Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton
| The Earl of Southampton | |
|---|---|
Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, miniature by Hans Holbein the Younger
|
|
| Spouse(s) | Jane Cheney |
|
Issue
William Wriothesley
Anthony Wriothesley Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton Elizabeth Wriothesley Mary Wriothesley Katherine Wriothesley Anne Wriothesley Mabel Wriothesley |
|
| Noble family | Wriothesley |
| Father | William Wriothesley, otherwise Wrythe |
| Mother | Agnes Drayton |
| Born |
21 December 1505 London |
| Died | 30 July 1550 (aged 44) Lincoln Place, London |
Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton (21 December 1505 – 30 July 1550), KG (pronunciation 'Risley': /ˈraɪzli/ (archaic),/ˈrɒtsli/ and /ˈraɪəθsli/ have been suggested) was an English peer, secretary of state, Lord Chancellor and Lord High Admiral. A naturally skilled but unscrupulous and devious politician who changed with the times, Wriothesley served as a loyal instrument of King Henry VIII in the latter's break with the Catholic church. Richly rewarded with royal gains from the Dissolution of the Monasteries, he nevertheless prosecuted Calvinists and other dissident Protestants when political winds changed.
Thomas Wriothesley, born in London 21 December 1505, was the son of York Herald William Wriothesley, whose ancestors had spelled the family surname "Wryth", and Agnes Drayton, daughter and heiress of James Drayton of London. Thomas had two sisters, Elizabeth, born in 1507, and Anne, born in 1508, and a brother, Edward, born in 1509. Thomas's father and uncle were the first members of his family to use the "Wriothesley" spelling of the family surname.
Wriothesley received his early education at St Paul's School, London. In 1522 he was admitted to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was taught law by Stephen Gardiner; although Wriothesley did not take a degree, he and Gardiner remained lifelong friends. In 1524, at the age of nineteen, he entered a career at court and came to the attention of Thomas Cromwell. Before 4 May 1530 he was appointed joint Clerk of the Signet under Stephen Gardiner, secretary to King Henry VIII, a post he held for a decade while continuing in Cromwell's service. One historian has described the young lawyers as "able, entreprising, tenacious and ruthless, yet unsufferably overconfident and egotistic."
...
Wikipedia