Titled Elizabethans: A Directory of Elizabethan Court, State, and Church Officers, 1558–1603

Published over forty years ago, the original edition of Titled Elizabethans provided a ready reference source to Elizabethan court, state, and household. This long-awaited revised edition expands considerably upon the original, adding new categories and a host of previously overlooked figures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Release date: Oct 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781137461483

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TITLED ELIZABETHANS

A DIRECTORY OF ELIZABETHAN COURT, STATE, AND CHURCH OFFICERS, 1558–1603

Expanded Edition

Edited by

Arthur F. Kinney and Jane A. Lawson

TITLED ELIZABETHANS

Copyright © Arthur F. Kinney, 1973, with Jane A. Lawson, 2014.

All rights reserved.

First edition published in 1973 by Shoe String Press, North Haven, Connecticut.

This edition first published in 2014 by

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®

in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,

175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.

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ISBN: 978–1–137–46147–6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Titled Elizabethans : a directory of Elizabethan court, state, and church officers, 1558–1603 / edited by Arthur F. Kinney & Jane A. Lawson.—Expanded edition.

    pages cm.—(Queenship and power)

Original edition entered under: Kinney, Arthur F.

Includes index.

ISBN 978–1–137–46147–6 (hardback : alk. paper)

 1. Nobility—Great Britain—Directories. 2. Statesmen—Great Britain—Directories. 3. Orders of knighthood and chivalry—Great Britain—Directories. 4. Great Britain—Politics and government—1558–1603—Directories. 5. Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533–1603—Relations with nobility. I. Kinney, Arthur F., 1933– editor. II. Lawson, Jane A., editor.

CS420.T58 2014

929.7′2—dc23                              2014016162

A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.

Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.

First edition: October 2014

10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

For W. G. R

Interea fidi cape munus amicus

Arthur F. Kinney

For Marion Colthorpe, colleague and friend

Jane A. Lawson

CONTENTS

Preface

Preface to Revised Edition

Abbreviations

Editorial Procedures

Sources

Place Index (Locations of Knights’ Dubbings)

Name Index

PREFACE

To date, no one has compiled a single comprehensive listing of the officers and knights of England and the peers of England, Scotland, and Ireland during the reign of Elizabeth I of England, and some specialized lists of importance—such as officers of the household—have never been drawn up at all. In addition, a number of basic directories are occasionally or frequently unrealiable. The present volume hopes to repair this situation by providing a comprehensive reference which draws where possible upon contemporary pamphlets as well as on papers from the Calendar of State Papers, Foreign and Domestic for corroboration.

The lists included here have been collected or repeatedly checked over the past seven years, principally at the British Museum and the Bodleian Library and, on numerous occasions, at the County and City Public Records Office, London. I have also worked at the University Library, Cambridge; the Widener and Houghton Libraries, Harvard; the Folger Shakespeare Library; and the Frost Library, Amherst College; and I am indebted to reference librarians at each of these institutions, most notably D. H. Merry and Floyd Merritt. At various times I have been assisted by William G. Harvey, Jamie LeBlanc, and Mary Jo Lynch and the study has been financed in part by two Morse Fellowships awarded me by Yale University and by a Faculty Growth Grant awarded me by the Graduate Research Council of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. For all of this I am grateful.

This book is inscribed to Warner G. Rice in gratitude and affection: he was the first man to encourage me in graduate school and the last man to chair my dissertation committee; and I owe much of my interest in the English Renaissance to the breadth and dedication of his learning, in light of which this slender reference work seems modest indeed.

A. F. K.

Amherst, Massachusetts

January 4, 1973

PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION

Initially Titled Elizabethans was a working byproduct of my extensive editing of historical and religious documents and pamphlets which I needed to footnote Elizabethan Backgrounds. The book came into being when I realized it could be equally useful to others in the absence of any similar reference work. Now Jane A. Lawson, following her magnificent listing of the Queen’s New Year’s gifts for the British Academy, has greatly expanded the original work by adding court women and further state and church officers. We are all indebted to her for this more comprehensive volume.

A. F. K.

Amherst, Massachusetts

April 4, 2014

The original aim of this volume, to compile a single comprehensive listing . . . of the reign of Elizabeth I, continues to be the focus of this revision. In the forty years between its initial publication and the present time, knowledge of the Elizabethan court and access to sources of archival information have increased. The copy of Titled Elizabethans in my home library is well used with multiple penciled-in annotations, gleaned from manuscripts in various archives and from shared conversations with colleagues.

