Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy

Coat of arms of Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy

Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy KG (* around 1467, † June 30, 1537 in London ) was an English nobleman and politician of the early Tudor period .

Origin and family environment

Thomas Darcy came from an old Anglo-Norman aristocratic family, whose main line carries the title of nobility Baron Darcy de Knayth in the Peerage of England , which still exists today . He himself was the son of Sir William Darcy, died 1488, and the Eupheme Langton. He was probably born around 1467, because he said he was around 60 years old in 1529.

Life and political career

Thomas Darcy entered royal service early on. Already under Henry VII it gained some importance. He was knighted as early as 1489 . He took part in the campaign against Scotland and became Knight Banneret in 1499 under the Earl of Surrey, who later became the Duke of Norfolk . In June 1498 he had become Constable of Bamburgh Castle . In addition, he was appointed Captain of Berwick from 1498 to 1515 and Treasurer of Berwick in 1501.

He continued his ascent under Henry VIII . Since October 1511 he was Warden of the Northern Marches, after he had been appointed Warden of the Forrests North of the Trent in 1509 . He reached the high point of his career on March 21, 1509, when he was accepted into the Order of the Garter and shortly thereafter, on October 17, 1509, received a writ of summons , which appointed him to the House of Lords as hereditary Baron Darcy de Darcy. This point in time is considered the official day of creation of this new barony by writ , although it is possible that this barony was created five years earlier because it was referred to in documents as Lord Darcy as early as 1504. However, since neither a writ of summons nor a certificate of appointment from this period has been preserved in the registers, the writ of 1509 is regarded as constitutive for the barony. In 1513 he took part in the battle of Thérouanne . In the same year, in high favor with the king, he was appointed a member of the Privy Council . He supported the king in his efforts to divorce Catherine of Aragon by signing the letter to the Pope, who supported Henry's wishes.

However, soon afterwards he contradicted the law on the dissolution of the monasteries . Since Henry VIII insisted on the dissolution, he took part in the so-called Pilgrimage of Grace under Robert Aske . Like many other participants in this Rebellion of the North , he was initially pardoned, but then charged with high treason on the grounds that Pontefract Castle had been handed over to the rebels. He was sentenced to death and executed on Tower Hill on June 30, 1537 . His property was confiscated and the title was forfeited . With this decision, his descendants could not inherit his title and therefore not take the seat in the House of Lords.

literature

• The Complete Peerage , Allan Sutton, London, 1982.

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Complete Peerage, Allan Sutton, London, 1982, Volume IV, p. 73.
2. ^ The Complete Peerage, Allan Sutton, London, 1982, Volume IV, Note b on Darcy, 73.
3. ^ The Complete Peerage, Allan Sutton, London, 1982, Volume IV, note c, page 73.
4. ^ The Complete Peerage, Allan Sutton, London, 1982, Volume IV, note d, p. 73.
5. ^ The Complete Peerage, Allan Sutton, London, 1982, Volume IV, note e, p. 74.