Sir Thomas Le Strange

Sir Thomas Le Strange or Lestrange (1494–1545) of Hunstanton, was a Norfolk landowner and courtier in the time of King Henry VIII.

Family background

The Le Strange family had held the lordship of Hunstanton since the early 12th century. In the 13th century, when the main line of the family became established as barons of Knockin on the Welsh marches, John le Strange, 1st Baron Strange of Knockyn enfeoffed one of his younger sons named Hamo with the old family lordship in Norfolk.

Thomas was born about 1490, and was the son and heir of Robert le Strange who died in 1511, a descendant of this Hamo. Robert was a younger brother who became heir to the main Hunstanton lordship as an adult, when his nephew John died in March 1514 without having any surviving children of his own. Robert's wife Anne le Strange, the mother of Thomas, was a co-heiress of another old branch of the le Strange family, who had been lords of Walton d'Eiville in Warwickshire.

After Robert died his widow Anne, the mother of Thomas, married secondly Sir Edward Knyvett (died 1528), the son William Knyvett (died 1515).

The paternal grandparents of Thomas were Henry Le Strange (died 1485) of Hunstanton and Katherine Drury, a daughter of Roger Drury of Hawstead in Suffolk. After Henry Le Strange's death, Katherine his widow married Sir Robert Radcliffe of Hunstanton, as his second wife.

Career

As a young man, Thomas Le Strange was closely connected to the king's inner circle. He attended the King as an esquire of the body when he went to negotiate with the king of France at the so-called Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.

It was apparently in the period 1526–1528 that a chalk drawing was made by Holbein, which was later apparently used to paint a portrait of Sir Thomas as an older man, which once hung at Hunstanton Hall.

He accompanied the king to Calais in 1529, and was knighted in the same year. He served as Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1530. However, this was not seen as a desirable office to hold, and in 1531 Thomas requested and received an exemption from being forced to serve on juries, as sheriff, escheator, bailiff or constable. In October 1532 he went with the king to Calais to meet with the King of France.

He was in attendance on Anne Boleyn, who was herself from Norfolk, at her coronation in 1533. Her father, Sir Thomas Boleyn, being a Norfolk neighbour, is mentioned repeatedly in the Le Strange accounts as a visitor at Hunstanton. In 1536 he also attended her execution.

In 1536/1537, during the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion against the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Le Strange served under the Duke of Norfolk, attending the King and Queen themselves, and Thomas himself accompanied the Duke's son as guardian of the royal treasure. During 1536 Sir Thomas took 50 of his men together with the Duke, to confront a part of the rebellion in Lincolnshire. In 1537 he also attended the executions of Norfolk conspirators in Norwich, Walsingham and King's Lynn.

Le Strange was himself in communication with Thomas Cromwell, who visited him in Hunstanton in 1536, and served as a royal commissioner under him. Le Strange was therefore directly involved with the dissolution of monasteries in his region including Coxford (1534), Westacre (1538), Great Massingham (1538), and Walsingham (1538). He was able to benefit from the dissolution by obtaining grants of monastic lands.

Sir Thomas served as a Norfolk justice of the peace (J.P.), and in the Norfolk commissions of sewers, which managed waterways in marshy areas. He was dismissed as a J.P. in 1538 for one year, but the reasons for this are unknown.

From the 1530s he spent most of his time in Norfolk, where his household accounts show that his wealth was increasing. Income from his sheep farming was supplemented by income from newly purchased lands where cattle were raised in central Norfolk.

In 1539, he was chosen to be an attendant of the Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk at the reception of Anne of Cleves.

From about 1538, his health was declining, and his household accounts indicate that he had serious kidney stone problems. Nevertheless he appears to have died unexpectedly, his will still in draft form. Sir Thomas Le Strange died on 16 January 1545, and was buried the next day on the north side of the chancel in the church of Hunstanton.

Marriage and children

The Le Strange family was successful in arranging good marriages with wealthy families in this period, and many of the children's marriage were arranged when they were young. A marriage contract was made in July 1501, when Thomas (born about 1490) was still a child. His wife was Anne Vaux (born 1494), daughter of Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden and his first wife Elizabeth Fitzhugh, and widow of William Parr (died 1483). Anne Vaux was therefore half sister to Sir Thomas Parr, father of Katherine Parr, sixth queen of King Henry VIII.

Sir Thomas Le Strange and Anne Vaux had a large number of children. The exact number is reported differently in various later works, but according to Cord Oestmann the family's own surviving records give only these 13.

Sons:
* Sir Nicholas le Strange (1 January 1511 – 19 February 1580) was the eldest son and heir. Member of Parliament. He married twice. 1) Eleanor, daughter of William Fitzwilliam (Sheriff of London) of Milton, Northamptonshire, in 1528. They had three sons and two daughters. 2) Katherine, the daughter of John Hyde of Hyde, Dorset and widow of Nicholas Mynn of Great Fransham, Norfolk, in 1546
* Richard le Strange, 2nd son (born before August 1517) of Hunstanton and King's Lynn, Norfolk; later of Kilkenny, Ireland, Mayor of Waterford and Member of Parliament. He married Anne (or Dorothy) Astley, and they had one son. Anne was the granddaughter of Anne Sibilles, Mistress Poyntz
* William le Strange senior
* Roger le Strange, of Wiveton
* Henry le Strange, married Katherine Lawrence
* Thomas le Strange (1518–1590). Member of the Irish House of Commons and the Privy Council of Ireland, married Margaret Bathe, widow of Nicholas Shaen, two daughters
* William le Strange junior
*Edmund le Strange
Daughters:
* Elizabeth, married John Creesener of Morley in Norfolk, gentleman
* Alice, married Thomas Calthorp
* Anne, married Anthony Southwell, the brother of Sir Richard Southwell, Sir Robert Southwell and Francis Southwell
* Katherine married Sir Rowland Clark of Tonge in Essex, knight
* Mary, who married Thomas Prentiss according to Carthew

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lestrange, Thomas
1494 births
1545 deaths
People from Hunstanton
16th-century English knights
Thomas