Sir William Eure of Bradley was an English aristocrat and political intriguer. He was a son of

William Eure, 2nd Baron Eure William Eure, 2nd Baron Eure (10 May 1529 – 12 September 1594) was a Tudor-era English nobleman, soldier, and official in the Scottish Marches. Early life William Eure was the son of Ralph Eure, eldest son of William Eure who had been c ...

and Margaret Dymoke, and uncle of

William Eure, 4th Baron Eure William Eure, 4th Baron Eure ( – 28 June 1646) was an English nobleman. Early life Eure was born around 1579. He was the only son of Ralph Eure, 3rd Baron Eure of Ingleby and Malton and, his first wife, the former Mary Dawnay. After his ...

, two years his junior, with whom he must not be confused.. With other members of family, he visited and harassed Thomas Posthumus Hoby and his wife at

Hackness Hackness is a village and civil parish in the Scarborough district of the county of North Yorkshire, England. It lies within the North York Moors National Park. The parish population rose from 125 in the 2001 UK census to 221 in the 2011 UK cens ...

, near

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

, leading to well-documented litigation and counter-claims. The Eure family were traditional and Catholic recusant landowners in the area and Hoby was a relative newcomer and

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

. He was employed at the Scottish border by

Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby (12 October 1555 – 25 June 1601) was the son of Catherine Willoughby, 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, and Richard Bertie. Bertie was Lady Willoughby de Eresby's second husband, the first bei ...

. In Nevember 1600 William Eure came into Scotland with his servant Clement Armorer. Sir Robert Ker brought him to meet

King James VI James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...

at the house of Sir George Home at Spott. Robert Carey reported this suspicious meeting, held "in the dead time of night", to

Sir Robert Cecil Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, (1 June 156324 May 1612), was an English statesman noted for his direction of the government during the Union of the Crowns, as Tudor England gave way to Stuart rule (1603). Lord Salisbury served as the ...

. Eure denied all at first, then confessed to having "long conference" with James VI at Spott. Cecil was especially disappointed by Eure's denial which multiplied suspicions, although he thought the matter had beginnings only in some "very venial" cause. William Eure was imprisoned 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 castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...

for this visit, suspected of treasonous dealings. His older brother,

Ralph Eure, 3rd Baron Eure Ralph Eure, 3rd Baron Eure (24 September 1558 – 1 April 1617), of Ingleby and Malton, Yorkshire, was an English nobleman and politician. The surname, also given as Evers, was at that time probably pronounced "Ewry". Life He was the son o ...

, was concerned by his arrest and potential harm to his family. Scottish diplomats made representations on William Eure's behalf and also to clarify that James VI had not made any faults. Queen Elizabeth's statement of 11 May 1601 stressed that Eure's was his denial to superior officers at Berwick that he had met the Scottish king. William Eure was one of small number of English gentry figures whose visits to Scotland before the

Union of the Crowns The Union of the Crowns ( gd, Aonadh nan Crùintean; sco, Union o the Crouns) was the accession of James VI of Scotland to the throne of the Kingdom of England as James I and the practical unification of some functions (such as overseas dip ...

caused alarm to the English diplomatic community and border officials, another was Edmund Ashfield.Alexander Courtney, 'The Secret Correspondence of James VI, 1601-3', in Susan Doran & Paulina Kewes, ''Doubtful and dangerous: The question of the succession in late Elizabethan England'' (Manchester, 2014), p. 136.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eure, William 16th-century English people Eure family Prisoners in the Tower of London