Henry Cromwell, 2nd Baron Cromwell


Henry Cromwell, 2nd Baron Cromwell was an English peer. He was the eldest son of Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell and Elizabeth Seymour, daughter to John Seymour of Wolf Hall, Wiltshire, and to Margery Wentworth. His mother's siblings included Jane Seymour, third consort of Henry VIII and the Protector Somerset.

Family and early life

Henry Cromwell was baptised 1 March 1538, probably at Hampton Court, where the Lady Mary almost certainly stood godmother. Shortly after the baptism, his parents left for Lewes in Sussex to the former Cluniac Priory of St. Pancras, recently acquired by his grandfather Thomas Cromwell, where they remained from April 1538 until early 1539, when they took up residence in Leeds Castle, Kent. In December 1539, after the birth of a second son, Edward, Gregory Cromwell wrote to his wife at Leeds Castle, from Calais, "I am, thanks be to God, in good health, trusting shortly to hear from you like news, as well of yourself as also my little boys, of whose increase and towardness be you assured I am not a little desirous to be advertised."
Cromwell's mother, Elizabeth married three times. She married firstly, by July 1530, Anthony Ughtred, governor of Jersey, by whom she had two children:
In 1537, three years after death of Anthony Ughtred in October 1534, she married Gregory Cromwell, the son of Thomas Cromwell and 1st Baron Cromwell. The couple had three sons and two daughters:
Gregory Lord Cromwell died of sweating sickness on 4 July 1551 leaving his heir a minor at thirteen years of age. Henry's mother went on to marry, in 1554, as her third husband, Sir John Paulet, later Lord St John. She died 19 March 1568, and was buried 5 April at Basing, Hampshire. His step-father later married, before 30 September 1568, Winifred, widow of Sir Richard Sackville, and daughter of John Brydges, a former Lord Mayor of London. He succeeded his father as Marquess of Winchester in 1572.
Henry Cromwell was educated at St. John's College Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1553. He may have been admitted to Lincoln's Inn, 7 March 1557.

Peerage

Henry's grandfather, Thomas Cromwell, had been created Baron Cromwell of Wimbledon and Earl of Essex as a reward for his service as chief minister to Henry VIII, but he had lost those titles by attainder in June 1540. On 18 December 1540, his son Gregory was created 1st Baron Cromwell. This title was a new creation rather than a restoration of his father's forfeited barony. Henry succeeded his father as the second Baron Cromwell under that creation. A minor at his father's premature death, he was first summoned to Parliament in 1563.

Marriage and issue

Cromwell married, before 1560, Mary Paulet,, the daughter of his stepfather John Paulet, 2nd Marquess of Winchester and his first wife Elizabeth Willoughby, and by her had issue:
Cromwell's wife, Mary died at North Elmham, Norfolk, 10 October 1592, and was buried, on 23 October, at Launde Abbey Leicestershire. He died shortly after his wife, on 20 November at North Elmham, Norfolk, 1592 and was buried, on 4 December, in the chapel at Launde Abbey, Launde, Leicestershire.