William Compton

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Sir William Compton (* around 1482; † June 1528 ) was an English courtier and favorite of Henry VIII and ancestor of the noble line of the Earls and Marquesses of Northampton .

Life

Childhood and youth

William Compton was born around 1482 to Edmund Compton, a rather insignificant landowner from Compton in Warwickshire . When Edmund died on April 21, 1493, his son and heir, William, was referred to as "eleven years old and over." After the death of his father, the boy came to the court of King Henry VII - through whose intermediary and when it is not known - and, according to the chronicler William Dugdale, became a page in the household of Prince Henry, who was 9 years his junior . Little is known about this early period in William Compton's life, but it is clear that he soon became part of the prince's intimate circle of friends, with whom he would be deeply friends for the rest of his life. If z. For example, when the court moved from one palace to the next every few months, as was customary at the time, he and another servant were given the confidential task of riding ahead and preparing the prince's apartments for his arrival.

Valet of the king

The young king, Henry VIII around 1509

How much the prince valued him became immediately clear when he ascended the throne as Henry VIII in 1509 , for Compton was now rapidly rising. He was a leading member of the servants in the already at the coronation Privy Chamber , the private apartments of the new king and one of his closest servants and in April 1510 he was first officially as Groom of the Stool ( valet called the royal toilet stool), a Post that he would hold for 16 years. The Groom of the Stool was one of the highest-ranking servants within the royal apartments, his job was "not only to serve as valet of the royal toilet chair, but also in his bedchamber and in other private places if the king so wishes". Compton served the king while he was relieved and then emptied the pot.

Although this is a degrading work from today's perspective, you looked in the 16th century any service to the person of the king as a great honor and many high-ranking knights and nobles tried their sons in such positions as a personal servant to bring the king. At a time when political advancement and the acquisition of offices were only possible through personal contact with the monarch, a personal servant of the king found himself in an enviable position of confidentiality in order to solicit favors for himself and his family influencing him politically.

In daily practice, the groom of the stool also had a far more extensive range of tasks. He acted as a partner for the king, distributed his alms , kept his linen shirts and was responsible for the collection of possessions and objects that the king took from residence to residence. Above all, however, he managed the Privy Purse , the king's private purse, funds that were intended for his private spending, for example for “buying jewelery” or for “betting on cards”. In the first few weeks of his reign the king still accepted these monies for his private purse himself, but very quickly entrusted them exclusively to Compton, who was soon managing considerable sums of money and jewelery in the name of the king, much more than ever in the hands of his predecessor had gone to this office. For example, in 1514 alone he was holding £ 17,517, which is equivalent to around £ 8 million in 2008.

The king entrusted Compton with many such confidential tasks, because he valued his "wisdom and loyalty", he made him country gifts for his wedding and in 1513, after the conquest of Tournai in France, made him a Knight Bachelor .

Confidante of the king

Compton served the king not only as a valet but also as a friend. Heinrich often entrusted him with tasks of a private and political nature when he needed someone he trusted. For example, during the early years of his reign, Compton was often his accomplice in affairs of love behind the back of Queen Catherine , who was reported to have "made no effort to hide her displeasure with Compton." Compton noted z. B. his house in London's Thames Street available for private meetings between Heinrich and "Mistress Amadas" and was involved in a love affair scandal at court, which sparked an argument between the royal couple. The Spanish ambassador Caroz reports that in May 1510, when the queen was pregnant, the king wanted to start an affair with Anne Hastings, sister of the Duke of Buckingham and the queen's maid of honor, and Compton was sent forward as mediator. When he entered Lady Hastings' apartment to speak to her, her brother was present and a heated argument broke out between Compton and Buckingham, during which Buckingham "reprimanded him with many harsh words". King Buckingham, who was offended because of this, reprimanded this again. The matter escalated further when Lady Hastings was sent to a convent by her husband and the next day the king ordered her sister and her husband also to leave the court.

