Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden

Nicholas Vaux
Nicholas Vaux
1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden
Born	c. 1460
Died	14 May 1523 (aged 62–63)
Noble family	Vaux
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth FitzHugh ; Anne Green
Issue	by Elizabeth: ; Katherine Vaux ; Alice Vaux ; Anne Vaux ; by Anne: ; Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron Vaux of Harrowden ; William Vaux ; Margaret Vaux ; Bridget Vaux ; Maud Vaux
Father	Sir William Vaux of Harrowden
Mother	Katherine Peniston

Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden (c. 1460 – 14 May 1523) was a soldier and courtier in England and an early member of the

Tudor dynasty, Henry VII

.

Overview

Nicholas Vaux's mother, Katherine, an attendant on Margaret of Anjou, remained constant to her mistress when others forsook the Lancastrian cause. Katherine's husband, Sir William Vaux, whom she had married not long before she obtained her letters of denization, was attainted in 1461^[5] and later slain at the Battle of Tewkesbury.^[6]

Despite her husband's misfortune, Katherine Vaux remained loyal to her mistress: she stayed by the Queen during her imprisonment in the

Lady Margaret Beaufort (mother of Henry VII), without charge, even though Edward IV

restored two manors to the family for the maintenance of him and his sister.

Katherine's devotion was rewarded after the triumph of Henry VII at

Lady Margaret Beaufort, probably fought under her husband Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby; the petition for the reversal of the attainder on Vaux's father and the forfeiture of his property was accepted by the King in the Parliament

of 1485, and not long after Vaux was named to the commission of the peace for his home county.

Politics

He fought for Henry VII at Stoke and

Henry VIII at Harrowden. It was as a soldier and diplomat, however, that he made his mark. Given the important command at Guisnes, he distinguished himself during the Tournai

campaign in 1513 and then in the missions (he had had some earlier experiences in negotiating, chiefly with Burgundy) to the French King about the English withdrawal and the several royal marriage treaties.

Later, he was one of the devisers of the

Sir Anthony Poyntz

.

Vaux was a natural candidate for election to Parliament, although in the absence of so many returns for the early

Tudor period he is known to have been a Member only in 1515 when he and Sir John Hussey

took a memorandum on certain Acts from the Commons up to the Lords. Presumably, he sat for his own shire on this occasion as he was afterwards appointed to the Northamptonshire commission for the subsidy which he had helped to grant.

Missions to France

On 4 September 1514, Vaux with his second wife Anne Green were part of the delegation tasked with delivering

Sir Thomas Parr, his wife Maud Green, and his brother Sir William Parr of Horton.^[8]

Marriages & issue

Vaux married twice:

Firstly to
Battle of Bosworth when Henry Tudor (later King Henry VII) defeated Richard III. The union was most likely planned to secure the allegiance of the FitzHugh family to the new Tudor dynasty as Henry VII's wife, Elizabeth of York, was a granddaughter of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York
. By his first wife he had three daughters:
- Katherine Vaux (c.1490-1571), who married Sir George Throckmorton of Coughton Court in Warwickshire, and had issue;^[10]
- Alice Vaux (d.1543), who, in about 1501, married Sir Richard Sapcote, without issue;^[11]^[10]
- Anne Vaux, who married Sir Thomas Le Strange (1493–1545) and had issue.^[10]^[12]
Secondly, shortly after the death of his first wife, he married Anne Green (who predeceased him), a daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Green of Boughton and Green's Norton, Northamptonshire, by his wife Jane Fogge. Anne Green was the aunt of Queen Catherine Parr (whose mother was Maud Green), the sixth wife of King Henry VIII. By his second wife he had two sons and three daughters:
- Sir William Parr by his second wife Elizabeth FitzHugh).^[10]
- William Vaux [10] (d. May 1523), who died unmarried.
- Margaret Vaux, who married Sir Francis Pulteney (1502 – c. 17 May 1548) of Misterton. Had issue.^[10] She married secondly to Sir Francis Verney (1531/34-59), of Salden in Mursley, Bucks. and London. No issue.^[13] Issue of Margaret and Francis Pulteney include:
  - Sir Gabriel Pulteney (d. 31 August 1599) of Knowle Hall, who married Dorothy Spencer, a daughter of Sir William Spencer of Althorp in Northamptonshire.^[14]
- Bridget Vaux, who in about 1538 married Maurice Welsh;^[10]
- Maud Vaux (d. 14 April 1569), who married Sir John Fermor of Easton Neston in Northamptonshire,^[10] by whom she had issue including:
  - Katherine Fermor, who married Sir Henry Darcy, a son of Sir Arthur Darcy (a descendant of the Barons Darcy of Knaith) by his wife, Mary Carew.

