James Tuchet, 7th Baron Audley
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James Tuchet, 7th Baron Audley (c. 146328 June 1497) was a British nobleman and the only lord to fully join the Cornish rebellion of 1497 opposing the rule of
Henry VII of England Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509), also known as Henry Tudor, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henr ...
. He was a leader in the rebel army's march to the edge of London, and in its defeat at the
Battle of Deptford Bridge The Cornish rebellion of 1497 ( Cornish: ''Rebellyans Kernow''), also known as the First Cornish rebellion, was a popular uprising in the Kingdom of England, which began in Cornwall and culminated with the Battle of Deptford Bridge near London ...
. Captured on the battlefield, he was sentenced for treason and beheaded. His peerage was forfeited, but restored to his son in 1512.


Birth, succession, marriages, and issue

Tuchet was born in Heleigh Castle,
Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...
to
John Tuchet, 6th Baron Audley John Tuchet, 6th Baron Audley, 3rd Baron Tuchet (1423 – 26 September 1490) was an English politician. John Tuchet was the son of James Tuchet, 5th Baron Audley (c. 1398 - 1459). He married Ann Echyngham (daughter of Sir Thomas Echyngham (die ...
and Anne Echingham. He succeeded to the title of 7th Lord Audley, of Heleigh on 26 September 1490. About 1483 he married Margaret Darrell, the daughter of Richard Darrell of Littlecote, Wiltshire by Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Stafford, widow of Humphrey Stafford, styled Earl of Stafford, and daughter and coheir of
Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, 4th Earl of Somerset, 1st Earl of Dorset, 1st Marquess of Dorset styled 1st Count of Mortain, (140622 May 1455), was an English nobleman and an important figure during the Hundred Years' War. His rivalry ...
, by whom he had a son and heir, John Tuchet, 8th Baron Audley (c. 1483 – 20 January 1557/8). Audley married secondly, about
Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in many Western Christian liturgical calendars on 29 Se ...
1488, Joan Bourchier (died 3 March 1532), daughter of
Fulk Bourchier, 10th Baron FitzWarin Fulk Bourchier, 10th Baron FitzWarin (25 October 1445 – 18 September 1479) was the son and heir of William Bourchier, 9th Baron FitzWarin (1407–1470) and the father of John Bourchier, 1st Earl of Bath. He was feudal baron of Bampton in Devo ...
, and Elizabeth Dynham.


Roots of disaffection

James Tuchet's father, John, the 6th Baron Audley, had joined the
Yorkist The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, th ...
side in the
Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and in following centuries as the Civil Wars, were a series of armed confrontations, machinations, battles and campaigns fought over control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. The conflict was fo ...
, and prospered under both
King Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...
and
King Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...
, becoming
Lord High Treasurer The Lord High Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Acts of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third-highest-ranked Great Officer of State in England, below the Lord H ...
under the latter. James himself had, as a child, been made a
Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry; it is a part of the Orders, decorations, and medals ...
by Edward IV when the latter's young son was created
Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...
. But under Henry VII, who overthrew the Yorkist dynasty of kings, the Tuchets were out of favour. Compared with other nobility, the family's landed wealth was small. Nevertheless, having succeeding to the Audley barony on the death of his father, on 26 September 1490, James Tuchet was called to join King Henry's expeditionary force against the French in 1492. The Siege of Boulogne resulted in a favourable treaty for Henry, but the expedition was probably personally costly for James. Audley was summoned to attend sessions of Parliament from 1492. In 1496 he was compelled to contribute £200 as part of a bond guaranteeing the loyalty of another Yorkist, the
Marquess of Dorset The title Marquess of Dorset has been created three times in the Peerage of England. It was first created in 1397 for John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, but he lost the title two years later. It was then created in 1442 for Edmund Beaufort, 1s ...
. In early 1497, King Henry levied heavy taxes to raise an army against the Scots and the Yorkist rebellion of the pretender
Perkin Warbeck Perkin Warbeck ( – 23 November 1499) was a pretender to the English throne claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, who was the second son of Edward IV and one of the so-called "Princes in the Tower". Richard, were he alive, would ...
. Audley objected to the subsidy granted in Parliament. At home it was his role to collect taxes, and at the same time he was ordered to provide 100 men for Henry's army. When a new uprising began in Cornwall later that year, the rebels’ grievances evidently accorded with Audley's own.
Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...
(writing 125 years later) stated that his character was “unquiet and popular and aspiring to ruin”. Twentieth-century historian
A. L. Rowse Alfred Leslie Rowse (4 December 1903 – 3 October 1997) was a British historian and writer, best known for his work on Elizabethan England and books relating to Cornwall. Born in Cornwall and raised in modest circumstances, he was encourag ...
further surmised that Audley "cherished some disappointment that his services had not been better rewarded by the king".


