Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden (c. 1460 – 14 May 1523) was a soldier and courtier in England and an early member of theHouse of Commons. He was the son ofLancastrian loyalists WilliamVaux ofHarrowden and Katherine Penyson (or Peniston as she is sometimes called in later sources), a lady of the household of QueenMargaret of Anjou, wife of the Lancastrian king,Henry VI of England. Katherine was a daughter of Gregorio Panizzone of Courticelle (modernCortiglione), inPiedmont, Italy which was at that time subject to KingRené of Anjou, father of Queen Margaret of Anjou, as ruler ofProvence.[1][2][better source needed][3][4] He grew up during the years ofYorkist rule and later served under the founder of theTudor dynasty,Henry VII.
Vaux's mother, Katherine, an attendant onMargaret of Anjou, remained constant to her mistress when others forsook the Lancastrian cause. Katherine's husband, William Vaux, whom she had married not long before she obtained her letters of denization, was attainted in 1461[5][better source needed] and later slain at theBattle of Tewkesbury in May 1471.[6]
Despite her husband's misfortune, Katherine Vaux remained loyal to her mistress: she stayed by the Queen during her imprisonment in theTower of London, and on Margaret's release in 1476 went with her into exile (as she had done earlier in the 1460s), living with her until her death six years later. Katherine's two children did not share either her confinement or her travels abroad; instead, Nicholas Vaux and his sisterJoan, were brought up in the household ofLady Margaret Beaufort (mother ofHenry VII), without charge, even thoughEdward IV restored two manors to the family for the maintenance of him and his sister.
Katherine's devotion was rewarded after the triumph of Henry VII atBosworth, where Nicholas Vaux, as a protégé ofLady Margaret Beaufort, probably fought under her husbandThomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby; the petition for the reversal of the attainder on Vaux's father and the forfeiture of his property was accepted by the King in theParliament of 1485, and not long after Vaux was named to the commission of the peace for his home county.
Vaux fought for Henry VII at Stoke andBlackheath, being knighted on the field for his service in both battles. Not only was he active and diligent in local government but he was also frequently at court attending all the great state occasions at home and abroad until his death; in 1511 he entertainedHenry VIII at Harrowden. It was as a soldier and diplomat, however, that he made his mark. Given the important command atGuisnes, he distinguished himself during theTournai campaign in 1513 and then in the missions (he had had some earlier experiences in negotiating, chiefly with Burgundy) to the French King about the English withdrawal and the several royal marriage treaties.
Vaux was a candidate for election to Parliament, although in the absence of so many returns for the earlyTudor period he is known to have been a Member only in 1515 when he andJohn Hussey took a memorandum on certain Acts from the Commons up to the Lords. Presumably, he sat for his own shire on this occasion as he was afterwards appointed to the Northamptonshire commission for the subsidy which he had helped to grant.
Second, shortly after the death of his first wife, he married Anne Green (who predeceased him), a daughter and co-heiress ofThomas Green of Boughton and Green's Norton, Northamptonshire, by his wifeJoan Fogge. Anne Green was the aunt ofQueen Katherine Parr (whose mother wasMaud Green), thesixth wife of King Henry VIII. By his second wife he had two sons and three daughters:
Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron Vaux of Harrowden (1510 – October 1556), eldest son and heir, who, in about 1523, married Elizabeth Cheney (1505–1556), a granddaughter of his father's first wife (Elizabeth Cheney was a daughter of Thomas Cheney of Irtlingburgh by his wife Anne Parr, a daughter ofWilliam Parr by his second wifeElizabeth FitzHugh).[12]
William Vaux[12] (d. May 1523), who died unmarried.
Margaret Vaux, who married Francis Pulteney (1502 – c. 17 May 1548) of Misterton. Had issue.[12] She married secondly to Francis Verney (1531/34–59), of Salden in Mursley, Bucks. and London. No issue.[15]
Bridget Vaux, who in about 1538 married Maurice Welsh;[12]
Maud Vaux (d. 14 April 1569), who married John Fermor ofEaston Neston in Northamptonshire,[12] by whom she had issue.
^G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs,The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., volume XII/2, page 216.
^The visitations of Northamptonshire made in 1564 and 1618-19: with Northamptonshire pedigrees from various Harleian mss by Harvey, William, d. 1567; Vincent, Augustine, 1584?-1626; Metcalfe, Walter C; England. College of arms. Published 1887. See p. 51
^CPR, 6 E4 Part II, pg 551, 29 Nov 1466 "Licence for Roger Corbet of Moreton, knight, and Elizabeth, his wife, kinswoman and one of the heirs of William Lucy, knight, viz., daughter of Eleanor, one of his sisters and heirs, to enter freely into a moiety of all the lordships, manors, lands and other possessions which Margaret, late the wife of the said William, held on the day of her death for life or in fee tail or in dower or otherwise, and a moiety of all the lordships manors, lands and other possessions which the said William held on the day of his death in fee tail within England and the marches of Wales and which on their death came into the King's hands and ought to descend to her, to hold from 4 November last although the other moieties of the same belong to the King by the forfeiture of William Vaux, knight, attainted of high treason by an Act in Parliament at Westminster 4 November 1 Edward IV, who was the other heir of the said William Lucy, viz., son of Matilda, late his other sister, By privy seal."
^abG.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs,The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., volume XII/2, page 218.
^Sidney Lee.Dictionary of National Biography: Nicholas Vaux, First Lord Vaux of Harrowden (d.1523), Vol LVIII, Macmillan Company, London, 1899. pp. 192–194.
^G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs,The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., volume XII/2, page 219.
^The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558: PARR, Sir William (by 1484-1547), of the Blackfriars, London and Horton, Northants., ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982.History of Parliament Online
^Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999), volume 1, page 17. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition.
^abcdefghDouglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham.Magna Carta ancestry: a study in colonial and medieval families pg 639.
^Douglas Richardson.Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011. p. 657.
^S.T. Bindoff.The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558: Lestrange (Strange), Sir Nicholas (1511/13-80), of Hunstanton, Norf., Boydell and Brewer. 1982.History of Parliament Online
^S.T. Bindoff. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558: VERNEY, Francis (1531/34-59), of Salden in Mursley, Bucks. and London. Boydell and Brewer. 1982.History of Parliament
Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.).Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Vol. III (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.ISBN978-1449966393.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Throckmorton family history: being the records of the Throckmortons in the United States of America with cognate branches, emigrant ancestors located at Salem, Massachusetts, 1630, and in Gloucester county, Virginia, 1660
Ancestral roots of certain American colonists who came to America by Frederick Lewis Weis, Walter Lee Sheppard, David Faris.
Catholic gentry in English society: the Throckmortons of Coughton by Peter Marshall
Women and politics in early modern England, 1450–1700 By James Daybell
The Magna Charta sureties, 1215: the barons named in the Magna Charta, 1215 by Frederick Lewis Weis
The Family Forest Descendants of Lady Joan Beaufort by Bruce Harrison
The House of Commons: 1509 – 1558; 1, Appendices, constituencies, members A – C, Volume 4
