Good Afternoon To You, My Gentle Friends,

William Fitzwilliam was born about 1490, in Aldwark, Yorkshire, England, as the third surviving son of Thomas Fitzwilliam of Aldwark, and his wife, Lucy ( Neville ) Fitzwilliam, who was the Daughter and Co-Heir of John Neville, Marquess Montacute.

William Fitzwiliam was Knighted on September 25, 1513; KG Nominated on April 24, and was installed on May 06, 1526; he was created the Earl of Southampton on October 18, 1537, and a Gentleman Usher in 1509. He was Appointed as the King's Cupbearer in 1509; Esquire of the Body in 1513; a Knight by 1515; Appointed as j.p. for Surrey from 1514 until his death; Mdx., Kent in 1520, Nearly all Counties from 1531 until his death; v.-adm., 1520, 1522-1523; Ambassador to France from January, 1521 until January 1522; Councilllor by April, 1522; Joint Master of Ordinance for Calais in 1522; Captain of Guisnes from 1523 until 1526; lt. Calais Castle from 1526 until 1530; Treasurer of the Household from 1525 until 1539; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from November 03, 1529 until his death; High Steward at the Oxford University from 1532 until his death; Commissioner of the Tenths of Spiritualities in Surrey in 1535; Lead Aministrator from 1536 until 1540; Trier of Petitions in the Lords, Parliaments of 1539 and 1542; Lord Privy Seal from 1540 until his death; Lieutenant and Captain-General in the North in 1542; Numerous Minor Offices.

His elder brothers, Thomas and John, died at Flodden Field.

Sir William Fitzwilliam was also a half-brother of Sir Anthony Browne.

William Fitzwilliam, a younger son in a cadet branch of a relatively undistinguished Yorkshire family, was probably chosen at the age of about ten as a companion for Prince Henry as a result of his mother's second marriage to Sir Anthony Browne, the King's Standard-Bearer and Constable of Calais. After receiving a sound education with the Prince, he passed the first ten years of Henry VIII's reign as an athletic young Courtier, increasingly employed in positions of trust. In 1512, Wiliam Fitzwiliam took part under Thomas Grey, the Second Marquess of Dorset, in the abortive invasion of Guiene and followed this with servie in the fleet until Sir Edward Hoard; in the brate but reckless acti9n off Brest which cost the Admiral his life, Fitzwilliam was "sore heart" by a crossbow. He next went with the King to France, leading a company of the King's guard, and in September, he was knighted at Tournai.

In November, 1513, the King attended Sir William Fitzwilliam's marriage to Mabel Cliford, who was the Daughter of Henry, the Tenth Baron of Clifford, "The Shepher Lord, by his first wife, Anne St. John. Mabel was a Gentlewoman to Queen Catalina of Aragon . .

Sir William Fitzwiliam had no sons by Lady Mabel, but he had at least one illegitimate son.

Sir William Fitzwilliam's career during the years which followed in liable to confusion with that of a namesake; the Treasurer of Wolsey's Householdp both were associated with Calais, and both became Members of the Council, but it was probably the Courtier who was Appointed to sit in the Star Chamber in 1517. By 1520, Fitzwilliam was Vice-Admiral to the Earl of Surrey, and as such, he was responsible for fitting out the transport to the Field of the Cloth of Gold and providing a convoy for the King's own passage. he attended teh King both on that occassion and at the meeting with Carlos V at Gravelines in July of 1521. He had taken his own first steps in diplomacy in 1518, accompanying the Embassy to France headed by Charles Someerset, the First Earl of Worchester, and the Bishop of Ely. In January, 1521, he replaced Sir Richard Jarningham as the Resident Amhassador there. He gave great satisfaction to Wolsey, who praised him to Henry VIII, and the King himself congratulated Fitzwilliam on "the diligent and substancial acquittal" of his task/ His long-awaited recall came in Janaury 1522, after an attack of colic and fever.


TO BE CONTINUED . . .