Thomas Charlton (1417?–1465) was a speaker for House of Commons of England in 1454.
He was the son and heir of Sir Thomas Charlton of
Hillingdon
Hillingdon is an area of Uxbridge within the London Borough of Hillingdon, centred 14.2 miles (22.8 km) west of Charing Cross. It was an ancient parish in Middlesex that included the market town of Uxbridge. During the 1920s the civil pari ...
(d. 1445), land owner and MP.
By 1441 Thomas Jr. had entered
Henry VI's household as one of the esquires of the hall and chamber. In 1442 he was elected to the first of six parliaments in which he served as
knight of the shire
Knight of the shire ( la, milites comitatus) was the formal title for a member of parliament (MP) representing a county constituency in the British House of Commons, from its origins in the medieval Parliament of England until the Redistributio ...
for
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...
. He inherited extensive estates from his parents in over five counties and again represented Middlesex in the Parliaments of 1447 and 1449-50. He was knighted around 1453. In 1453 he once again sat in parliament for Middlesex, when Richard, Duke of York made his claim to the throne during Henry VI's illness. The speaker for the House of Commons, Thomas Thorpe, was arrested on York's orders and on 16 February 1454. Charlton was elected in his place until April 1454.
In 1455, Thomas Charlton was appointed
Sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. In 1459, he returned to Parliament. After the Yorkist invasion of 1460, he committed to the Yorkist cause and was one of the judges who tried the Lancastrian defenders of 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 ...
, was again elected to Parliament and was made
Comptroller of the Household
The Comptroller of the Household is an ancient position in the British royal household, nominally the second-ranking member of the Lord Steward's department after the Treasurer of the Household. The Comptroller was an ''ex officio'' member of t ...
. As Comptroller, he accompanied Henry VI to the second battle of St. Albans in 1461, where he was taken as prisoner, regaining his freedom after Edward IV's victory at Towton in the following month.
He died in 1465. He married Benedicta Vernon (Charlton), daughter of the former speaker of the Commons
Sir Richard Vernon
''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...
. They had two sons and three daughters.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Charlton, Thomas
1417 births
1465 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
Speakers of the House of Commons of England
English MPs 1442
English MPs 1447
English MPs November 1449
English MPs 1453
Members of Parliament for Middlesex