Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu

Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu KG PC (29 November 1528 – 19 October 1592) was an English peer during the Tudor period.

He was the eldest son of Sir Anthony Browne. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, he came into possession of the manor of Worthing, which remained in his family for 200 years.

Before 1550, he married Lady Jane Radclyffe, daughter of Robert Radclyffe, 1st Earl of Sussex. She died in childbirth on 22 July 1552 after giving birth to twins:

• Mary Browne, who married (1) Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton; (2) Sir Thomas Heneage; (3) William Hervey, 1st Baron Hervey; and
• Anthony Browne, his son and heir, who predeceased him, leaving several children by his wife, Mary Dormer (whose cousin was Robert Catesby, of the Gunpowder Plot).

In 1558 he married Magdalen Dacre, daughter of William Dacre, 3rd Baron Dacre, by whom he had ten children.

He was elected MP for Guildford in 1545 and 1547 and was knighted in 1547 at the coronation of Edward VI. He was appointed Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex for 1553 and elected MP for Petersfield in Mar 1553. In April 1554 he was elected knight of the shire for Surrey.

On 2 September 1554, Browne was raised to the peerage as Viscount Montagu. That year, he was also sent as one of the ambassadors to Rome to treat for the reconciliation of the Church of England with the Pope, and in 1555 was made a Privy Counsellor and Knight of the Garter. He was lieutenant-general of the English troops at the siege of Saint-Quentin in 1557.

Upon the accession of Elizabeth, Montagu lost his seat on the Privy Council for his Roman Catholicism, and generally opposed the religious measures of Elizabeth. However, he retained her favour through his prudence and loyalty, and was joint Lord Lieutenant of Sussex from 1570 to 1585. In 1587, Montagu was one of the commissioners who tried Mary, Queen of Scots, and was one of the first to raise a troop of horse to muster at West Tilbury to guard against the Spanish Armada.