William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Horton (c. 1483 – 10 September 1547) was the son of William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Kendal and his second wife, the Hon. Elizabeth Fitzhugh, later Lady Vaux of Harrowden.
Great Harrowden is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, with a population at the 2011 census of 161. The village sits astride the busy A509 running between Kettering and Wellingborough - although a bypass is due to be built shortly. The village forms part of the Orlingbury hundred.
William Parr was a military man who fought in France, where he was knighted by King Henry VIII at Tournai Cathedral, and Scotland. Parr seemed to be uncomfortable in court circles and insecure in securing relationships.[ citation needed ] Nonetheless, he accompanied the King at the 'Field of the Cloth of Gold' in France. Like his brother, Sir Thomas Parr, William flourished under Sir Nicholas Vaux.
Henry VIII was King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father, Henry VII. Henry is best known for his six marriages, in particular his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled. His disagreement with the Pope on the question of such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated. Henry is also known as "the father of the Royal Navy"; he invested heavily in the Navy, increasing its size greatly from a few to more than 50 ships.
The Field of the Cloth of Gold was a site in Balinghem – equidistant between Ardres in France and Guînes in the then-English Pale of Calais – that hosted a tournament field as part of a summit from 7 to 24 June 1520, between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France.
William was also a family man. After the death of his brother, Thomas, William's sister-in-law Maud, widowed at age 25, called upon him to help in financial matters and to manage her estates in North England while she was busy in the south securing a future for her three children. William had been named one of the executors of his brother's will. Along with Cuthbert Tunstall, a distant kinsman of the Parr's, they provided the kind of protection and father figure which was missing in the lives of Maud's children. William's children were educated alongside Maud's children.
Sir Thomas Parr was an English knight, courtier and Lord of the Manor of Kendal in Westmorland during the Tudor period. He is best known as the father of Catherine Parr, queen consort of England and the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII.
Cuthbert Tunstall was an English Scholastic, church leader, diplomat, administrator and royal adviser. He served as Prince-Bishop of Durham during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.
Although William was en-adapt at handling his financial matters, he was ironically appointed the office of Chamberlain in the separate household of the Duke of Richmond, the acknowledged illegitimate son of King Henry VIII and Elizabeth Blount, based at Sheriff Hutton Castle in Yorkshire. It was William who found a spot for his nephew, William Parr, later Earl of Essex, in the Duke's household where he would be educated by the very best tutors and mixed with the sons of other prominent families. Though thought to be a wonderful environment for Parr and his nephew to flourish in, the household was not a great passport to success as Parr hoped for. Henry VIII was very fond of his illegitimate son, but had no intention of naming him his heir. It has been claimed that Parr and his sister-in-law, Maud Parr, coached William to make sure that he ingratiated himself with the Duke, in case the Duke became heir to the throne but there is no factual evidence to support this claim.
Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, was the son of King Henry VIII of England and his mistress, Elizabeth Blount, and the only illegitimate offspring whom Henry VIII acknowledged. He was the younger half-brother of Queen Mary I, as well as the older half-brother of Queen Elizabeth I and King Edward VI. Through his mother he was the elder half-brother of the 4th Baroness Tailboys of Kyme and of the 2nd and 3rd Baron Tailboys of Kyme.
Elizabeth Blount, commonly known during her lifetime as Bessie Blount, was a mistress of Henry VIII of England.
Sheriff Hutton Castle is a quadrangular castle in the village of Sheriff Hutton, North Yorkshire, England.
Although Parr was named Chamberlain of the Duke's household, the household was actually controlled by Cardinal Wolsey in London. This control by Wolsey diminished any opportunity of Parr gaining financial benefit or wider influence. Along with the limited possibilities came other daily frustrations as the Duke's tutors and the household officers under Parr disagreed on the balance of recreation and study. Parr was a countryman who thought it perfectly normal for boys to prefer hunting and sports to the boring rhetoric of learning Latin and Greek. As the Duke's behavior became more unruly Parr and his colleagues found it quite amusing. The Duke's tutor, John Palsgrave, who had only been employed six months, would not tolerate being undermined and decided to resign. Such was the household in which Parr presided over. Parr was suspicious of schoolmaster priests and anyone of lesser birth, even though he was not considered a nobleman at the time. The experience did not further the Parr family. If Sir William had spent more attention to his duties and responsibilities he may have reaped some sort of advancement; thus when the overmanned and over budgeted household was dissolved in the summer of 1529, Parr found himself embittered by his failure to find any personal advancement or profit from the whole ordeal.
