Sir Thomas Armstrong (c. 1633,

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

– 20 June 1684, London) was an English army officer and Member of Parliament executed for treason.Richard L. Greaves, Armstrong, Sir Thomas (bap. 1633, d. 1684), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004 His father, Colonel Sir Thomas Armstrong (died November 1662) fought in the

30 Years War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...

in the Netherlands, was a royalist soldier during the English Civil War, and was twice imprisoned in the Tower of London by Oliver Cromwell during the Commonwealth.

Life

During the

Interregnum An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next (coming from Latin '' ...

Armstrong was a supporter of Charles II, participating in the plot to seize Chester Castle in 1655, and carrying funds from Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford to Charles in exile. He was possibly imprisoned for a year on his return. In 1657, he married Catherine, daughter of James Pollexfen and niece of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon. A True Account of the Apprehending of Sir Thomas Armstrong

A True Account of the Apprehending of Sir Thomas Armstrong

Following the Restoration, he received, in February 1661, a commission as captain-lieutenant in the

Royal Horse Guards The Royal Regiment of Horse Guards (The Blues) (RHG) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry. Raised in August 1650 at Newcastle upon Tyne and County Durham by Sir Arthur Haselrigge on the orders of Oliver Cr ...

. In August 1675, Armstrong killed the son of one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting at a London theatre. Armstrong was pardoned on the grounds that his opponent had drawn first. Armstrong served with

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC (9 April 1649 – 15 July 1685) was a Dutch-born English nobleman and military officer. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlan ...

in France from 1672, fighting at the Siege of Maastricht (1673) and alongside the Dutch, in 1678. He was wounded at St Denis. In 1679, he helped suppress the covenanter rising and fought at the battle of Bothwell Bridge, at the same time that the

Popish Plot The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy invented by Titus Oates that between 1678 and 1681 gripped the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Oates alleged that there was an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate C ...

in England was scaring the Anglican establishment. Monmouth's influence secured him as MP for

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

in March 1679 to the

First Exclusion Parliament The Habeas Corpus Parliament, also known as the First Exclusion Parliament, was a short-lived English Parliament which assembled on 6 March 1679 (or 1678, Old Style) during the reign of Charles II of England, the third parliament of the King's re ...

Death

Following the Rye House Plot, in 1683, he was indicted in the Court of King's Bench for high treason. A wanted man, Armstrong fled to Cleves and then Rotterdam but was captured in Leiden and sentenced to death by

Judge George Jeffreys George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, PC (15 May 1645 – 18 April 1689), also known as "the Hanging Judge", was a Welsh judge. He became notable during the reign of King James II, rising to the position of Lord Chancellor (and servin ...

. He made a dignified end on the gallows at Tyburn on 20 June 1684, protesting that he died "a true and sincere Protestant ... and in the communion of the Church of England; and I heartily wish I had more strictly lived up to the religion which I believed". His lands and bonds totaling £12,700 were saved from forfeiture under his marriage settlement. Nevertheless, his trial was widely regarded as a flagrant miscarriage of justice. He was dragged by hurdle to Tyburn, where he was

hanged, drawn and quartered To be hanged, drawn and quartered became a statutory penalty for men convicted of high treason in the Kingdom of England from 1352 under Edward III of England, King Edward III (1327–1377), although similar rituals are recorded during the rei ...

, on 20 June 1684. His head was affixed to Westminster Hall, three of his quarters were displayed in London, and the fourth at

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, Sir Thomas People of the Rye House Plot People executed under the Stuarts for treason against England Executed English people 1684 deaths Recipients of English royal pardons Year of birth uncertain People executed by Stuart England by hanging, drawing and quartering English politicians convicted of crimes Knights Bachelor Royal Horse Guards officers English MPs 1679 English MPs 1680–1681 English MPs 1681 Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Stafford