As a female ruler, Elizabeth’s closest household positions were occupied by women. Her ladies of the Privy Chamber and Bedchamber had access to the Queen which no male officer could approach. This revision includes the women of Elizabeth’s Privy Chamber and identifies the spouses of the peers. New sections provide information on ambassadors, lords lieutenant and custus rotulorum of the shires, and other sixteenth-century world rulers, placing Elizabeth’s court into context with its contemporaries. Some lists, such as Privy Councillors, Almoners, and Maids of Honour, are still incomplete, but even incomplete lists provide valuable information about Elizabeth’s reign not otherwise readily accessible.

The revision adds an index of all persons named in the volume, which should prove especially helpful for finding persons who held multiple titles. When possible, I have included dates of birth, death, marriage, or flourishing to provide context for these individuals. The spelling of personal and place names is standardized and I include cross references for alternate spellings and from wives’ married names to their maiden names. A list of sources for further study is also included.

These additions to Arthur Kinney’s pioneering work should benefit current and future generations of Elizabethan scholars, who can continue the process of filling in details for the many gaps which still exist. I express special appreciation to Marion Colthorpe whose work, The Elizabethan Court Day by Day, puts a previously unavailable perspective on the events and people of the Court and whose knowledge of the Court is unerringly accurate.

J. A. L.

Atlanta, Georgia

2014

ABBREVIATIONS

EDITORIAL PROCEDURES

Note on Dates

Throughout this volume, all dates are given in New Style (N.S.) for clarity. Thus a date such as 21 Feb 1602/03 appears here as 21 Feb 1603. The new year then started on March 23.

Note on Spelling of Names

Spelling of names is based on entries of Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. If no entry for person in this source, then spelling is based on History of Parliament, then on Cokayne, Compete Peerage.

Note on Distinguishing Multiple Individuals with the Same Name

Where two or more persons share the same given and surnames, they are differentiated with Roman numerals in square brackets, e.g. Henry [I] Neville, Henry [II] Neville. These identifiers are assigned in birth order for these individuals.

Note on Distinguishing Titles of Knighthood

Individuals often held Court and Crown Offices prior to receiving knighthood or being elevated to the Peerage. Round brackets are used to indicate that the individual was appointed to a Crown or Court Office prior to being dubbed a knight. When the knighthood precedes the appointment, no brackets are used.

PART I

PRINCIPAL OFFICERS OF ELIZABETH I’S STATE

Lord Chancellor/Lord Keeper

Highest state office; presided over House of Lords, acted as Queen’s representative to Parliament, and directed the judiciary. Custodian of the Great Seal of state affixed to proclamations, writs, letters patent, and documents giving power to sign and ratify treaties; under Elizabeth I, the titles of Lord Chancellor and Lord Keeper were alternate titles for the same office.

Lord Treasurer

State office; in charge of receipt and disbursement of revenue.

Lord Privy Seal

Custodian of the private seal of the Queen, used when the Great Seal was not available, often for letters patent, and thought of as the particular instrument of the Royal Prerogative; it was also used increasingly with financial payments as a warrant for payment from the Exchequer. The position was vacant during most of the reign, except for:

Privy Council

Privy Councillors

Privy Councillors were appointed by the sovereign for life; they could be reappointed by a succeeding sovereign.

Appointed prior to Elizabeth’s reign; reappointed Nov 1558 in service to her

Appointed during Elizabeth’s reign:

Clerks of the Privy Council

From 1558 to 1594, three salaried clerks were appointed, joined by a fourth clerk in 1594. Three extraordinary clerks also served.

Clerks of the Signet

Four in office simultaneously.

State Officers

Principal Secretary

Under Elizabeth, this office, once an office of household and still relatively unimportant in 1558, grew to be the most important state position by 1603; the Principal Secretary was the natural channel for exercising the Queen’s prerogative, for superintending communications between Crown and Privy Council, and for coordinating the activities of the Queen’s foreign secretaries and ambassadors—becoming, in effect, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

Secretary for the French Tongue

Secretary for the Latin Tongue

Chancellor of the Exchequer

Audited and managed the Queen’s accounts.

Clerk of the Hanaper

An officer in the Department of Chancery who was paid fees for the sealing of charters, patents, and writs. He issued certain writs under the Great Seal. These official documents were placed into a wicker basket or hanaper.

Lord High Admiral

Principal administrator of the Queen’s Royal Navy, who supervised all civil and criminal cases concerning activities on the high seas. Cases were judged by the Admiralty