Sir Adrian Fortescue (c. 1476 – 9 July 1539) was a courtier at the court of King

Henry VIII of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

and member of the

Third Order of Saint Dominic The Third Order of Saint Dominic ( la, Tertius Ordo Praedicatorum; abbreviated TOP), also referred to as the Lay Fraternities of Saint Dominic or Lay Dominicans since 1972, is a Roman Catholic third order affiliated with the Dominican Order. Lay ...

who was executed in 1539 and later beatified as a Roman Catholic

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

Life

Adrian Fortescue was the son of Sir John Fortescue of Ponsbourne Park at

Newgate Street Village Newgate Street is a village near Cuffley, in Hatfield civil parish, in the Welwyn Hatfield district of Hertfordshire, England. It is approximately six miles south-west of Hertford and has a population of 400. At the 2011 Census the population was ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. He descended from Richard Fortescue, younger brother of Sir Henry Fortescue ( fl. 1426),

Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas The chief justice of the Common Pleas was the head of the Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench or Common Place, which was the second-highest common law court in the English legal system until 1875, when it, along with the other ...

in Ireland, and of

Sir John Fortescue John Fortescue may refer to: * Sir John Fortescue (judge) (c. 1394–1479), English lawyer and judge, MP for Tavistock, Totnes, Plympton Erle and Wiltshire * Sir John Fortescue of Salden (1531/1533–1607), third Chancellor of the Exchequer of Engl ...

(ca. 1394ca. 1480),

Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

, all sons of Sir John Fortescue (fl.1422) of Whympston in the parish of

Modbury Modbury is a large village, ecclesiastical parish, civil parish and former manor situated in the South Hams district of the county of Devon in England. Today due to its large size it is generally referred to as a "town" although the parish co ...

, Devon, appointed in 1422 Captain of the captured Castle of Meaux, 25 miles NE of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. His mother Alice was the daughter of

Geoffrey Boleyn Sir Geoffrey Boleyn (1406–1463; also Jeffray Bulleyn, Bullen, etc) was an English merchant and politician who served as Lord Mayor of London from 1457 to 1458. He purchased the manor of Blickling, near Aylsham, in Norfolk from Sir John Fastol ...

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...

, and great aunt to

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

's second wife,

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key ...

. He was made a

Knight of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...

in 1503. He spent most of his time in the country, busy with his lands and with county affairs. He lived at his wife's family seat at

Stonor Park Stonor Park is a historic country house and private deer park situated in a valley in the Chiltern Hills at Stonor, about north of Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, England, close to the county boundary with Buckinghamshire. The house has a 12th ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, where he served as a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

. Fortescue participated in England's wars against France in 1513 and 1523 and was present at the meeting in 1520 between Henry VIII and

Francis I of France Francis I (french: François Ier; frm, Francoys; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once ...

at the

Field of the Cloth of Gold The Field of the Cloth of Gold (french: Camp du Drap d'Or, ) was a summit meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France from 7 to 24 June 1520. Held at Balinghem, between Ardres in France and Guînes in the English P ...

. He was made a Knight of the

Order of St. John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headqu ...

in 1532 and the following year became a Dominican Tertiary of the Blackfriars of Oxford. He attended the coronation of Anne Boleyn in June of that year. On 29 August 1534, he was arrested without any stated reason and taken to Woodstock, where he was questioned. He was freed after a period of months. In February 1539 he was again arrested, and in April he was among those condemned for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

without a trial by Parliament for unspecified acts presumably relating to hostility to

's church policies. He was beheaded at the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...

on 9 July 1539. His servants were also killed for treason on the same day but were hanged, drawn and quartered at

Tyburn Tyburn was a manor (estate) in the county of Middlesex, one of two which were served by the parish of Marylebone. The parish, probably therefore also the manor, was bounded by Roman roads to the west (modern Edgware Road) and south (modern Ox ...

Family

Fortescue was twice married: * first to Anne, daughter of Sir William Stonor and Anne Neville, daughter of

John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu (c. 1431 – 14 April 1471) was a major magnate of fifteenth-century England. He was a younger son of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and the younger brother of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwic ...

. Anne died in 1518. By his first wife, Fortescue had two daughters: ** Margaret, married to Thomas Wentworth, 1st baron Wentworth; ** Frances, married to Thomas Fitzgerald, 10th earl of Kildare. * secondly to Anne, daughter of Sir William Rede, of

Boarstall Boarstall is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, about west of Aylesbury. The parish is on the county boundary with Oxfordshire and the village is about southeast of the Oxfordshire market town of Bice ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

and widow of Sir Giles Greville. By his second wife he had three sons and two daughters: ** Sir

John Fortescue of Salden Sir John Fortescue (ca. 1531 or 153323 December 1607) of Salden Manor, near Mursley, Buckinghamshire, was the seventh Chancellor of the Exchequer of England, serving from 1589 until 1603. Origins Fortescue was the son of Adrian Fortescue, wh ...

, Chancellor of the Exchequer; ** Sir Thomas Fortescue, MP Wallingford; ** Sir Anthony Fortescue; ** Elizabeth, married to Sir

Thomas Bromley Sir Thomas Bromley (153011 April 1587) was a 16th-century lawyer, judge and politician who established himself in the mid-Tudor period and rose to prominence during the reign of Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth I. He was successively Solicito ...

, lord chancellor of England; ** Mary, whose son was

Thomas Cavendish Sir Thomas Cavendish (1560 – May 1592) was an English explorer and a privateer known as "The Navigator" because he was the first who deliberately tried to emulate Sir Francis Drake and raid the Spanish towns and ships in the Pacific and retu ...

the circumnavigator. Anne survived her husband, and afterwards married Sir Thomas Parry, comptroller of Queen Elizabeth's household. She was granted the manor of Great Washbourne in 1557.

Veneration

The

Order of St. John of Jerusalem The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...

(Order of Malta) has advocated devotion to Blessed Adrian as a martyr since the 17th century and

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

him on 13 May 1895. In 1970 a Sub-Priory of the Blessed Adrian Fortescue of the Order of Malta was founded and renamed in 1993 as Grand Priory of England.

References

External links

* *Memorial to The Blessed Adrian Fortescue, Martyr of the Order of Malt
Morris SJ, Fr. John, ''The Venerable Sir Adrian Fortescue'', Burns & Oates, Ltd., London, 1887
* Löwe, J. Andreas, Sir John Fortescue (1533-1607) administrator, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 2004-14(c) http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/printable/9945 {{DEFAULTSORT:Fortescue, Adrian 1476 births 1539 deaths Knights of Malta English beatified people People from Welwyn Hatfield (district) People executed under Henry VIII 16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs 16th-century venerated Christians Christian martyrs executed by decapitation Executed people from Herefordshire People executed by Tudor England by decapitation

Adrian Adrian is a form of the Latin language, Latin given name Adrianus (given name), Adrianus or Hadrianus (disambiguation), Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria (river), Adria from the Venetic language, Venetic and ...

Nine Martyrs of England and Wales

Life

Family

Veneration

See also

References

External links