Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden

Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden (c. 1460 – 14 May 1523) 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 (or Peniston as she is sometimes called in later sources), 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 (modern Cortiglione), 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.

Nicholas Vaux's mother, Katherine, an attendant on Margaret of Anjou, remained constant to her mistress when others forsook the Lancastrian cause. Katherine's husband, Sir William Vaux, whom she had married not long before she obtained her letters of denization, was attainted in 1461 and later slain at the Battle of Tewkesbury. Despite her husband's misfortune, Katherine Vaux remained loyal to her mistress: she stayed by the Queen during her imprisonment in the Tower of London, and on Margaret's release in 1476 went with her into exile (as she had done earlier in the 1460s), living with her until her death six years later. Katherine's two children did not share either her confinement or her travels abroad; instead, Nicholas Vaux and his sister Joan, were brought up in the household of Lady Margaret Beaufort (mother of Henry VII), without charge, even though Edward IV restored two manors to the family for the maintenance of him and his sister.