Sir Thomas Clere (died 14 April 1545) was a successful poet at the court of
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 ...
. He is commemorated in several poems by
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, with whom he had a very close friendship. He was engaged to
Mary Shelton
Mary Shelton (1510-1515 – 1570/71) was one of the contributors to the Devonshire manuscript. Either she or her sister Madge Shelton may have been a mistress of King Henry VIII.
Family
Both Margaret and Mary were daughters of Sir John Shel ...
, a former
mistress of the King's, in 1545, but died before their love match could be made into a marriage.
Sir Thomas Clere was the third son of
Sir Robert Clere
''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 ...
(c.1493 - 10 August 1529) of
Ormesby St. Margaret,
Norfolk, and his wife
Alice
Alice may refer to:
* Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname
Literature
* Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll
* ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
, the daughter of
Sir William Boleyn
Sir William Boleyn, KB (1451 – 10 October 1505) of Blickling Hall in Norfolk and Hever Castle in Kent, was a wealthy and powerful landowner who served as Sheriff of Kent in 1489 and as Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1500. He was the fathe ...
and his wife Margaret Ormond (otherwise Butler), daughter and co-heiress of
Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond. Alice was the sister of
Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and the aunt of
King Henry VIII's second Queen,
Anne Boleyn. Sir Thomas Clere was thus Queen Anne Boleyn's first cousin.
[.]
Sir Thomas Clere was buried in the
Church of St Mary at Lambeth
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
in Surrey where his monumental brass can still be seen. His brother, Edward Clere was killed at the
battle of Pinkie in 1547.
Footnotes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clere, Thomas
1545 deaths
16th-century English poets
16th-century Royal Navy personnel
English knights
Year of birth missing
English male poets
Burials at St Mary-at-Lambeth