However, there are also interpretations of this episode according to which Compton did not campaign for Lady Hastings on behalf of the king, but for himself, especially since he considered her in his will and let prayers be said for her soul. In addition, Lord Chancellor Thomas Wolsey accused him of having committed adultery with Anne Hastings in 1527. However, Compton swore on the sacrament that this was not true.

Henry VIII breaks his lance on his opponent's helmet at the Westminster tournament in 1512

A little earlier that year, Compton had been a partner and confidante when the King had secretly entered a tournament . Since the royal council did not want the young, just 18-year-old king, who did not yet have an heir, to devote himself to such a dangerous sport as jockeying , Heinrich decided to take part in the tournament incognito , disguised as a foreign knight. He and Compton "had themselves secretly armed in the little park at Richmond" and then rode into the tournament ground with their visors down and no crest. “Many spears were broken,” reports the chronicler Edward Hall , “and great praise was given to the two strangers.” However, when Compton took on Edward Neville, an excellent joster, he was “so badly injured that he was close to death was ". One in the audience who was initiated into the plan thought the fallen Compton was the king and shouted “God save the king!”, Whereupon Heinrich had to reveal himself to calm the frightened crowd. Compton had got away with the shock and was recovering from his injuries.

The king also entrusted his valet with important tasks in matters of state. He was sent out in 1516 to question the Earl of Northumberland about his plans for a marriage alliance for his son which were apparently under way between him and the Earl of Shrewsbury and which troubled the king. In 1522 he was sent as a messenger to Emperor Charles V , when he was visiting England, to inform him of news from France. And when the king feared treason in 1521 and decided to arrest the Duke of Buckingham , it was Compton and two other courtiers whom he ordered “to take with them secret powers and guards and to prevent the duke from fleeing if he did receives the letters of the king, which they carried out skillfully. "

Political influence

The obvious favor Compton enjoyed quickly drew attention. "I have written to you about the position of one named Compton with the King of England," wrote the French ambassador to England to his king. "It is he who is most respected at the moment and to whom [the king] speaks most about his affairs." Compton could easily have used his proximity to the king to influence him politically, and the French ambassador valued Compton's influence the king so important that he proposed to the French king to pay him a 'pension' in order to assert French interests with Henry.

His increasing influence at court is also reflected in the gradually more honorable-sounding names that were used for Compton's office of Groom of the Stool . At first he was only called a gentleman , then first gentleman of the royal bedroom and finally Polydor Virgil referred to him as first minister of the royal apartments ( primus minister in regis cubiculo ).

Even nobles like Lord Darcy , who thanked Compton for his "manifold courtesies and kindnesses which you have shown me on various occasions," sought Compton's favor , or the Earl of Surrey , who replied that he felt "obliged to love all those [...] that I know are in Your Grace's favor ”after the King thanked him for“ lovingly entertaining ”Compton. Service to Compton was viewed as a substitute for direct service to the king, and Compton was regularly approached for favors to obtain from the king. For example, Bishop Fox sent him B. 1513 several letters so that Compton could have them signed by the king.

William Compton, however, had no interest in politics, but rather devoted himself to his own private advancement.

Landowner and local magnate

With all the trust and influence he enjoyed, the post of Groom of the Stool did not bring William Compton any particular financial benefits. Nevertheless, he benefited enormously from the favor of the king, as he knew how to use his privileged position, in which he had daily confidential contact with the king, to secure various advantages. He had an astonishing amount of lands and offices transferred to him and thus amassed a veritable fortune that was evidently larger than that of the average nobleman of his time. By the time Compton died, Compton's possessions had grown to such an extent that even the king could not remember how many lands and offices he had given Compton and instruct his minister, Thomas Wolsey, “to send one of his able servants to the chancellery and to to look for other places and to compile a list for him, “how many offices [Compton] had and which ones there are”.

The Compton Wynyates estate, built by William Compton, is still the family home of his descendants, the Marquesses of Northampton

Among the most important lands transferred to Compton were many castles (or protection over them), such as Maxstoke Castle, which belonged to the Duke of Buckingham , who was executed in 1521 , and the derelict Fulbroke Castle, which he finally tore down, around the stones as building material for his Compton Wynyates estate. The mere transfer of these rights to royal castles to a simple valet was just as astonishing as the large number of offices he held.

Compton purposefully expanded and consolidated its land holdings in Warwickshire - the area from which the Compton family came - through purchase, rental and marriage. He bought z. B. lands of Buckingham before his execution and of Thomas Boleyn , the future father-in-law of the king, and married Werburga Cheyney in 1512, who brought property into the marriage in Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire. He also built the future family seat, Compton Wynyates, to underpin his power as a local magnate.

In an effort to establish himself as a local magnate, William Compton also used dubious methods. After his death, z. B. Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury , that he tried to persuade her to marry and when that failed, “told the King that the Canford estates [...] belonged to the Duchy of Somerset and not to the County of Salisbury whereupon she was [...] ordered to withdraw from there until the question of ownership was settled. ”Shortly thereafter, however, in March 1512, Compton was made administrator of Canford. In the same year he also bought some land for a small price to which the saleswoman actually had no rights and then had the land officially transferred to him by a parliamentary act from the king as a reward for “the good and extraordinary services he had given his highness has done and plans to do so for the rest of his life. "

His dishonest methods eventually resulted in a brief jail term. In a protracted land dispute with Henry Gray over the Harrold estate in 1524, according to Gray, Compton had sent two of his servants and 20 "rebels with bad intentions" armed with bows, arrows, swords and shields to occupy the estate and "like one Fortress ”. He denied this, but "Sir William Compton himself and a few other people were then brought into the fleet ". Even so, Compton's influence over the king was greater and Henry Gray failed to regain the lands even after several complaints, court hearings and appeals to the king.

It also appears that Compton used funds from the King's private purse, which he manages, to make profit on money lending. In any case, when he died, money and jewelery were found in his houses that actually belonged to the king. He had apparently stolen from the Crown. In 1527, however, he wrote a hasty letter to one of his asset managers, saying that he had received money for the king, but did not hand it over. Although he had been forgiven, he felt guilty and asked him to pay out 1,000 marks to the king.

Conflict with Wolsey

Compton initially seemed to get along very well with Wolsey , Henry's Lord Chancellor , but it is noticeable that after his rise in the mid-1510s, he suddenly received far fewer offices and lands than before. However, when Wolsey removed large numbers of Henry's servants and confidants from the Privy Chamber in 1519 , Compton was not a victim. When Compton was sent to war in Scotland with the Earl of Surrey in 1523, Polydor Virgil interpreted this as an attempt by Wolseys to get rid of him in order to "gradually make the king hate him" in his absence. However, serving the king in the military was honorable, and Compton need not have been uncomfortable.

Wolsey later accused Compton of having had adultery with Lady Hastings and of denying this at the sacrament, and in 1525 he tried to prevent Compton from becoming chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

In 1526 Compton finally resigned his office as Groom of the Stool as part of the Eltham Ordinances initiated by Wolsey , a court reform and reorganization of the Privy Chamber . This was possibly an attempt to harm Wolsey Compton, but it could just as well have been a voluntary move by Compton, for whom the office of Groom of the Stool had perhaps become too modest by now. Whatever the reason, he was now usher of the receipts in the exchequer , a position in which he was again entrusted with large sums of money, and he was granted a license to keep his hat on in the presence of the king. He had obviously not lost favor.

Death and legacy

James Compton, 3rd Earl of Northampton

William Compton's career came to an early end when he died in 1528 during an epidemic of English sweat . In his will of March 8, 1522, he bequeathed the king "my ivory box with the gilded lock [...] and all the jewels and treasures that are in it".

His son Peter was still a minor at the time and his guardianship fell to George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, who married him to his daughter Anne. Peter died very young (30 January 1538/39), but his son Henry was on the accumulated William Compton family build and brought it under Queen Elizabeth I in 1572 to a peer title as Baron Compton . Henry's son William received the title of Earl of Northampton in 1618 and his descendants have also been Marquess of Northampton since 1812 . The line continues unbroken to this day.

Marriages

  • 1. ⚭ 1512 Werburga Brereton (widow of Sir Francis Cheyney), daughter of John Brereton and Katherine Berkeley, who was the heir of her brother William Berkeley; with her he had the son Peter Compton (1522–38)
  • 2. ⚭ possibly Elizabeth Stonor, daughter of Sir Walter Stonor

Fictional representation

William Compton appeared in 7 episodes of the television series The Tudors in 2007 , in which he is played by actor Kristen Holden-Ried.

literature

  • Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, pp. 754-777
  • Starkey, David: Henry: Virtuous Prince , Harper Perennial, London, 2009, ISBN 9780007247721

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Letter of June 30, 1528 Wolsey to Henry VIII. "Has just heard of the death of William Compton" In: 'Henry VIII: June 1528, 21-30', Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII. Volume 4 : 1524-1530. 1875.
  2. ↑ Great Britain. Public Record Office (Hg): Calendar of inquisitions post mortem and other analogous documents preserved in the Public Record Office. Henry VII. , London: Printed for HM Stationery Office by Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1898-1955, p. 377
  3. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, p. 754
  4. ↑ Starkey, David: Henry: Virtuous Prince , Harper Perennial, London, 2009, p. 318
  5. ^ A b Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, p. 756
  6. ↑ Starkey, David: Henry: Virtuous Prince , Harper Perennial, London, 2009, p. 319
  7. ↑ Conversion based on Measuringworth.com "In 2008, £ 17517 from 1514 is worth £ 8,100,000.00 using the retail price index"
  8. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, p. 758
  9. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume II. Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 39.
  10. ↑ Starkey, David: Henry: Virtuous Prince , Harper Perennial, London, 2009, p. 339
  11. ^ A b Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, p. 757
  12. ↑ Starkey, David: Henry: Virtuous Prince , Harper Perennial, London, 2009, pp. 337f
  13. ↑ [1] Sir William Compton's Testament of March 8, 1522 In: 'Henry VIII: June 1528, 21-30', Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 4: 1524-1530 (1875)
  14. Jump up ↑ Starkey, David: Henry: Virtuous Prince. Harper Perennial, London 2009, p. 321 f.
  15. ^ Starkey, David: Henry: Virtuous Prince , Harper Perennial, London, 2009, p. 324
  16. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, pp. 774f
  17. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, p. 777
  18. ^ Starkey, David: Henry: Virtuous Prince , Harper Perennial, London, 2009, p. 335
  19. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, p. 772
  20. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, p. 761
  21. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, p. 759
  22. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, pp. 762f
  23. ^ A b c Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, p. 773
  24. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, p. 764
  25. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, p. 767
  26. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier. In: The English Historical Review. Volume 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, p. 770.
  27. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier. In: The English Historical Review. Volume 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, p. 771.
  28. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, pp. 772f
  29. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, pp. 775f
  30. ↑ George Edward Cokayne (ed.): Complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct or dormant , Volume 1 (Ab-Adam to Basing), London, The St. Catherine Press, 1910 , P. 390
  31. ^ Bernard, GW: The Rise of Sir William Compton, Early Tudor Courtier , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct. 1981), Oxford University Press, p. 777
  32. ^ Peter Compton on thepeerage.com , accessed August 13, 2015.
  33. ^ HCG Matthew, Brian Harrison: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, from the earliest times to the year 2000 , Oxford University Press 2004, Volume 12, p. 898
predecessor Office successor
Hugh Denys Groom of the Stool
1510-1526 		Henry Norris
personal data
SURNAME Compton, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Compton, Sir William (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English courtier
DATE OF BIRTH around 1482
DATE OF DEATH June 1528