Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron Vaux of Harrowden

Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron Vaux of Harrowden KB (25 April 1509^[1] – October 1556), English poet, was the eldest son of Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux and his second wife, Anne Green, daughter of Sir Thomas Green, Lord of Nortons Green, and Joan Fogge.^[2][3] He was educated at Cambridge University.^[4] His mother was the maternal aunt of Queen Consort Katherine Parr, while his wife, Elizabeth Cheney, was her paternal cousin through Katherine's father's sister, Anne Parr.

The Lord Vaux of Harrowden
Portrait of Thomas, Lord Vaux, circa unknown.
Born	25 April 1509
Died	15 October 1556(1556-10-15) (aged 47)
Occupation	Poet, dramatist, essayist, novelist
Alma mater	Cambridge University
Spouse	Elizabeth Cheney (m. 1523–1556; his death)

Life

In 1527, he accompanied Cardinal Wolsey on his embassy in France. Vaux privately disapproved of King Henry VIII's divorce from his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. In 1531, he took his seat in the House of Lords. In 1532, he attended Henry VIII to Calais and Boulogne and was made Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Anne Boleyn.^[5] He was Lieutenant Governor of Jersey in 1536. Schism from Rome caused him to sell his offices; he did not attend Parliament between 1534 and 1554.^[6] Instead, Vaux retired to his country seat until the accession of Mary I, when he returned to London for her coronation.^[6] Vaux was the friend of other court poets such as Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey.^[6]

Family and issue

Elizabeth Cheney, Lady Vaux. Black and coloured chalks; Royal Collection, Windsor Castle.

Thomas's father, Nicholas, had been previously married to Elizabeth FitzHugh, daughter of Henry FitzHugh, 5th Lord FitzHugh of Ravensworth Castle and Lady Alice Neville, as her second husband.^[3] From that marriage, Vaux had three older paternal half-sisters; Katherine Throckmorton; Alice Sapcote; and Anne Le Strange.^[3] By Elizabeth's first marriage to Sir William Parr, she was the mother of Anne Parr, the mother of Thomas' wife, Elizabeth Cheney.^[3] Elizabeth FitzHugh was also the mother to Sir Thomas Parr, thus making her the paternal grandmother of Queen Katherine Parr.^[3] After the death of Elizabeth in about 1507, his father married secondly to Anne Green, who was the older sister of Maud Green who had married Sir Thomas Parr; thus making Vaux a first cousin to Queen Katherine.^[3]

On 6 May 1511, Sir Thomas, aged two, was contracted to marry Elizabeth Cheney,^[3] the daughter of Sir Thomas Cheyne of Irthlingborough^[7] (d. 1514^[8]) and Anne Parr.^[9] Thomas married Elizabeth between 25 April 1523 and 10 November 1523.^[3] They had three children.

• William Vaux, 3rd Baron Vaux of Harrowden (born 1535)
• Nicholas Vaux
• Anne Vaux, who married Reginald Bray of Stene, nephew of Edmund Braye, 1st Baron Braye

Thomas Vaux died in October 1556. Sketches of Vaux and his wife by Holbein are held at Windsor Castle and a finished portrait of Lady Vaux at Hampton Court.^[5]

Works

Two of his poems were included in the Songes and Sonettes of Surrey (Tottel's Miscellany), published in 1557: "The assault of Cupid upon the fort where the lover's hart lay wounded, and how he was taken," and the "Dittye ... representinge the Image of Deathe," which the gravedigger in Shakespeare's Hamlet misquotes.^[5]

Thirteen pieces in the Paradise of Dainty Devices, published in 1576, are signed by him. These are reprinted in Alexander Grosart's Miscellanies of the Fuller Worthies Library (vol. iv, 1872).^[5]

See also

• Poetry portal

• Canons of Elizabethan poetry

References

1. George Edward Cokayne. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, Vol. XII/2, pp. 219-221.
2. Unknown author, David Faris. Plantagenet Ancestry of 17th Century Colonists, p. 39.
3. Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, pp. 326, 561–562 and 566.
4. Dominic Head. The Cambridge Guide To Literature in English, Cambridge University Press, 26 January 2006. p. 1151.
5. Chisholm 1911.
6. John Saward, John Morrill, Michael Tomko. Firmly I Believe and Truly: The Spiritual Tradition of Catholic England, Oxford University Press, 15 November 2011. p. 92.
7. "Parishes: Pytchley | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 6 October 2023. Elizabeth and Lawrence de Pabenham. Elizabeth predeceased her husband, and at his death in 1399 their heir was their daughter Katharine, aged 27. Katharine married first Sir William Cheyne of Fen Ditton (Cambs.), and secondly Sir Thomas Aylesbury, in whose hands the two Pytchley manors are consequently found at his death in September 1418. The manor of Engaynes then consisted of three parcels, one being held by the hunting serjeanty, another of the Abbot of Peterborough, and the remainder of John Knyvet as of his manor of Weldon. On the death of Katharine Aylesbury, in 1436, her son Lawrence Cheyne inherited the manor, and in 1449 settled it on himself and his wife Elizabeth, with remainder to their son John. Sir Thomas Cheyney, son of the last-named Sir John, in 1503 granted the manor of Pytchley to Ralph Lane and Katharine his wife, kinswoman of the said Sir Thomas Cheyney, for life, with remainder for life to John Dockwra, son of the said Katherine. In 1511, when a marriage was proposed between Elizabeth, the daughter and heir of this Sir Thomas Cheyney (of Irtlingborough), and Thomas Vaux, son and heir apparent of Sir Nicholas Vaux, the reversion of the manor was settled in tail on Elizabeth. Sir Thomas Cheyney died seised of the manor on 13 January 1514, his daughter being then 9 years old. Her subsequent marriage with Sir Thomas Vaux conveyed Pytchley to the Vaux of Harrowden (q.v.), who did not long hold it however. Sir Thomas Vaux, Lord Harrowden, with William Vaux his son and heir, sold the manor of Pytchley called Geynes in 1555 to Gregory Isham, citizen and merchant of London.
8. Catalogue description: Will of Sir Thomas Cheyne of Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire. Date: 23 February 1514. Reference: PROB 11/17/518. Held by: The National Archives, Kew. 23 February 1514.
9. Emerson, Kathy Lynn (11 October 2020). A Who's Who of Tudor Women. Kathy Lynn Emerson. pp. Entry for ‘Elizabeth Cheney (1505 – 20 November 1556)’.

Sources

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Vaux of Harrowden, Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 962.
• Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Vaux, Thomas" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 58. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Woudhuysen, H. R. "Vaux, Thomas, second Baron Vaux (1509–1556)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28163. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• This article contains text from A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerages of England, Ireland, and Scotland: Extinct, Dormant, and in Abeyance, Vol. VIII, by John Burke, 1831, now in the public domain Burke, John (1831). A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerages of England, Ireland, and Scotland: Extinct, Dormant, and in Abeyance. H. Colburn & R. Bentley. Retrieved 28 November 2008.

External links

• Index entry for Thomas, Lord Vaux at Poets' Corner

Political offices
Preceded by Sir Arthur Darcy	Lieutenant Governor of Jersey 1536	Succeeded by Sir Edward Seymour
Peerage of England
Preceded by Nicholas Vaux	Baron Vaux of Harrowden 1523–1556	Succeeded by William Vaux