Sir John Beaumont, 1st Baronet (c.1582/3 – April 1627) of Grace Dieu in the parish of Belton in Leicestershire, England, was a poet best known for his work ''Bosworth Field'' (a poem about the

Battle of Bosworth Field The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field ( ) was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of House of Lancaster, Lancaster and House of York, York that extended across England in the latter half ...

Origins

He was born at Grace Dieu, near

Thringstone Thringstone is a village in the North West Leicestershire district, in Leicestershire, England. About north of Coalville, it lies in the English National Forest. Until 1875, Thringstone had been a township within the ancient parish of Wh ...

in Leicestershire, the second son of the judge Sir

Francis Beaumont Francis Beaumont ( ; 1584 – 6 March 1616) was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher. Beaumont's life Beaumont was the son of Sir Francis Beaumont of Grace Dieu, near Thri ...

(d.1598) by his wife Anne Pierrepont. His younger brother was the dramatist

Career

John matriculated at

Broadgates Hall Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...

(later Pembroke College) in the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

on 4 February 1596/1597, entered as a

gentleman commoner A commoner is a student at certain universities in the British Isles who historically pays for his own tuition and commons, typically contrasted with scholars and exhibitioners, who were given financial emoluments towards their fees. Cambridge ...

. He was admitted to the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

in 1598 or 1600. The death in 1605 of his elder brother, Sir Henry Beaumont, made John the head of the Beaumont family, and he is thought to have returned to Grace-Dieu to manage the family estates. He was a Roman Catholic and together with his wife was fined for

recusancy Recusancy (from ) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, and temporarily repea ...

in 1607, and in 1625 was again in trouble on that account.Skillington, Florence (4 October 1971)
"Sir John Beaumont of Gracedieu"
/ref> He began to write verse early and in 1602, at the age of nineteen, he published anonymously his ''Metamorphosis of Tabacco'', written in very smooth couplets, in which he addressed

Michael Drayton Michael Drayton ( – ) was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era, continuing to write through the reign of James I and into the reign of Charles I. Many of his works consisted of historical poetry. He was also the fir ...

as his loving friend. After long retirement Beaumont was persuaded by the

Duke of Buckingham Duke of Buckingham, referring to the market town of Buckingham, England, is an extinct title that has been created several times in the peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. There were creations of double dukedoms of Bucki ...

to return to society. He attended court and on 31 January 1626/1627 was created by the king a

Baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

"of Gracedieu, in Belton, County Leicester", in the

Baronetage of England Baronets are hereditary titles awarded by the Crown. The current baronetage of the United Kingdom has replaced the earlier, existing baronetages of England, Nova Scotia, Ireland and Great Britain. To be recognised as a baronet, it is necessary ...

Marriage and children

Beaumont lived in Leicestershire for many years as a bachelor, before eventually marrying Elizabeth Fortescue (died after 16 April 1652), daughter of John Fortescue and paternal granddaughter of one of the only two married daughters of Sir

Geoffrey Pole Sir Geoffrey Pole of Lordington, Sussex (c. 1501 or 1502 – November 1558) was an English knight who supported the Catholic Church in England and Wales when Henry VIII of England was establishing the alternative Church of England with him ...

and Constance Pakenham. By his wife he had four sons, including: *Sir John Beaumont, 2nd Baronet (d.1643), eldest son and heir, killed at the

Siege of Gloucester The siege of Gloucester took place between 10 August and 5 September 1643 during the First English Civil War. It was part of a Royalist campaign led by King Charles I to take control of the Severn Valley from the Parliamentarians. Follow ...

. He was considered one of the most athletic men of his time. He published some of his father's poems, and wrote an enthusiastic elegy on him. *Gervaise Beaumont, who died in childhood. The circumstances of his death are recorded in one of his father's most touching poems. *Thomas Beaumont, 3rd Baronet

Death and burial

He died in April 1627 and was buried on 19 April 1627 in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

. He died

intestate Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies without a legally valid will, resulting in the distribution of their estate under statutory intestacy laws rather than by their expressed wishes. Alternatively this may also apply ...

and his

estate Estate or The Estate may refer to: Law * Estate (law), a term in common law for a person's property, entitlements and obligations * Estates of the realm, a broad social category in the histories of certain countries. ** The Estates, representativ ...

was administered on 3 January 1628/1629. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, Sir John Beaumont, 2nd Baronet.

Works

Beaumont's major work is a poem in twelve books, entitled ''The Crown of Thornes'', which was greatly admired in manuscript by

Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, (pronunciation uncertain: "Rezley", "Rizely" (archaic), (present-day) and have been suggested; 6 October 1573 – 10 November 1624) was the only son of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Sou ...

and others. Though lost for centuries, scholars have established that a long poem in twelve books contained in a manuscript in the British Library was indeed Beaumont's lost major work. In 1629 the 2nd Baronet published a volume of his father's works entitled ''Bosworth Field; with a taste of the variety of other Poems left by Sir John Beaumont''. No more tastes were ever vouchsafed, so Beaumont's reputation rests on this the juvenile ''Metamorphosis of Tobacco''. Beaumont's favoured medium was the

heroic couplet A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used in epic and narrative poetry, and consisting of a rhyming pair of lines in iambic pentameter. Use of the heroic couplet was pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer in the '' Legen ...

Bosworth Field The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field ( ) was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 ...

, the scene of the battle described in Beaumont's principal poem, lay close to the poet's residence of Grace-Dieu. He always wrote with a remarkable smoothness, which marks him, with

Edmund Waller Edmund Waller, 3 March 1606 to 21 October 1687, was a poet and politician from Buckinghamshire. He sat as MP for various constituencies between 1624 and 1687, and was one of the longest serving members of the English House of Commons. Althoug ...

and

George Sandys George Sandys ( "sands"; 2 March 1578''Sandys, George''
in: ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' online ...

, as one of the pioneers of the classic reformation of English verse. The poems of Sir John Beaumont were included in

Alexander Chalmers Alexander Chalmers (; 29 March 1759 – 29 December 1834) was a Scottish writer. He was born in Aberdeen. Trained as a doctor, he gave up medicine for journalism, and was for some time editor of the ''Morning Herald''. Besides editions of the w ...

's ''English Poets'', vol. vi (1810). An edition, with memorial introduction and notes, was included (1869) in Dr AB Grosart's ''Fuller Worthies Library''; and the ''Metamorphosis of Tobacco'' was included in JP Collier's ''Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature'', vol. i. (1863).

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beaumont, John, 1st Baronet 1580s births 1627 deaths 17th-century English poets

201 Year 201 ( CCI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Fabianus and Arrius (or, less frequently, year 954 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 201 for this yea ...

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 ...

English Catholic poets English Roman Catholics People from Thringstone English male poets Alumni of Broadgates Hall, Oxford