William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester

The Most Honourable The Marquess of Winchester KG PC
Paulet, holding the white staff as a symbol of the office of Lord High Treasurer
Lord High Steward for the trial of the Duke of Somerset
In office October 1551 – November 1551
Monarch	Edward VI
Chancellor	The Lord Rich
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
In office 1547–1547
Monarch	Edward VI
Preceded by	The Lord Wriothesley
Succeeded by	The Lord Rich
Lord High Treasurer
In office 3 February 1550 – 10 March 1572
Monarch	Edward VI Mary I Elizabeth I
Chancellor	See The Lord Rich (1550-1551) Thomas Goodrich, Bishop of Ely (1551-1553) Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester (1553-1555) Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York (1555-1558) Sir Nicholas Bacon (1558-1579) (as Lord Keeper)
Preceded by	The Duke of Somerset
Succeeded by	The Lord Burghley
Lord President of the Council
In office January 1546 – 3 February 1550
Monarch	Henry VIII Edward VI
Chancellor	The Lord Rich
Preceded by	The Duke of Suffolk
Succeeded by	The Duke of Northumberland
Lord Steward of the Household
In office 1544–1551
Monarch	Henry VIII Edward VI
Preceded by	The Duke of Suffolk
Succeeded by	The Duke of Northumberland
Lord Chamberlain of the Household
In office 1543–1555
Monarch	Henry VIII Edward VI Mary I
Preceded by	The Lord Sandys
Succeeded by	Unknown
Treasurer of the Household
In office 1537–1539
Monarch	Henry VIII
Preceded by	The Earl of Southampton
Succeeded by	Sir Thomas Cheney
Comptroller of the Household
In office 1532–1537
Monarch	Henry VIII
Preceded by	Sir Henry Guildford
Succeeded by	The Lord Russell
1st Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire
In office 1551–1553
Monarch	Henry VIII
Preceded by	None (office created)
Succeeded by	Office vacant
High Sheriff of Hampshire
In office 1511–1512
Monarch	Henry VIII
Preceded by	Richard Sands
Succeeded by	Sir William Compton
In office 1518–1519
Monarch	Henry VIII
Preceded by	John Lisley
Succeeded by	John Kaleway
In office 1522–1523
Monarch	Henry VIII
Preceded by	William Giffard
Succeeded by	Robert Wallop
Member of Parliament for Hampshire
In office 1529–1536 Serving with Sir Richard Sandys
Monarch	Henry VIII
Preceded by	Unknown
Succeeded by	Thomas Wriothesley
Constituency	Hampshire
Personal details
Born	William Paulet c.1483 Fisherton Delamere, Wiltshire
Died	Basing House, Basing
Resting place	St. Mary's Church, Basing, Hampshire
Nationality	English
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Capel
Children	John Paulet, 2nd Marquess of Winchester Thomas Paulet Chidiok Paulet Giles Paulet Alice Stawell Lady Margaret Berkeley Lady Margery Waller Lady Eleanor Pecksall
Parents	Sir John Paulet (father) Alice Paulet (mother)
Residence	Basing House, Basing
Religion	Catholicism Anglicanism
Awards	Knight of the Order of the Garter Several Hereditary peerages
The 1st Marquess of Winchester File:Coat of arms of Sir William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester, KG.png Arms of William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester, KG: Sable, three swords pilewise points in base proper pomels and hilts or Title 1st Marquess of Winchester Tenure 11 October 1551 - 10 March 1572 Other titles 1st Earl of Wiltshire 1st Baron St John of Basing Predecessor None (titles created) Successor John Paulet, 2nd Marquess of Winchester

William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester KG PC (c. 1483/1485 – 10 March 1572), styled Lord St John between 1539 and 1550 and Earl of Wiltshire between 1550 and 1551, was an English Secretary of State and statesman.