Cornish rebellion of 1497

The rebel army from Cornwall was led by a blacksmith, Michael Joseph (known as An Gof), and a lawyer,
Thomas Flamank Thomas Flamank (died 27 June 1497) was a lawyer and former MP from Cornwall, who together with Michael An Gof led the Cornish rebellion of 1497, a protest against taxes imposed by Henry VII of England. Ancestry He was the eldest son of Richar ...
. Audley met it when it reached Wells in Somerset. It seems Audley had already been in correspondence with An Gof and Flamank. Now, as a nobleman with military experience, he was acclaimed by the rebels as their commander. His exact qualities in this role are unclear but it was to turn out that he failed to provide a sound strategy or create a unified sense of purpose, and militarily he led the army only to defeat. The force approached London via
Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...
and
Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
, and then skirted to the south, via
Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...
, evidently in the hope of gaining popular support in
Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. No such uprising materialised, however. Reaching Blackheath near
Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century ...
, south-east
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, they were opposed by an army of King Henry's under Lord Daubeny and the
Earl of Oxford Earl of Oxford is a dormant title in the Peerage of England, first created for Aubrey de Vere, 1st Earl of Oxford, Aubrey de Vere by the Empress Matilda in 1141. De Vere family, His family was to hold the title for more than five and a half cen ...
. Many of the rebels were dismayed and wanted to submit themselves to the king. Reportedly it was An Gof (not Audley) who insisted on fighting. After desertions, Audley commanded a greatly outnumbered army against better-equipped opposition. The rebels were soundly defeated in the ensuing
Battle of Deptford Bridge The Cornish rebellion of 1497 ( Cornish: ''Rebellyans Kernow''), also known as the First Cornish rebellion, was a popular uprising in the Kingdom of England, which began in Cornwall and culminated with the Battle of Deptford Bridge near London ...
on Saturday 17 June 1497. Audley was captured on the battlefield. Like An Gof and Flamank he 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 citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamle ...
; the three were examined by the King in Council in the Tower on Monday 19 June. A week later, An Gof and Flamank were tried and, the following day, executed by hanging & beheading. Audley, as a nobleman, was instead taken to
Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
to be sentenced by the office of the
Earl Marshal Earl Marshal (alternatively marschal or marischal) is a hereditary royal officeholder and chivalric title under the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign of the United Kingdom used in England (then, following the Act of Union 1800, in the U ...
. Being condemned to death, he spent the night in Newgate Gaol. On Wednesday 28 June 1497, he was transported to
Tower Hill Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher gro ...
on display with his coat of arms painted on paper upside-down and torn, and there beheaded. His head was stuck on
London Bridge The name "London Bridge" refers to several historic crossings that have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark in central London since Roman Britain, Roman times. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 197 ...
and his body was buried at Blackfriars. Audley's lands were confiscated, later to be returned to his son
John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...
in 1533. The manor of Honybere was granted for life to Sir John Arundell, for the latter's service against the rebels. The Audley title was forfeit but was restored to John Tuchet in 1512.


Notes


References

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External links


Sir James Tuchet, 7th Lord Audley, thepeerage.com
Retrieved 5 April 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Audley, James Tuchet 1460s births 1497 deaths Military history of Cornwall Cornish nationalists People executed under the Tudors for treason against England *07 15th-century English nobility Executed people from Staffordshire People executed by Tudor England by decapitation Executed Cornish people People executed under Henry VII of England Executions at the Tower of London 15th-century executions by England British politicians convicted of crimes Executed English nobility