Sir Nicholas Throckmorton

  General Notes:

Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was a English diplomat and politician, who was an ambassador to France and played a key role in the relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots.

He sat in Parliament from 1545 to 1567 and was knighted on 18 September 1547, the title included numerous benefits, including land grants, that gave him financial security. He held the post of under-treasurer at the Tower mint from 1549 to 1552. In January 1554 he was suspected of complicity in Wyatt's Rebellion and arrested and was brought to trial at the Guildhall on 17 April of that year. He managed to convince the jury of his innocence even if the court was openly hostile to him. The judges included Sir Roger Cholmeley who was trying to impress the Catholic Mary. As a result, the court fined and imprisoned the jury and sent Throckmorton to the Tower. When he was released the next year, he fled to France in exile. Though there were people who wanted to put him to trial again, he was pardoned in 1557, and was employed by Queen Mary.

On 17th May 1558 Mary I died and Elizabeth I became Queen. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton rode from London to Hatfield, carrying Mary’s ring to Elizabeth as proof that Mary was dead.

Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was the father of Elizabeth Throckmorton who married Sir Walter Raleigh and was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I.

More details on his life can be found here:
http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/throckmorton-nicholas-151516-71

  Noted events in his life were:

• Marriage: to Anne Carew, 1545, Beddington, Surrey.