In popular culture

Sir Nicholas Vaux is a character in William Shakespeare's Henry VIII.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden

8. William Vaux

4. Sir William Vaux of Great Harrowden^[15]

9. Eleanor Drakeston

2. Sir William Vaux, Knt.^[15]

20. Sir Reginald Lucy of Dallington, Knt.^[15]

10. Sir Walter Lucy of Dallington, Knt.^[15]

21. Margaret Mowbray^[15]

5. Maud Lucy^[15]

22. Sir Warin l'Arcedekne

11. Eleanor L'Arcedekne^[15]

23. Elizabeth Talbot

1. Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden

6. George Peniston of Courtesello^[15]

3. Katherine Penyson^[15]

Notes

^ G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., volume XII/2, page 216.
^ The visitations of Northamptonshire made in 1564 and 1618-19: with Northamptonshire pedigrees from various Harleian mss by Harvey, William, d. 1567; Vincent, Augustine, 1584?-1626; Metcalfe, Walter C; England. College of arms. Published 1887. See p.51
^ Richardson III 2011, pp. 289–90.
^ Niebrzydowski 2011, p. 89.
^ CPR, 6 E4 Part II, pg 551, 29 Nov 1466 "Licence for Roger Corbet of Moreton, knight, and Elizabeth, his wife, kinswoman and one of the heirs of William Lucy, knight, viz., daughter of Eleanor, one of his sisters and heirs, to enter freely into a moiety of all the lordships, manors, lands and other possessions which Margaret, late the wife of the said William, held on the day of her death for life or in fee tail or in dower or otherwise, and a moiety of all the lordships manors, lands and other possessions which the said William held on the day of his death in fee tail within England and the marches of Wales and which on their death came into the King's hands and ought to descend to her, to hold from 4 November last although the other moieties of the same belong to the King by the forfeiture of William Vaux, knight, attainted of high treason by an Act in Parliament at Westminster 4 November 1 Edward IV, who was the other heir of the said William Lucy, viz., son of Matilda, late his other sister, By privy seal."
^ Collen 1811, p. 737.
^ Sidney Lee. Dictionary of National Biography: Nicholas Vaux, First Lord Vaux of Harrowden (d.1523), Vol LVIII, Macmillan Company, London, 1899. pp. 192-94.
^ The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558: PARR, Sir William (by 1484-1547), of the Blackfriars, London and Horton, Northants., ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982. History of Parliament Online
^ Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999), volume 1, page 17. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham. Magna Carta ancestry: a study in colonial and medieval families pg 639.
^ Douglas Richardson. Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011. p. 657.
^ S.T. Bindoff. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558: LESTRANGE (STRANGE), Sir Nicholas (1511/13-80), of Hunstanton, Norf., Boydell and Brewer. 1982. History of Parliament Online
^ S.T. Bindoff. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558: VERNEY, Francis (1531/34-59), of Salden in Mursley, Bucks. and London. Boydell and Brewer. 1982. History of Parliament
^ [1], Chapter: Duke of Marlborough pg. 383.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham. Plantagenet Ancestry, Genealogical Publishing Com, 2004. pg 561-62.