Family origins and early career in Hampshire

Paulet was the eldest son of Sir John Paulet (1460 – 5 January 1525) of Basing Castle at Old Basing, near Basingstoke, in Hampshire and Nunney Castle in Somerset. His mother was his father's cousin, Alice, the daughter of Sir William and Elizabeth (formerly Denebaud) Paulet. She survived her husband. William had six siblings, including Sir George Paulet of Crondall Manor in Hampshire and Eleanor Paulet (born 1479), wife of William Giffard of Itchell Manor at Ewshot, also in Hampshire.

There is some disagreement over his date of birth, with different authorities quoting 1483 or 1485. A claim that he was ninety-seven at his death would place his birth in 1474 or 1475. There is also uncertainty about where he was born, but it may have been at Fisherton Delamere in Wiltshire, one of his father's manors.

His father, who had held a command against the Cornish rebels in 1497, was the head of a younger branch of an ancient Somerset family seated in the fourteenth century at Pawlett or Paulet and Road, close to Bridgwater, being the son of John Paulet and Elizabeth Roos. William's great-grandfather John Paulet acquired the Hampshire estates by his marriage with Constance Poynings, granddaughter and coheiress of Thomas Poynings, 5th Baron St John of Basing; his barony became abeyant upon his death in 1428/1429.

William Paulet was High Sheriff of Hampshire in 1512, 1519, 1523, and again in 1527. Knighted before the end of 1525, he was appointed Master of the King's Wards in November 1526 and appeared in the Privy Council in the same year.

Marriages and issue

He married Elizabeth (d. 25 Dec 1558), daughter of Sir William Capel, Lord Mayor of London in 1503, and by her had four sons and four daughters:

• John Paulet, 2nd Marquess of Winchester
• Thomas
• Chidiok, Chediok,or Chidiock, governor of Southampton under Mary and Elizabeth
• Giles
• Alice, married Richard Stawell, of Cotherston, Somerset
• Margaret, married Sir William Berkeley
• Margery, married Sir Richard Waller, of Oldstoke, Hampshire
• Eleanor (died 26 September 1558), married Sir Richard Pecksall of Beaurepaire, Hampshire, master of the buckhounds

Career as a national statesman

During his long career Paulet held numerous offices which included:

• High Sheriff of Hampshire 1511–12, 1518–19 and 1522–23
• Joint Master of the King's Wards 1526–34 and sole Master of the King's Wards 1534–40
• Member of Parliament for Hampshire 1529–36
• Comptroller of the Household 1532–37
• Keeper of Pamber Forest 1535/6
• Treasurer of the Household 1537-38/9
• Master of the King's Woods 1541
• Master of the Court of Wards 1540–42
• Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries 1542–54
• Privy Counsellor 1542
• Lord Chamberlain of the Household 1543–45
• Lord Steward of the Household 1545-1549/50
• Chief Justice in Eyre, South of Trent 1545-49/50
• Lord President of the Council 1546–49
• Joint Governor of King Edward VI
• Lord Keeper of the Great Seal 1547
• Keeper and Captain of St Andrew's Castle, Hamble 1547-71/2
• Keeper of Alice Holt and Woolmer Forests 1548-71/2
• Lord High Treasurer 1549/50-71/2
• Lord High Steward for the trial of the Duke of Somerset 1551
• Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire 1552, 1553 and 1559
• Lieutenant of the forces in London 1558
• Speaker of the House of Lords 1558 and 1566
• Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire and Middlesex 1569
• Joint Lord Lieutenant of London 1569

Paulet's political career began in 1529, when he was elected knight of the shire for Hampshire. In 1532, he accompanied King Henry VIII to Calais, France, and the following spring, he accompanied the Duke of Norfolk to join King Francis I of France in a proposed audience with the Pope, to discuss Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. In 1536, he was granted the keepership of Pamber Forest, and on 9 March 1539 was created Baron St John. He became steward of the bishopric of Winchester, and became a close associate of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and a friend of Thomas Cromwell. He was also Comptroller of the Royal Household, and held many other high positions.

Portrait Miniature, c. 1555

In 1535 and 1536, he served as one of the judges for the trials of John Fisher, Sir Thomas More, and the alleged accomplices of Anne Boleyn; in 1535, he became Lord Chamberlain. He partially led the royal forces against the Pilgrimage of Grace, a rebellion that broke out in the autumn of 1536, and in 1538, he became Treasurer of the Household. In 1540, he became the master of Henry's Court of Wards and Liveries, a Knight of the Garter in 1543, and Governor of Portsmouth and Lord Steward of the Household in 1545. In 1546, he became Lord President of the Council, and in 1547, he was an executor of the will of King Henry VIII.

He continued his political manoeuvres in 1549 by supporting the Earl of Warwick against the Duke of Somerset—in reward, on 19 January 1550 he was given the Earldom of Wiltshire and Somerset's position of Lord Treasurer. When Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland on 11 October 1551, Paulet received the Marquessate of Winchester. Six weeks later, he served as Lord High Steward in the Duke of Somerset's trial.

It was said that Northumberland and Winchester "ruled the court" of the minor King Edward VI. Mary I affirmed him in all of his positions. After her death, he remained Lord Treasurer and retained many of his other positions, and even at an advanced age (in 1559, he was over seventy years old), he showed no signs of declining—he was Speaker of the House of Lords in 1559 and 1566. He remained in good standing with the English monarchs—Queen Elizabeth once joked, "for, by my troth, if my lord treasurer were but a young man, I could find it in my heart to have him for a husband before any man in England." Late in life, he opposed any military support of Continental Protestantism, as he feared it would cause a breach with strongly Catholic Spain.

Paulet enjoyed a remarkably long career during the English Reformation. Starting out as a Catholic, he was quickly persuaded to see things Henry's way once the breach with Rome had been decided on. He was rewarded with former Church properties following the dissolution of the monasteries. Under Edward VI he became an evangelical Protestant and persecuted Roman Catholics and Henrician Conservatives alike. On the accession of the Catholic Mary he announced his reconversion and commenced persecuting his former Protestant co-religionists, even denouncing Bishop Bonner for "laxity in prosecuting the heretics." On Elizabeth's succession, he once again shifted his sails and became an advocate of middle road Anglicanism. All in all, he professed five changes in religious course. Once, when asked how he managed to survive so many storms, not only unhurt, but rising all the while, Paulet answered: "By being a willow, not an oak."

Death

Paulet was still in office when he died, a very old man, at Basing House on 10 March 1572, a house that he held to rebuild and fortify. His tomb is on the south side of the chancel of Basing church.

Bibliography

• in JSTOR

External links

• Paulet, Sir William (by 1488–1572), of Basing and Netley, Hants, Chelsea, Mdx. and London. A biography
• William Paulet, Marquess of Winchester Family tree
• Sir William Paulet Find A Grave

Political offices
Preceded by Sir Henry Guilford	Comptroller of the Household 1532–1537	Succeeded by Sir John Russell
Preceded by The Lord Sandys	Lord Chamberlain 1535–1550	Succeeded by The Lord Wentworth
Preceded by Sir William Fitzwilliam	Treasurer of the Household 1538–1541	Succeeded by Sir Thomas Cheney
Preceded by The Duke of Suffolk	Lord Steward 1544–1551	Succeeded by The Duke of Northumberland
	Lord President of the Council 1546–1550
Preceded by The Earl of Southampton (Lord Chancellor)	Keeper of the Great Seal 1547	Succeeded by Richard Rich (Lord Chancellor)
Preceded by The Duke of Somerset	Lord High Treasurer 1550–1572	Succeeded by The Lord Burghley
Legal offices
Preceded by The Duke of Suffolk	Justice in Eyre south of the Trent 1545–bef. 1550	Succeeded by The Marquess of Dorset
Honorary titles
Preceded by Unknown	Custos Rotulorum of Hampshire bef. 1544 – aft. 1558	Succeeded by Earl of Wiltshire
Preceded by Unknown	Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire 1551–?	Succeeded by Unknown
Peerage of England
New title	Marquess of Winchester 1551–1572	Succeeded by John Paulet
	Earl of Wiltshire 1550–1572
	Baron St John of Basing (descended by acceleration) 1539–1544