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, Lord Chancellor of England, was an English bishop, statesman and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the King's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered, and by 1514 he had become the controlling figure in virtually all matters of state and extremely powerful within the Church, as Archbishop of York, a cleric in England junior only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. His appointment in 1515 as a cardinal by Pope Leo X gave him precedence over all other English clerics.
John Palsgrave was a priest of Henry VIII of England's court. He is known as a tutor in the royal household, and as a textbook author.
Despite his failed attempts at achieving personal gain from the household of the Duke, Sir William made up for it during the Pilgrimage of Grace during 1536. William showed impeccable loyalty to the Crown during the rebellion. He had been in Lincolnshire along with the Duke of Suffolk and supervised the executions at Louth and Horncastle. William tried to ingratiate himself with the Duke of Norfolk and Thomas Cromwell. Parr's presence at the execution in Hull of Sir Robert Constable prompted Cromwell to share in confidence a correspondence in which he received from the Duke of Norfolk on William's "goodness" which "never proved the like in any friend before."
The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular uprising that began in Yorkshire in October 1536, before spreading to other parts of Northern England including Cumberland, Northumberland and north Lancashire, under the leadership of lawyer Robert Aske. The "most serious of all Tudor rebellions", it was a protest against Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic Church, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the policies of the King's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, as well as other specific political, social and economic grievances.
Lincolnshire is a county in eastern England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders Northamptonshire in the south for just 20 yards (18 m), England's shortest county boundary. The county town is the city of Lincoln, where the county council has its headquarters.
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, 1st Viscount Lisle, was the son of Sir William Brandon and Elizabeth Bruyn. Through his third wife, Mary Tudor, he was brother-in-law to Henry VIII, King of England. His father was the standard-bearer of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond who seized the throne as Henry VII. Suffolk died of unknown causes at Guildford.
Parr was a strong supporter of the new religion under Henry VIII and he became Thomas Cromwell's chief agent for the dissolution of the monasteries in Northamptonshire.
Sir William was Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1518, 1522, 1534 and 1538. He was also Esquire of the Body to Henry VII and Henry VIII. In addition to this, he was a third cousin to King Henry VIII through his mother. William was appointed Chamberlain to his niece Queen Catherine and when she became Queen regent during Henry's time in France, Catherine appointed William part of her council. Although he was too ill to attend meetings, the appointment shows her confidence in her uncle.
Parr was knighted by King Henry VIII after the siege of Tournai in October 1513.He was elected to parliament as knight of the shire for Northamptonshire in 1529 and 1539.
He was made a peer of the realm as 1st Baron Parr of Horton, Northamptonshire on 23 December 1543. Upon his death in 1547 he was buried at Horton, where the inscription on his monument wrongly gives his year of death as 1546. With no male heirs, the barony became extinct.
He married Mary Salisbury, the daughter and co-heiress of Sir William Salisbury; who brought as her dowry the manor of Horton. It was a happy marriage which produced at least five daughters who survived infancy.
Lord Parr and his wife are ancestors of the Duke of Cambridge through his late mother, Lady Diana Spencer. They descend from both Maud, Lady Lane and Mary, Lady Tresham.
He is buried at Horton where the family estate was.
|Ancestors of William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Horton|
Catherine Parr was Queen of England and Ireland (1543–47) as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII, and the final queen consort of the House of Tudor. She married him on 12 July 1543, and outlived him by one year. With four husbands she is the most-married English queen.
