Thomas Clere
Sir Thomas Clere (died 1545) was a successful poet at the court of
Henry VIII. He is commemorated in several poems by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, with whom he had a very close friendship. He was engaged to Mary Shelton, a former mistress of the King's, in 1545,[1]
but died before their love match could be made into a marriage.
Thomas Clere was the third son of
King Henry VIII's second Queen, Anne Boleyn. Sir Thomas Clere was thus Queen Anne Boleyn's first cousin.[2]
His mother Alice Clere died in 1538, and left the family estates to his older brother John Clere. She left Thomas "a salt of gold with a cover having a rose in the knop, and a pair of beads of gold" set with stones (a rosary) which had been gifts from Anne Boleyn.[3]
Clere died on 14 April 1545 from wounds received at the siege of Montreuil in 1544, fighting for the Earl of Surrey.[4]
Thomas Clere was buried in the Church of St Mary at Lambeth in Surrey. In his will, he made a bequest to his cousin Mary Shelton.[5] His monumental brass is currently in storage.[6]
His nephew, Robert Clere was killed at the battle of Pinkie in 1547.
Footnotes
- ISBN 978-0-7524-4835-0.
- ^ Richardson 2004, pp. 35, 179.
- ^ Descriptive catalogue of ancient deeds in the Public Record Office, 5 (London: HMSO, 1906), p. 255, A. 12173
- ^ Visitation of Norfolk in the Year 1563, 2 (Norwich, 1895), p. 267.
- ^ Visitation of Norfolk in the Year 1563, 2 (Norwich, 1895), p. 267.
- ^ Thomas Clere memorial, IWM
References
- Bindoff, S.T. (1982). The House of Commons 1509-1558. Vol. III. London: Secker & Warburg.
- Block, Joseph S. (2006). "Shelton family (per. 1504–1558), gentry". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/70835. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Heale, Elizabeth (2004). "Shelton, Mary (married names Mary Heveningham, Lady Heveningham; Mary Appleyard) (1510x15–1570/71), contributor to manuscript miscellany". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/68085. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Herman, Peter C., ed. (1994). Rethinking the Henrician Era: Essays on Early Tudor Texts and Contexts. University of Illinois Press. pp. 40–77. ISBN 9780252063404.
rethinking the Henrician era.
- Ives, E. W. (2004). "Anne (Anne Boleyn) (c.1500–1536), queen of England, second consort of Henry VIII". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/557. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Richardson, Douglas (2004). Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company Inc. ISBN 9780806317502.
- Weir, Alison (1991). The Six Wives of Henry VIII. New York: Grove Weidenfeld.