Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court, MP, KG (c. 1513, Coughton Court, Coughton, Warwickshire - 12 February 1581, Coughton Court, Coughton, Warwickshire) was a distinguished English Tudor courtier.
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Born by 1513, Sir Robert was the first son and successor of Sir George Throckmorton and his wife Katherine Vaux, and brother of Anthony, Clement, George, John, Kenelm and Nicholas.
Robert Throckmorton may have trained at the Middle Temple, the inn attended by his father. At least three of his younger brothers and his own eldest son studied at Middle Temple, but as the heir to extensive estates he had little need to seek a career at court or in government. He was joined with his father in several stewardships from 1527 and was perhaps the servant of Robert Tyrwhitt, a distant relative by marriage of the Throckmortons, who in 1540 took an inventory of Cromwell's goods at Mortlake. He attended the reception of Anne of Cleves and with several of his brothers served in the French war of 1544. Three years later he was placed on the Warwickshire bench and in 1553 was appointed High Sheriff of Warwickshire. He was also elected as a knight of the shire (MP) for Warwickshire in 1553 and 1555. Three of his brothers also sat for Parliament, Nicholas as knight of the shire for Northamptonshire.
Throckmorton's role in the succession crisis of 1553 is unknown, but his standing with Queen Mary is shown by her reputed answer to the news of Edward VI's death sent her by four of his brothers: ‘If Robert had been there she durst have gaged her life and hazarded the hap’.
In the autumn of 1553, Throckmorton was knighted and appointed constable of Warwick Castle. He continued to sit as MP for the shire until 1558, when he gave way to his eldest son, Thomas.
His Catholicism explains his disappearance from the Commons in the new reign, although the most Catholic of his brothers, Anthony Throckmorton, was to sit in the Parliament of 1563. Judged an ‘adversary of true religion’ in 1564, Throckmorton remained active in Warwickshire until his refusal to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity led to his removal from the commission of the peace.
In 1577, the Bishop of Worcester, John Whitgift, listed Throckmorton as a Catholic and reckoned him to be worth 1,000 marks a year in lands and £1,000 in goods.
Sir Robert Throckmorton continued the family in the Catholic tradition. He married his children into the leading Catholic families, and in these generations the increased persecution of the Catholic spawned many relatives who became involved in plots against the throne. The sons of his daughters Anne and Muriel, were Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham, and a third daughter Mary was married to Edward Arden, who was also convicted of treason and executed for his part in a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth in 1583. Mary kept an excellent record of a woman persecuted for recusancy, documenting the fines and searches made at Coughton Court, that is still in the family archives. A nephew, Francis Throckmorton, was executed in 1584 for acting as a go-between for Mary, Queen of Scots and the Spanish Ambassador in an attempt to invade England and place Mary on the throne. A niece Elizabeth; also known as Bess, the daughter of Sir Nicholas, and lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, also got into trouble by secretly marrying Sir Walter Raleigh.
He died on 12 Feb 1581, six days after making a will in which he styled himself of Weston Underwood but asked to be buried at Coughton, where an alabaster and marble tomb was accordingly erected to his memory: there is a portrait at Coughton Court. He named as executors his eldest son Thomas and his sons-in-law Sir John Goodwin and Ralph Shelton, and as overseers another son-in-law Sir Thomas Tresham and his ‘loving friend’ Edmund Plowden. [1] [2]
Sir Robert married twice. His first wife was Muriel Berkeley (d.1542) whom he married about 1527. Muriel was the daughter of Sir Thomas Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley (1472-1533) and his first wife, Eleanor Constable (c. 1485 - 1527), daughter or Sir Marmaduke Constable.
Issue of Robert and Muriel include:[3][4]
Sir Robert married secondly, Elizabeth Hussey, Baroness Hungerford of Heystesbury (c.1510-23 Jan 1554) circa 1542. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford (1465/7-29 Jun / 27 Aug 1537) and his second wife, Lady Anne Grey (c.1490-aft. 1537).
Issue of Robert and Elizabeth:[3][4]
Robert and his second wife Elizabeth Hussey are ancestors of prominent nobility and royalty, such as the former Princess of Wales, the Duchess of York, the Duchess of Cornwall, and notably HM Queen Elizabeth II.
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Member of Parliament of England 1547 |
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