William Knight (royal servant)

William Knight (1475/6 – 1547) was the Secretary of State to Henry VIII of England, and Bishop of Bath and Wells.

Knight was sent to Rome in 1527 to try to get Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled. He rebuilt Horton Court in Gloucestershire using ideas from Italian architecture.

Born in London, he entered Winchester School as a scholar in 1487, and proceeded in 1491 to New College, Oxford, where he became Fellow in 1493. He afterwards proceeded D.C.L. 12 October 1531. In 1495 Knight went to court, where Henry VII made him one of his secretaries. He was frequently employed as an ambassador in the reign of Henry VIII. On 3 June 1512 he went with Sir Edward Howard to Spain, and, after storms and sickness, reached Valladolid 18 February 1513. He had received a commission authorising him and John Stile to treat with Ferdinand II of Aragon about the defence of the church. Knight remained at Valladolid till June 1513.

On 3 April 1514 he was at Mechlin on the first of a long series of embassies to the Low Countries. Richard Wingfield and Spinelly were with him (18 April), and on 12 June he was at The Hague with Sir Edward Poynings. In July he seems to have visited Switzerland. He received, on 14 July 1514, a grant of arms; in the grant he is described as prothonotary.

In May 1515 Knight is styled chaplain to the king; in the same year he became dean of the collegiate church of Newark, Leicestershire. On 7 May he was appointed ambassador with Sir Edward Poynings to Prince Charles, to renew the league of 9 February 1505. They had a conference with Cuthbert Tunstall, 23 May, at Bruges, and an audience with Charles at Bergen-op-Zoom on 29 May. He remained in Flanders during the rest of 1515, and found himself short of money. In February 1516 the treaty had been concluded.

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