THOMAS ARUNDELL, first Baron Arundell of Wardour (c.1562-1639), son of Sir Mathew Arundell of Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, a member
of the ancient family of Arundells of Lanherne in Cornwall, and of Margaret, daughter of Sir Henry Willoughby, was born about 1562. In 1579
he was personally recommended by Queen Elizabeth to the emperor Rudolph II.
He greatly distinguished himself while serving with the imperial troops against the Turks in Hungary, and at the siege of Gran or Esztergom
on the 13th of August 1595, he captured the enemy's banner with his own hand. He was created by Rudolph II a count of the Holy Roman Empire
in December 1595, and returned to England after suffering shipwreck and barely preserving his life in January 1596. His assumption of the
foreign title created great jealousy among the English peers, who were wont to give a precedence by courtesy to foreign nobles, and he
incurred the resentment of his father, who objected to his superior rank and promptly disinherited him. The queen, moreover, was seriously
displeased, declared that "as chaste wives should have no glances but for their own spouses, so should faithful subjects keep their eyes at
home and not gaze upon foreign crowns," and committed him to the Fleet immediately on his arrival, while she
addressed a long letter of remonstrance on the subject to the emperor. Arundell remained under arrest till April, when he was liberated
after an examination.
In April 1597, however, he was again confined, but declared innocent of any charge save that of "practising to contrive the justification of
his vain title with Ministers beyond the seas." In December he was liberated and placed under the care of his father, but next year he was
again arrested and accused of a conspiracy against the government. His petitions for a licence to undertake an expedition by sea, wherein he
declared "his end was honour which some base minds call ambition," were refused, but in 1599 he was apparently again restored to favour.
On the 4th of May 1605 he was created by James I Baron Arundell of Wardour, but fell
again under temporary suspicion at the time of the Gunpowder Plot. In 1623 he once more got into trouble by
championing the cause of the recusants, of whom he was himself one, on the occasion of the visit of the Spanish envoys, and he was committed
to custody, and in 1625 all the arms were removed by the government from Wardour Castle. After the accession of Charles I
he was pardoned, and attended the sittings of the House of Lords.
He was indicted in the king's bench about the year 1627 for not paying some contribution, and in 1631 he was
accused of harbouring a priest. In 1637 he was declared exempt from the recusancy laws by the king's order, but in 1639 he again petitioned
for relief. The same year he paid £500 in lieu of attending the king at York. He died on the 7th of November 1639. Arundell was an earnest
Roman Catholic, but the suspicions of the government as to his loyalty were probably unfounded and stifled a career destined by nature for
successful adventure. He married (1) Mary, daughter of Henry Wriothesley,
2nd Earl of Southampton, by whom besides other children he had Thomas, who succeeded him as 2nd baron; and (2) Anne, daughter of Miles
Philipson, by whom he had several daughters.
Source:
The Encyclopædia Britannica. 11th Ed. Vol II.
New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Co., 1910. 710.
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