John Arundell (by 1527 – 17 November 1590), of Lanherne, St. Mawgan-in-Pyder, Cornwall, was an English politician. He was a noted

recusant Recusancy (from ) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, and temporarily repea ...

, and a close associate of the Catholic martyr St.

Cuthbert Mayne Cuthbert Mayne (c. 1543–29 November 1577) was an Catholic Church in England and Wales, English Catholic priest executed under the laws of Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth I. He was the first of the seminary priests trained on the Continental ...

Biography

He was the eldest son of John Arundell (died 1557) and Elizabeth Dannett, daughter of Sir Gerald Dannett of Dannett's Hall,

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

. The Arundells were a wealthy and influential family with close connections to the

Tudor dynasty The House of Tudor ( ) was an English and Welsh dynasty that held the throne of England from 1485 to 1603. They descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd, a Welsh noble family, and Catherine of Valois. The Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of Eng ...

. The head of the senior (Lanherne) branch of the family was often described as "the most important man in the county". The elder John's younger brother

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

was also a political figure of some eminence, who fell out of Royal favour and was executed for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

in 1552. John was imprisoned but never brought to trial. Under the Catholic Queen

Mary I Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She made vigorous a ...

, the surviving Arundells, who were staunch Catholics, regained much of their influence in Cornwall. John Arundell married, in 1557, Lady Ann Stanley, widow of Charles Stourton, 8th Baron Stourton, and daughter of

Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby (c. 10 May 1509 – 24 October 1572) was an English nobleman and politician. He succeeded his father as Lord of Mann until his death, and then was succeeded by his son. Early life At the age of thirteen, ...

and Lady Dorothy Howard. Their children included: * Dorothy Arundell c.1559 who was a Benedictine nun and author * Gertrude Arundell, nun * John Arundell (1564–1633), who married Ann Jerningham, daughter of Henry Jerningham * George Arundell, who married Dorothy Viell * Thomas Arundell Arundell was a

Member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the Great Council of England, great council of Lords Spi ...

for

Helston Helston () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the The Lizard, Lizard Peninsula approximately east of Penzance and south-west of Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth.Ordnance Survey: ...

in 1545,

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, Salisbury and north-northeast of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hi ...

in 1547, Preston in 1555 and

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

in 1558.

Recusant

Like his father, and many other members of the Arundell family, he was an open

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

. He refused to subscribe to the

Act of Uniformity 1559 The Act of Uniformity 1558 ( 1 Eliz. 1. c. 2) was an act of the Parliament of England, passed in 1559, to regularise prayer, divine worship and the administration of the sacraments in the Church of England. In so doing, it mandated worship acc ...

and rarely attended

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

services (despite the legal obligation to do so at least once a week, on pain of a fine). He was a close associate of the

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, 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 external party. In ...

, and paid for the education of another Catholic martyr, John Cornelius, later to be the family

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

for eleven years. Because of his standing in the community, he was left in peace until 1577, when his association with Cuthbert Mayne became public knowledge. He was arrested and spent some years in the

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

, and was later imprisoned in Ely Palace, from which he was released shortly before his death: he was also heavily fined by the

Star Chamber The court of Star Chamber () was an English court that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late to the mid-17th century (), and was composed of privy counsellors and common-law judges, to supplement the judicial activities of the ...

. His widow continued to engage in openly recusant activities. John Cornelius served as her private chaplain, even though harbouring a

Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' refe ...

had been made a

capital offence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

by the Jesuits, etc. Act 1584. Cornelius was tried and executed under the same Act in 1594, but Lady Arundell was apparently left in peace. She died in 1602. Their daughters, Dorothy and Gertrude, funded the creation of English Benedictine convent in Brussels.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arundell, John 1590 deaths People from St Mawgan Members of the Parliament of England for Helston English MPs 1545–1547 English MPs 1547–1552 English MPs 1555 English MPs 1558 John (1527) Year of birth uncertain Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Cornwall Members of the Parliament of England for Shaftesbury