackwell, 1986, pp. 187 .

[5] Magdalene College, Cambridge. Retrieved July 6, 2020 .