John Harington, 1st Baron Harington of Exton

John Harington, 1st Baron Harington (1539/40 – 23 August 1613) of Exton in Rutland, was an English courtier and politician.

Family

He was the eldest son and heir of

He was a Commissioner of the Peace for Kesteven from about 1559 to 1593, and was a servant to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester in the Netherlands in 1585 and was Keeper of Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire (1588–1590) for Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick. He was appointed Sheriff of Warwickshire for 1582 and was knighted in 1584 by Sir Henry Sidney at Sir Thomas Henneage's house in London.^[2]

Harington was a

Harington was keeper of Kenilworth Castle from 1588 to 1590 for Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick. His daughter Lucy married Edward Russell, the nephew of the Earl of Warwick's widow Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick.^[3]

On New Year's Day 1596 he produced a performance of

On 23 April 1603 he entertained King

James I on his journey from Scotland at Burley with dinner and a welcoming speech written by Samuel Daniel.^[6] James left for Burghley House followed by Harington's hounds. He returned on 25 April and fell off his horse, injuring his arm, and after staying the night left in Harington's coach.^[7]

He was created

Elizabeth. The high cost of entertaining the Princess ruined him. As partial recompense Harington was granted a licence to mint the first copper farthings

by the king.

Princess Elizabeth married

Frederick V, Elector Palatine and Lord Harington accompanied her to the Electoral Palatinate. At Heidelberg two of his servants fought with Andrew Keith, a Scottish courtier who had insulted his wife.^[8]

Harington is the author of a two-line poem, "Of treason." It reads thus: "Treason doth never prosper; what's the reason?/ For if it prosper, none dare call it treason." Those last five words became a catchphrase of the

cold war period in the United States and the title of a book by John Stormer.

Harington died at

Baptist Hicks

.

Family

He married Anne Keilway (d. 1620), daughter of Robert Keilway, Surveyor of the Court of Wards and Liveries. Their children included:

• John Harington, 2nd Baron Harington of Exton (1592–1614), eldest son and heir;
• Lucy Harington, wife of Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford.
• Frances Harington, Lady Chichester (1587-1615), 1st wife of Sir
  Raleigh, in the parish of Pilton in Devon. Her kneeling effigy survives Pilton Church, with the Harington arms. She danced at court in The Masque of Beauty on 10 January 1608.^[10]

References

1. ^ Broadway 2005.
2. ^ Broadway 2005.
3. ^ Lesley Lawson, Out of the Shadows (London, 2007), p. 18.
4. ^ Gustav Ungerer, 'An Unrecorded Elizabethan Performance of Titus Andronicus', Shakespeare Survey, vol. 14 (Cambridge, 1961), pp. 102, 104, 108.
5. ^ Lesley Lawson, Out of the Shadows (London, 2007), pp. 23-7.
6. ^ John Nichols, The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities, of King James the First (London, 1828), pp. 93-4, 121-134.
7. ^ Charles Harding Firth, Stuart Tracts (New York, 1903), pp. 37-9, from the True Narration of the Entertainment of His Royal Majesty (London, 1603).
8. ^ Thomas Birch & Robert Folkestone Williams, The Court and times of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1848), pp. 265-6.
9. ^ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p. 174, pedigree of Chichester
10. ^ Ian Grimble, The Harington Family (New York, 1957), p. 151.

• Broadway, Jan (2005). "Harington, John, first Baron Harington of Exton".
  doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12327. (Subscription or UK public library membership
  required.)

Political offices
Vacant Title last held by The Earl of Huntingdon	Lord Lieutenant of Rutland 1607–1613	Succeeded by The Lord Harington of Exton
Peerage of England
New creation	Baron Harington of Exton 1603–1613	Succeeded by John Harington