Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset

Attributed to Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, John de Critz

Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset (born 1536 in Worthing , Sussex , † April 19, 1608 in London ) was an English statesman , playwright and poet during the Renaissance .

Life

Sackville was born in Worthing and was a cousin of Anne Boleyn . In 1553 he settled in London and was elected to the lower house of parliament two years later . Among other offices, he also held the post of agent for state trials, and it was he who pronounced the death sentence on Queen Mary I of Scots . In 1599 he became Chancellor of the Exchequer . He wrote his most important works in the 50s of the 16th century . The most important of these are the collection “A mirror for magistrates” and the tragedy “Gorboduc” . The tragedy, the earliest English drama in blank verse, was written with Thomas Norton and premiered in 1562 for the English Queen, Elizabeth I. His mansions, Knole House in Kent and Michelham Priory , are well known in England.

On June 8, 1567, as Baron Buckhurst , of Buckhurst in the County of Sussex, he was raised to hereditary peer and accepted into the House of Lords of Parliament . In 1589 he was accepted as a knight in the Order of the Garter . On March 13, 1604 he was also given the hereditary title Earl of Dorset .

Since 1555 he was married to Cecily Baker, daughter of Sir John Baker. He had six children with her. When he died, his eldest surviving son, Robert Sackville, inherited his title of nobility.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Powicke & Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. Second Edition, London, 1961, p. 103

Literature and web links

• Ilan Rachum: Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. Atlantis-Verlag 1991, ISBN 978-3-7611-0725-6 .
• Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset on thepeerage.com

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Baron Buckhurst 1567-1608	Robert Sackville
New title created	Earl of Dorset 1604-1608	Robert Sackville