William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester

Sir William Paulet (c. 1483 – 10 March 1572) was an English statesman who attained several peerages throughout his lifetime: Baron St John (9 March 1539), Earl of Wiltshire (19 January 1550), and Marquess of Winchester (11 October 1551).

Family origins and early career in Hampshire

William Paulet was eldest son of Sir John Paulet of Basing, near Basingstoke who had married a cousin, Alice Paulet. There is some disagreement over his date of birth, authorities quoting 1483 or 1485. Also a claim he was ninety-seven at his death would place his birth in 1474 or 1475.

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. William's great-grandfather acquired the Hampshire estates by his marriage with Constance, granddaughter and coheiress of Thomas Poynings, baron St John of Basing (d. 1428).

William Paulet was sheriff of Hampshire in 1512, 1519, 1523, and again in 1527 (Letters and Papers). Knighted before the end of 1525, he was appointed master of the king's wards in November 1526 and he appears in the privy council in the same year.

Paulet was twice married, and lived to see 103 of his own descendants. His first wife was Elizabeth (d. 25 Dec,1558), daughter of Sir William Capel, lord mayor of London in 1503, by whom he had four sons:(1) John, second marquis of Winchester; (2) Thomas; (3) Chediok, governor of Southampton under Mary and Elizabeth; (4) Giles, and four daughters: Elizabeth, who married Edward Hoby in 1580 and died in 1581 [cite web|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hwbradley/aqwg2862.htm#72080|title=Ancestry.com|accessdate=2008-09-06] , Margaret, Margerie, and Eleanor, the last of whom married Sir Richard Pecksall, master of the buckhounds, and died on 26 Sept. 1558. By his second wife, Winifrid ( - 1586), daughter of Sir John Bruges, alderman of London, and widow of Sir Richard Sackville, chancellor of the exchequer, he left no issue.

Paulet was still in harness 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.

Career as a national statesman

Paulet's political career began in 1529, when he became MP 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 Francois I of France in a proposed audience with the Pope, to discuss Henry's divorce with Catherine of Aragon. In 1536, he was granted the keepership of Pamber Forest, and was soon 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.

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 Henry's will, he was mentioned as one of the eighteen men who would serve as the council of regency during Henry's son's minority.

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

It was said that Northumberland and Winchester "ruled the court" of the minor King Edward VI, and Winchester was accused of supporting Northumberland's attempts to change the order of succession to the English throne (mainly to secure Lady Jane Grey's position on the throne), although he actually strongly opposed it. In March 1554, after Mary I was crowned queen, she affirmed him in all of his positions, although he had been associated with Northumberland (who was eventually executed for treason). After Mary's death, he remained Lord Treasurer and 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 outright support of Protestantism, as he feared it would cause a breach with strongly Catholic Spain.

Paulet enjoyed a remarkably lengthy career within the treacherous waters of the English Reformation. Starting out as a Catholic, he was quickly persuaded to see things Henry's way once the breach with Catholicism had been decided on. He was rewarded with former Church properties following the dissolution of the monasteries. During the short reign of Edward VI he became a Puritan and persecuted Catholics and High Church Anglicans alike. On the accession of Catholic Queen Mary I 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 surivive so many storms, not only unhurt, but rising all the while, Paulet answered, "By being a willow, not an oak."

Bibliography

*Tait, James: "William Paulet", article in Dictionary of National Biography, 1895