County

In his report to the Privy Council on the justices and other principal gentlemen of Staffordshire made in 1564 by Thomas Bentham, the radical bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, Simon Harcourt of Ellenhall and Ronton Abbey appears, with his father-in-law, Sir Edward Aston, and another knight, as ‘a knot hurtful to justice and great maintainers’.Cam. Misc. ix(3), p. 42. It is round these names, and particularly the name of Harcourt, that the story of the early Elizabethan county elections in this shire revolves.

The Somerset gentry took turns as knights of their shire throughout this period, amicably so far as is known, except for one contest, in 1571, the details of which can be learned from a letter of advice sent by Edward Phelips of Montacute to his son in 1614, when the son was facing a contest in the county. The 1571 candidates were Amias Paulet, heir to Sir Hugh; George Rogers of Cannington, whose father, the comptroller of the Household, had represented Somerset in 1559, and who had died in 1568; and John Stawell of Cothelstone. Phelips explains that the electors assembled in ‘Mr.

The leading Rutland family was that of the Haringtons of Exton, one of whom was in every Elizabethan Parliament except those of 1563 and 1584. James Harington I was by any standards a large landowner, noted in his later days as a ‘knight of great possessions’, fit to be made a baron. Second in importance in Rutland were the Noels of Dalby, Leicestershire and of Brooke, Rutland. Andrew Noel married a daughter of James Harington I, and father-in-law and son-in-law together represented the county in 1586 and 1589.

There was no contested election for Shropshire in this period and such arrangements among the gentry as must have been made were made discreetly. The majority of the MPs, as might be expected in a border county, were members of the council in the marches. Among them was Sir Andrew Corbet of Moreton Corbet (1559), who had represented Shropshire in the previous period, whose uncle Richard (of Poynton) sat in 1563, whose first son Robert sat in 1566 and whose second son Richard sat in 1586.

The story of Oxfordshire parliamentary representation is dominated by the career—unrivalled during this period—of Sir Francis Knollys of Rotherfield Greys, who was returned to the senior county seat unchallenged in seven consecutive Parliaments. Vice-chamberlain of the Household and Privy Councillor from 1559, and lord lieutenant of the county from 1569, Knollys’s last appearance in Parliament was in 1593 at the age of 81.

For the first six Elizabethan Parliaments Nottinghamshire was almost exclusively represented by MPs from long-established county families who were either related to, or enjoyed the support of, the 3rd Earl of Rutland. Sir Robert Constable, however, was a Yorkshireman who had settled in Nottinghamshire during Elizabeth’s reign. He owed his election in 1584 to his double connexion with the Earl of Rutland through his mother, who was a Manners, and his brother, who was a member of the Earl’s household.

The country gentlemen were in a minority among Elizabethan knights of the shire for Northumberland. Robert Lawson (1563) of Rock, a minor landowner who had made a fortunate marriage; Robert Widdrington (1589, 1593) of Plessey and—just—Sir Thomas Grey II (1586) of Chillingham fit into this category, though Grey had been brought up in Cecil’s household, which he left only after attaining his majority when he took up residence on his estates in the north. At the time of his election for Northumberland he had recently married a Catholic.

Among the Northamptonshire gentry were some of the stars of the Elizabethan firmament. Sir Walter Mildmay of Apethorpe had an amazing record of appearances as knight of the shire, for he was elected to every Parliament of the reign until his death after that of 1589. Sir William Cecil himself represented the county in 1563, preferring it to Lincolnshire, where he really belonged, and his heir sat in 1593 and 1597.

At the time of Elizabeth’s first Parliament, the Duke of Norfolk, then only 20 years of age, appears to have confined his and his househoid’s influence to the boroughs, the two knights of the shire being Sir Robert Dudley (Lord Robert, he was usually called) and Sir Edmund Wyndham. Dudley had sat in Parliament twice before. Though under age on both occasions, he had been senior knight of the shire for Norfolk in compliment to his parentage and social standing. At that time he had a wife and home in Norfolk and held offices there.

The electoral pattern of Monmouthshire was straightforward during this period and the two contested elections for which there is evidence (1559, 1572) fit neatly into it. There were three outstanding families: the Somersets, who possessed the earldom of Worcester and were lords of Raglan; the Herberts, related to the Earl of Pembroke, a clan with several branches; and the widespread Morgan family. When only two of these families aspired to a county seat, there could be harmony.