Henry Neville (died 1615)


Sir Henry Neville was an English courtier, politician and diplomat, noted for his role as ambassador to France and his unsuccessful attempts to negotiate between James I of England and the Houses of Parliament. In 2005 Neville was put forward as a candidate for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.

Family

Neville was the elder son of Sir Henry Neville and his second wife, Elizabeth Gresham, granddaughter of Sir Richard Gresham, Lord Mayor of London, and only daughter and heir of the latter's elder son, John Gresham, by Frances Thwaytes, the daughter and coheir of Sir Henry Thwaytes of Lund, Yorkshire.
Neville's father had earlier married, between 1551 and 1555, Winifred Losse, daughter of a property speculator, Hugh Losse of Whitchurch, London, by whom he had no issue.
After the death of his second wife, Neville's father married thirdly, about May 1578, Elizabeth Bacon, widow of Sir Robert Doyley of Chislehampton, Oxfordshire, and Greenlands in Hambleden, Buckinghamshire. Elizabeth Bacon was the eldest daughter of Queen Elizabeth's Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, Sir Nicholas Bacon, by his first wife, Jane Ferneley, the daughter of William Ferneley of Suffolk. After Neville's death, his widow, Elizabeth, married, before the end of September 1595, Sir William Peryam. She made her last will on 12 November 1618, and died on 3 May 1621. There is a monument to her in the church of St Mary's, Henley-on-Thames.
Neville's father was a great-great-grandson of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmoreland, the daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster by Katherine Swynford.

Career

Neville grew up at Billingbear House at Waltham St Lawrence in Berkshire. At the age of fifteen, he matriculated from Merton College, Oxford, on 20 December 1577. His tutor was Henry Savile, later warden of Merton. In 1578 Neville accompanied Savile on a continental tour, visiting Padua, Venice, and Prague.
Neville sat in Parliament as the member for New Windsor, Sussex, Liskeard and Berkshire. He served as High Sheriff of Berkshire in 1595. Before his father's death, he lived at the old Archbishop's Palace at Mayfield in Sussex, inherited from his great-uncle Sir Thomas Gresham, where he ran a highly successful cannon manufactury. He was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Berkshire in 1596 and moved to Billingbear the next year. He was knighted in 1597.
In 1599 Neville was appointed Ambassador to France and attended the Court of Henri IV. Although knighted for his services in France, he was unhappy with the way he was treated by the French and in 1600, complaining of deafness, he asked to be recalled to England.
After his return he became involved with the Essex Rebellion of 1601 and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. His close friend, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, was also imprisoned there at this time in connection with the plot.
He was stripped of his position and fined £5,000, which he agreed to pay in annual instalments of £1,000. After the death of Elizabeth I of England and the accession of James I a Royal Warrant was issued for his release.
After his release, he played a greater role in the political life of the nation, but earned the antagonism of King James by advocating the King surrender to the demands of the House of Commons.
In the first session of 1610, and again in 1612, he advised the King to give way to the demands of the House of Commons. It was these actions that, on the death of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, in May 1612, lost him the possibility of becoming the Secretary of State. Although offered the position of Treasurer of the Chamber he turned it down.
Neville died in 1615 and was buried at the church of St Lawrence in Waltham St Lawrence.

Shakespeare authorship

In 2005, Neville was proposed as the actual author of Shakespeare's works. The attribution is almost universally rejected by all academic Shakespeareans who have responded to the claim.

Marriage and issue

In December 1584 Neville married Anne Killigrew, the daughter of Sir Henry Killigrew and Catherine Cooke, sister-in-law of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, by whom he had five sons and six daughters: