William Fitzwilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton

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Portrait of William Fitzwilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton, by Hans Holbein the Younger
Coat of arms of William Fitzwilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton, as Knight of the Garter

William Fitzwilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton KG (around 1490 - October 15, 1542 in Newcastle upon Tyne ) was an English nobleman and confidante and civil servant of King Henry VIII.

Life

He was one of three sons of Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam († 1498), landlord of Aldwark in Yorkshire , from his marriage to Lady Lucy Neville, a daughter of John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu .

His mother married after the death of their father, Sir Anthony Browne (1443-1506), lord of Bettsworth Castle in Surrey . This was the standard bearer of the king. Probably thanks to the contacts of his stepfather, Fitzwilliam came to the royal court at the age of 10 as a companion for Prince Heinrich.

When Henry VIII was crowned king in 1509, Fitzwilliam was his cupbearer ("Cupbearer"). He subsequently served as a squire ("Squire") in the king's entourage and was, after he was wounded in April 1513 in a naval battle off Brest , beaten by the king to knight bachelor on September 25, 1513 .

In November 1513 he married Mabel Clifford, a lady-in-waiting of King Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragón . The marriage remained childless.

Political career

In 1518 he accompanied Charles Sommerset, 1st Earl of Worcester and Nicholas West , the Bishop of Ely , on a diplomatic trip to France . In February 1521 he was sent as ambassador to France by the Lord Chancellor Cardinal Thomas Wolsey . In the negotiations he showed great skill and thus gained Wolsey's trust. He was called back to England the following year, to his delight.

He was named Vice Admiral of the Navy during the war against France in 1522. His job, under the command of the Earl of Surrey, was to protect the English merchant ships from enemy attacks. In 1523 he defeated a Scottish-French squadron and devastated parts of the coast of France. But he could not prevent the Duke of Albany from getting to Scotland from France .

In 1526 he was accepted as a Knight Companion in the Order of the Garter and was from 1529 to 1536 as Knight of the Shire for Surrey a member of the House of Commons . On November 3, 1529 he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and held this office until his death.

With the fortune left by his parents, he acquired the Cowdray manor in Sussex as his new family home in 1528 .

After the death of Henry Fitzroy , the illegitimate son of Heinrich in 1536, he took over the office of Lord High Admiral .

On October 18, 1537 he was raised to Earl of Southampton and thereby became a member of the House of Lords .

He was a member of the parliamentary committee responsible for judicial investigations against nobles on charges of high treason . So he led the questioning of Henry Norris because of the alleged adultery and high treason with King Henry's second wife Anne Boleyn ; he later complained that he had been tricked. In 1538 he interrogated Sir Geoffrey Pole and his mother Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury in connection with the Exeter Conspiracy and in 1540 Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex .

In December 1539 he was part of the escort that Anna von Kleve , the future fourth wife of Henry VIII, picked up in Calais . In 1540 he was appointed Lord Keeper of the Seal and held that office until his death. In this position he notarized Anna's formal abdication and consent to divorce in 1540 and then supported her in setting up her own household.

death

In 1542 King Henry VIII sent him as a military leader on a campaign against Scotland. He marched with the vanguard of the English army to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but died there on October 15, 1542 of an illness. The leadership of the army then took over Sir Thomas Wharton , who defeated the Scots in November 1542 at the Battle of Solway Moss .

Since Fitzwilliam had no offspring, his earl title expired on his death.

literature

  • Frederick M. Powicke, Edmund B. Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. Royal Historical Society, London 1961.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Powicke & Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. P. 140
  2. ^ Powicke & Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. P. 132
  3. ^ Powicke & Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. P. 450
  4. ^ Powicke & Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. P. 93
personal data
SURNAME Fitzwilliam, William, 1st Earl of Southampton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fitzwilliam, Sir William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lord Seal Keeper, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
DATE OF BIRTH around 1490
DATE OF DEATH October 15, 1542
Place of death Newcastle upon Tyne