Coat of Arms of William Parr, 1st Baron Parr-of Kendal

Coat of arms of Sir William Parr, Marquess of Northampton, KG

William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, Earl of Essex, 1st Baron Parr, 1st Baron Hart (14 August 151328 October 1571), was the only brother of Queen

Catherine Parr Catherine Parr (sometimes alternatively spelled Katherine, Katheryn, Kateryn, or Katharine; 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen of England and Ireland as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 12 July 1543 until ...

, the sixth and final wife of King

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 disagr ...

. He was a "sincere, plain, direct man, not crafty nor involved", whose "delight was music and poetry and his exercise war" who co-authored a treatise on hare coursing. He was in favour with Henry VIII and his son

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour ...

, under whom he was the leader of the Protestant party, but having supported the desire of the latter to be succeeded by the Protestant Lady Jane Grey, was attainted by Edward's Catholic half-sister, Queen

Mary I Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She ...

. He was restored by her Protestant half-sister, Queen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

. He married thrice but died without issue.

Origins

He was the only son and heir of the courtier

Sir Thomas Parr Sir Thomas Parr (c. 1483 – 11 November 1517) of Kendal in Westmorland (now Cumbria), England, was a courtier and is best known as the father of Queen Catherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII. Life Thomas was the son of ...

(d.1517) of Parr in the parish of

Prescot Prescot is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in Merseyside, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it lies about to the east of Liverpool city centre. At the 2001 Census, the ...

, Lancashire and of Kendal in Westmorland, by his wife Maud Green (d.1531) a daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Green of Broughton and Greens Norton in Northamptonshire. His younger sister was Anne Parr (1515-1552) wife of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (c.1501-1570).

Career

His father died in 1517 when William was aged 4 and he became a ward of King Henry VIII, from whom his mother re-purchased his marriage, at great expense. Parr took part in suppressing the rising in the North of England in 1537, when he attracted the favourable notice of

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, (1473 – 25 August 1554) was a prominent English politician and nobleman of the Tudor era. He was an uncle of two of the wives of King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, both of whom were behead ...

(uncle of both Queen

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key f ...

and Queen

Catherine Howard Catherine Howard ( – 13 February 1542), also spelled Katheryn Howard, was Queen of England from 1540 until 1542 as the fifth wife of Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, a cousin to Anne Boleyn (the ...

), encouraging his uncle Sir William Parr (c.1483-1547) of Horton, Northamptonshire, to obtain a place for him as a courtier in the king's privy chamber. After serving as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

for

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

he was created

Baron Parr Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher th ...

("of Kendal") in 1539. On 23 April 1543, he became a Knight of the Garter. On 23 December 1543, just after his sister had married the king, he was created

Earl of Essex Earl of Essex is a title in the Peerage of England which was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title has been recreated eight times from its original inception, beginning with a new first Earl upon each new cre ...

, a title held by his late father-in-law

Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Essex Henry may refer to: People * Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portug ...

, who had died without male issue in March 1540. That same year, he was made Baron Hart. He was King

's "beloved uncle" (in fact step-uncle, being the brother of that king's step-mother) and one of the most important men at Edward's court, and the leader of the Protestant party, especially during the time of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland's time as leader of the government. Parr served as Lord Lieutenant in 1549 of five of the eastern counties (Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Norfolk), of Surrey in 1551, of Berkshire and Oxfordshire in 1552 and of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire in 1553. He served as Lord Great Chamberlain from 1550 to 1553, in which role in 1551 he welcomed

Mary of Guise Mary of Guise (french: Marie de Guise; 22 November 1515 – 11 June 1560), also called Mary of Lorraine, was a French noblewoman of the House of Guise, a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine and one of the most powerful families in France. She ...

, Regent of Scotland, to

Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chief ...

on behalf of the King. Parr, and especially his wife, were leaders in the attempt to put the Protestant Lady Jane Grey (daughter-in-law of Northumberland) on the throne after Edward's death (as that king had desired) in place of the other contender his half-sister the Roman Catholic Queen Mary. However his attempt failed and after the accession of

in 1553 he was convicted of

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

, was attainted and sentenced to death on 18 August 1553. However he was released within a few months and following the accession of the Protestant Queen

, his titles were restored in 1559. He became a Knight of the Garter again on 24 April 1559.

Marriages

He married thrice but produced no issue: *Firstly, on 9 February 1527 at the chapel of the manor of Stanstead in Essex, to Anne Bourchier, ''suo jure'' 7th Baroness Bourchier (d. 26 Jan.1571), only child and heiress of

(d.1540). Parr's mother had expended great sums to arrange the marriage, as she noted in her will. In 1542 she eloped from him, stating that "she would live as she lusted". On 17 April 1543 their marriage was

annulled Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost ...

by an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation Primary legislation and secondary legislation (the latter also called delegated legislation or subordinate legislation) are two forms of law, created respectively by the legislat ...

and any of her children "born during esposels between Lord and Lady Parr" were declared bastards. Parr also obtained his ex-wife's lands and was himself created

on 23 December 1543. She predeceased Parr by only 9 months, having been awarded after her divorce a few of her father's former estates by Queen Mary. *Secondly, in 1548, he married

Elisabeth Brooke Elisabeth Brooke (25 June 1526 – 2 April 1565) was an English courtier and noblewoman. She was the eldest daughter of George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham of Kent and Anne, his wife. She was the niece of Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder, the courti ...

(1526-1565), a daughter of George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham of Cobham Hall in Kent, by his wife Anne Bray. Their marriage was declared valid in 1548, invalid in 1553, and valid again in 1558. According to the International Genealogical Index (IGI), Parr may have had a son by Elizabeth Brooke, born in Prescot in 1542 and named Richard. Salisbury Cathedral (St

*Thirdly, in May 1571 (five months before his death), he married

Helena Snakenborg Elin Ulfsdotter Snakenborg, Marchioness of Northampton, also known as Helena, and Helena the Red for her red hair, (1548/1549 – 10 April 1635) was a Swedish-born noblewoman, Maid of Honour of Queen Elizabeth I of England, and Marchiones ...

(d.1635), First Lady of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I, who had come to England from Sweden in 1565 in the train of Cecilia, Margravine of Baden. In 1580 she remarried to Sir

Thomas Gorges Sir Thomas Gorges (1536 – 30 March 1610) of Longford Castle in Wiltshire, was a courtier and Groom of the Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I. Via his great-grandmother Lady Anne Howard, a daughter of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, he wa ...

(1536-1610) of Longford Castle in Wiltshire, by whom she had issue, and was buried with her husband in

Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury. The buil ...

, Wiltshire, where survives their impressive monument with recumbent effigies.

Death & burial

William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton

He died on 28 October 1571 at

Warwick Priory Priory Park is an urban park located in the centre of Warwick, England. Originally the land was the grounds of a 12th-century priory dedicated to Church of the Holy Sepulchre, St Sepulchre and built in 1124 but this was closed down by Henry VIII of ...

, without issue, when his only surviving title of Marquess of Northampton became extinct. He was buried in the chancel of the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick.'Warter – Warwick-Bridge', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 475–482. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51379&strquery=william+parr Date. Retrieved 28 May 2011. Queen

paid for his funeral and burial. His surviving ledger stone is inscribed: ''William Parr, Marquis of Northampton; Died in Warwick 28 October 1571. uriedwith the ceremonial due f aKnight of the Garter to the Order of Queen Elizabeth who bore the expense of the funeral, 2 December 1571.''

References

External links

William William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conq ...