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk was a prominent English politician of the Tudor era. He was an uncle of two of the wives of King Henry VIII, namely Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, both of whom were beheaded, and played a major role in the machinations affecting these royal marriages. After falling from favour in 1546, he was stripped of the dukedom and imprisoned in the Tower of London, avoiding execution when Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547.
Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon KG, was an English nobleman and courtier. He was the patron of Lord Chamberlain's Men, William Shakespeare's playing company. The son of Mary Boleyn, he was a cousin of Elizabeth I.
Sir Thomas Tresham was a leading Catholic politician during the middle of the Tudor dynasty in England.
Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset was the second wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (c.1500–1552), who held the office of Lord Protector during the first part of the reign of their nephew King Edward VI. The Duchess was briefly the most powerful woman in England. During her husband's regency she unsuccessfully claimed precedence over the queen dowager, Catherine Parr.
Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was an English diplomat and politician, who was an ambassador to France and played a key role in the relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots.
Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden was a soldier and courtier in England and an early member of the House of Commons. He was the son of Lancastrian loyalists, Sir William Vaux of Harrowden and Katherine Penyson, a lady of the household of Queen Margaret of Anjou, wife of the Lancastrian king, Henry VI of England. Katherine was daughter of Gregorio Panizzone of Courticelle, in Piedmont, Italy which was at that time subject to King René of Anjou, father of Queen Margaret of Anjou, as ruler of Provence. He grew up during the years of Yorkist rule, and later served under the founder of the Tudor dynasty, Henry VII.
William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, 1st Earl of Essex and 1st Baron Parr, KG was the son of Sir Thomas Parr and his wife, Maud Green, daughter of Sir Thomas Green, of Broughton and Greens Norton. William Parr was brother of the Queen consort, Catherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII, and of Anne Parr.
William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, 1st Baron Herbert of CardiffKG was a Tudor period nobleman, politician, and courtier.
Sir William Parr, KG (1434–1483) was an English courtier and soldier. He was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Parr (1405–1461) and his wife Alice, daughter of Sir Thomas Tunstall of Thurland, Lancashire.
Thomas Burgh, 1st Baron Burgh also spelt Borough, KG, 1st Baron Borough of Gainsborough, also de jure 5th Baron Strabolgi and 7th Baron Cobham of Sterborough, was an English peer. In 1513 he was knighted on Flodden Field, where he was one of the King's Spears, a bodyguard of King Henry VIII. He was a Member of Parliament in 1529 and later became Lord Chamberlain to Anne Boleyn. He was also one of the twenty-six Peers summoned to the trial of Anne Boleyn in May 1536.
Maud Green was the mother of Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of King Henry VIII of England. She was a close friend and lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon. She was also co-heiress to her father, Sir Thomas Green of Green's Norton in Northamptonshire along with her sister, Anne, Lady Vaux.
Anne Bourchier was the suo jure7th Baroness Bourchier, suo jureLady Lovayne, and Baroness Parr of Kendal. She was the first wife of William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, Earl of Essex, and the sister-in-law of Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII of England.
Anne Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, Baroness Herbert of Cardiff was lady-in-waiting to each of Henry VIII of England's six wives. She was the younger sister of his sixth wife, Catherine Parr.
Sir George Throckmorton of Coughton Court was an English politician and a member of Parliament during the reign of Henry VIII. Born by 1489, he was the eldest son of Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court by Catherine Marrow, daughter of Sir William Marowe or Marrow, Lord Mayor of London.
Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court, Warwickshire, MP, KG was a distinguished English Tudor courtier. His public career was impeded by being a Roman Catholic.
Elizabeth FitzHugh was an English noblewoman. She is best known for being the grandmother of Catherine Parr, sixth queen consort to Henry VIII, and her siblings Anne Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, and William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton.
Sir Walter Buckler was a diplomat, chamberlain of the household to Lady Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth I, and private secretary to Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of King Henry VIII.
Sir Henry Seymour was an English landowner and MP, the brother of Jane Seymour, queen consort of Henry VIII, and consequently uncle to Edward VI. He was created a Knight of the Bath after his nephew's coronation.