Sir Francis Knollys, English statesman, son of Robert Knollys, or Knolles (d. 1521), a courtier in the service and favour
of Henry VII and Henry VIII.
Francis Knollys, who entered the service of Henry VIII before 1540, became a member of parliament in 1542 and was knighted in 1547
while serving with the English army in Scotland. A strong and somewhat aggressive supporter of the reformed doctrines, he retired
to Germany soon after Mary became queen, returning to England to become a privy councillor, vice-chamberlain
of the royal household and a member of parliament under Queen Elizabeth,
whose cousin Catherine (d. 1569), daughter of William Carey [and Mary Boleyn], niece of Anne Boleyn,
was his wife.
After serving as governor of Plymouth, Knollys was sent in 1566 to Ireland, his mission being to obtain for the queen confidential
reports about the conduct of the lord-deputy Sir Henry Sidney. Approving of Sidney's actions he came back to England, and in 1568
was sent to Carlisle to take charge of Mary Queen of Scots, who had just fled from Scotland;
afterwards he was in charge of the queen at Bolton Castle and then at Tutbury Castle. He discussed religious questions with his
prisoner, although the extreme Protestant views which he put before her did not meet with Elizabeth's approval, and he gave up the
position of guardian just after his wife's death in January 1569.
In 1584 he introduced into the House of Commons, where since 1572 he had represented Oxfordshire, the bill legalizing the national
association for Elizabeth's defence, and he was treasurer of the royal household from 1572 until his death on the 19th of July 1596.
His monument may still be seen in the church of Rotherfield Grays, Oxfordshire. Knollys was repeatedly free and frank in his
objections to Elizabeth's tortuous foreign policy; but, possibly owing to his relationship to the Queen, he did not lose her favour,
and he was one of her commissioners on such important occasions as the trials of Mary Queen of Scots,
of Philip Howard Earl of Arundel, and of Anthony Babington. An active and lifelong Puritan, his attacks
on the bishops were not lacking in vigour, and he was also very hostile to heretics. He received many grants of land from the queen,
and was chief steward of the city of Oxford and a knight of the garter.
Sir Francis's eldest son Henry (d.1583), and his sons Edward (d. c.1580), Robert (d.1625), Richard (d.1596), Francis (d. c.1648), and
Thomas, were all courtiers and served the Queen in parliament or in the field. His daughter Lettice Knollys
(1540-1634) married Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, and then Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester; she was the
mother of Elizabeth's favourite, Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex.
Excerpted from:
Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Ed. Vol XV.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910. 871.
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