Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Wriothesley, Henry, second earl of Southampton

(1545–1581)
Entry by J. G. Elzinga
Copyright © Oxford Publishing Limited 2019
Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear.
Published in print: 23 September 2004
Published online: 23 September 2004
This version: 19 May 2011
Visitors may consult content provided by Oxford Publishing Limited for research and study purposes only. Any further use, including, but not limited to, unauthorized downloading or distribution of images or editorial content is strictly prohibited. Visitors must contact the Oxford Publishing Limited (facilitated by PLSclear) at plsclear@pls.org.uk.
Wriothesley, Henry, Second Earl of Southampton (bap. 1545, d. 1581), magnate, was baptized on 24 April 1545 at St Andrew's, Holborn, the third and only surviving son of Thomas Wriothesley, first earl of Southampton and first Baron Wriothesley (1505–1550), lord chancellor, and his wife, Jane (d. 1574), daughter and heir of William Cheney of Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire, and his wife, Emma. Henry Wriothesley's godparents were Henry VIII, Princess Mary, Charles Brandon, first duke of Suffolk, and Henry Fitzalan, twelfth earl of Arundel. Thomas Wriothesley was elevated to a barony on 1 January 1544, was lord chancellor from 1544 to 1547, and was promoted to the earldom of Southampton on 16 February 1547; but he fell from power and was dismissed from office on 6 March 1547. Despite his disgrace, Southampton was one of the greatest noblemen in Hampshire, with an annual landed income of at least £1466 13s. 4d. in the late 1540s. He died on 30 July 1550, when his heir was still a minor. His widow's dower was £466 13s. 4d.
The wardship of the second earl of Southampton was granted to William Herbert, first earl of Pembroke, on 14 December 1550. Southampton remained with his mother and was privately educated and brought up a Catholic. Little is known about his youth or education but he was certainly taught
Southampton was arrested on 18 June 1570 for intriguing with the Spanish ambassador, Guerau de Spes, and for suspected complicity in the contemplated marriage of Thomas Howard, fourth duke of Norfolk, to Mary,
J. G. Elzinga
Sources
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GEC, Peerage
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DNB
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C. C. Stopes, The life of Henry, third earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's patron (1922)
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G. Gibbons, The political career of Thomas Wriothesley, first earl of Southampton, 1505–1550: Henry VIII's last chancellor (2001)
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CSP Spain, 1538–44
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JHL, vol. 1
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C. Wriothesley, A chronicle of England during the reigns of the Tudors from AD 1485 to 1559, ed. W. D. Hamilton, 2 vols., CS, new ser., 11, 20 (1875–7)
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APC, 1571–5, 102, 130, 267
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Miscellanea, II, Catholic RS, 2 (1906)
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CSP dom., 1547–1601
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will, TNA: PRO, PROB 11/65, sig. 45
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G. P. V. Akrigg, Shakespeare and the earl of Southampton (1968)
Archives
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Hants. RO, personal, official, family, and estate papers, MS 5M53
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TNA: PRO, papers, SP 7 | BL, Add. MSS 25114, fols. 333–46; 28023, fol. 8
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BL, Harley MSS 282, 283
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BL, Lansdowne MSS 2, arts. 8, 9; 16, arts. 22, 23; 17, art. 14
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BL, Stowe MS 141, fol. 78
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Bodl. Oxf., MS Ashmole 836, fols. 395, 427
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Northants. RO, collection of letters of William Paget
Likenesses
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G. Johnson, tomb effigy, c.1594, St Peter's Church, Titchfield, Hampshire
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H.
Enworth , portrait -
L.van Heere, portrait, Bridgewater House
Wealth at Death
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Approximately £2000–3000: will, TNA: PRO, PROB 11/65, sig. 45
Copyright & Terms of Usage
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Wriothesley, Henry, second earl of Southampton
(1545-1681)
Entry by J. G. Elzinga
Copyright © Oxford University Press 2019
Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear.
Published in print: 23 September 2004
Published online: 23 September 2004
This version: 19 May 2011
Visitors may consult content provided by Oxford Publishing Limited for research and study purposes only. Any further use, including, but not limited to, unauthorized downloading or distribution of images or editorial content is strictly prohibited. Visitors must contact the Oxford Publishing Limited (facilitated by PLSclear) at
ODNB ENTRY 1900, Wriothesley, Henry, Second Earl of Southampton (bap. 1545, d. 1581), A. F. Pollard
Henry Wriothesley, Second Earl of Southampton (1545–1581), only surviving son of the first earl, was christened on 24 April 1545 ‘at St. Andrewes in Holborne with great
Southampton died, in his thirty-seventh year, on 4 Oct. 1581, and was buried in Titchfield church, where his monument is still extant. His portrait, painted by Lucas van Heere, now at Bridgewater House, is reproduced in Lee's ‘Life of Shakespeare,’ (illustrated edit. 1899); with the inaccuracy common at the time it is inscribed ‘ætatis 19, 1566.’ By his wife, whose portrait is at Welbeck, Southampton had
Sources
Sketches of Southampton in Campbell's Lord Chancellors, Foss's Judges, and Cooper's Athenæ
A. F. P.
OXFORD DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY
Thomas Wriothesley
First Earl of Southampton (1505-1550)
Entry by Michael A.R. Graves
Copyright © Oxford Publishing Limited 2019
Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear.
Henry Wriothesley
Second Earl of Southampton (1545-1681)
Entry by J. G. Elzinga
Copyright © Oxford Publishing Limited 2019
Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear.
Henry Wriothesley
Third Earl of Southampton (1573-1624)
Entry by Park Honan
Copyright © Oxford Publishing Limited 2019
Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear.
Thomas Wriothesley
Fourth Earl of Southampton (1608-1667)
Entry by David L. Smith
Copyright © Oxford University Press 2019
Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear.