James Croft

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Sir James Croft PC (d. September 4, 1590), Lord Deputy of Ireland, belonged to an old family of Herefordshire, which county he represented in the Parliament of England in 1541.

He was made governor of Haddington in 1549, and became lord deputy of Ireland in 1551. There he effected little beyond gaining for himself the reputation of a conciliatory disposition. Croft was all his life a double-dealer. He was imprisoned in the Tower for treason in the reign of Mary, but was released and treated with consideration by Elizabeth after her accession.

He was made governor of Berwick, where he was visited by John Knox in 1559, and where he busied himself actively on behalf of the Scottish Protestants, though in 1566 he was suspected, probably with good reason, of treasonable correspondence with Mary of Guise, the Catholic regent of Scotland; and for ten years he was out of public employment. But in 1570 Elizabeth, who showed the greatest forbearance and favour to Sir James Croft, made him a privy councillor and controller of her household.

He was one of the commissioners for the trial of Mary Queen of Scots, and in 1588 was sent on a diplomatic mission to arrange peace with the duke of Parma. Croft established private relations with Parma, for which on his return he was sent to the Tower. He was released before the end of 1589, and died on the 4th of September 1590.

Croft's eldest son, Edward, was put on his trial in 1589 on the curious charge of having contrived the death of the Earl of Leicester by witchcraft, in revenge for the earl's supposed hostility to Sir James Croft.

Edward Croft was father of Sir Herbert Croft, whose son Herbert Croft was bishop of Hereford.

Government offices
Preceded by
Anthony St Leger		 Lord Deputy of Ireland
1551–1552		 Succeeded by
Lords Justices
Honorary titles
Preceded by
John Scudamore		 Custos Rotulorum of Herefordshire
bef. 1573 – bef. 1577		 Succeeded by
Sir John Scudamore

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