The Other Tudors (21 page)

J
ohn Perrot was born at Haroldston, Pembrokeshire, somewhere between 1527 and 1530. He was the son of Mary, the wife of Sir Thomas Perrot, and although he passed for the offspring of her husband, he was widely believed to be the son of Henry VIII.

John’s mother’s maiden name was Berkeley, and she had been one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies. Mary came from an old and illustrious family based at Berkeley Castle in Somerset. Her father was James Berkeley and her mother Susan Fitzalan. The Berkeleys were one of the great families in the west of England. One of her cousins was married to the Earl of Ormonde, and her Berkeley great-grandfather had married the daughter of one of the Mowbray Dukes of Norfolk. One can assume that she was wellbred and possessed the talents that Henry found so attractive: she was a good musician, poetess, literate, lively, witty and pretty.

Henry VIII obviously knew both bride and groom since he knighted Thomas on the occasion of the Perrots’ marriage. Sir Thomas Perrot was a renowned huntsman and he would have played host to the King, who came to his house to hunt, a sport they both really enjoyed.

In Edmund Spenser’s famous epic poem,
The Faerie Queene
, the reason for Mary’s brief affair with Henry VIII is explained. The poem was an allegory based on the life of Elizabeth I and the various characters in the poem were based on those surrounding the Queen. John Perrot was personified as Sir Satyrane, whose character and parentage are described as follows:

In the poem, Mary Perrot was said to have been married to a man who cared more about hunting than his wife. It is no surprise that the King, invited to hunt with Perrot, should notice the charming Mary and dally in one of the several affairs with married ladies that seem to have so delighted him in middle age. It also meant, of course, that in the event of a pregnancy from the liaison there was a ready-made father, willing to accept the child.

According to his own biography, young John was educated at St Davids, Pembrokeshire,
²
and at the age of 18 he joined the household of William Paulet, Marquis of Winchester. John was a large, tall, strong, auburn-haired youth, and it was said that he much resembled Henry VIII. Unlike the stereotypical image of the gentle giant, he had a quarrelsome nature and a short temper. However, his Tudor ‘family’ seemed to like him. John came to the King’s attention in a rather remarkable way. He was found brawling with two of the King’s Yeoman of the Guard within a palace precinct, a crime that normally required the aggressor to lose a hand. The King, however, obviously found the sight of his bastard son, battling with two men and fighting on despite his injuries, highly gratifying. Henry VIII may well have believed John was his son, not least because of the young man’s resemblance to the Tudors rather than to the Perrots. The King gave him a Promise of Preferment (that he would be put forward for a position or office at Court) instead of a visit to the nearest jail cell. Henry meant to do great things for John, had his own death not intervened.

In an even more bizarre twist of fate, shy, repressed Edward VI counted John Perrot as a friend. He was made a Knight of the Bath at Edward’s coronation and Sir John recalled that he entertained the young King with tales of his bad temper (he admitted to Edward that he ‘could not brook any crosses’), drinking, swearing, fighting and wenching. Instead of being horrified, Edward enjoyed these swaggering boasts. Perhaps Edward liked this image of a big brother, one who refused to stand on ceremony with a lonely little boy, treating him more like a real human being than a regal figurehead. One story featured Sir John and Lord Abergavenny. They had planned a party for a group of their friends, but: ‘… before their guests arrived they came to some contention, and so to blows, that they took the glasses and brake them about one another’s ears; when the guests came thither, they found, instead of claret wine, blood besprinkled about the chamber.’
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Sir John, being somewhat older, could also tell tales of Henry VIII, and these seemed to give particular pleasure to Edward VI who was only 10 years old when he lost his magnificent father.

In 1548, Sir John became an MP for the first time, for Carmarthenshire in south west Wales. In 1551, he was one of the party led by the Marquis of Northampton that went to France to start the negotiations for the marriage of Edward VI with Elizabeth, the daughter of Henri II. Sir John charmed everyone there and Henri II particularly loved his skill and enthusiasm for hunting. The King tried to bribe him to stay in France and enter his personal service but to no avail.

On his return to England, Sir John enthusiastically entered into Court life, but he soon found himself seriously in debt to the sum of around £8,000 – an enormous amount for the time. Not one to give in meekly, he is reputed to have come up with a brilliant stratagem. In the words of his biography:

As planned, the King came in, just in time to overhear this sad lament. Edward VI then asked Sir John if he had spent his money in the service of the King. When Sir John stated that he had, Edward agreed to recompense him and the bulk of the £8,000 debt was paid by the young King. Sir John went on to enjoy Edward’s favour until the young man died in 1553.
⁴

Mary I also liked Sir John. He was a strong Protestant, and when he hid ‘heretics’ in his house he was denounced by a man called Catherne. Mary may have felt his sin to be fairly minor, given that one of those he hid was his own uncle, Robert Perrot, who had been Reader in Greek to Edward VI and so she was quite lenient in his punishment. Sir John spent a short time imprisoned in the Fleet, and when released, he found it prudent to retire to the continent. He joined his friend the Earl of Pembroke as part of the forces in the French Wars, being present at the capture of St Quentin in 1557 (along with Thomas Stukeley). However, as Mary lay ill and dying, John returned to England, to enjoy a profitable friendship with Elizabeth I.

At Elizabeth I’s coronation, tall, handsome Sir John was one of the four gentlemen chosen to carry the canopy of state. In 1562 he was appointed Vice-Admiral of the coast of south Wales and keeper of the gaol at Haverfordwest. In 1563 he was rapidly becoming a political force in Pembrokeshire including serving as the local MP. In 1570 he was Mayor of Haverfordwest. Unfortunately he was also involved in a large number of disputes and lawsuits with his neighbours, which did nothing to make him a popular figure.

In 1571, Elizabeth wanted to settle Munster with a presidency. Sir John was specifically requested for the job by the Earl of Ormonde and Ossory, rival of the powerful Earl of Desmond, who wanted a firm hand in Ireland. Sir John set about suppressing a rebellion headed by James Fitzmaurice, nephew of the Earl of Desmond; his campaign was one of severity and brutality. It was calculated that he had ordered the hanging of more than 800 rebels, losing only 18 of his own men during his campaigns and founding his reputation as an Irish expert.
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A series of letters were sent from Ireland to England, reporting on the activities of an English rebel who had once served in Ireland and was now in the service of the King of Spain and the Pope – a certain Thomas Stukeley. He was reported to be gathering an army for invasion and Sir John was ordered to be in readiness for their coming.

By 1573, Sir John was in poor health and he resigned the presidency to return to Wales. He was tired and sick, and particularly angry that Elizabeth I seemed bent on restoring Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond, despite his family’s rebellious history. He had received word that the rising star at Court, the Earl of Essex, was interfering with his Welsh holdings, and that he was to be questioned by the Privy Council about his having illegally held a French ship, the
Peter and Paul
, at Cork.
⁶

The Queen, however, knew her man and valued him accordingly. One of Sir John’s rewards was land and the 13thcentury Carew Castle at Milford Haven, which, suitably modernised, became his second residence. Much of the Tudor Carew Castle was destroyed during the Civil War.

Having returned from Ireland, Sir John wrote to Lord Burghley that he wished to live a ‘countryman’s life.’ As it happened, this meant 10 years of legal cases and attempts to increase his land holdings in Pembrokeshire. He tried to acquire lands lately held by Haverfordwest Priory, and was suspected of unfairly influencing a jury to find in his favour. In fact he lost on this occasion, and had to wait many years before he could buy the much-desired lands.
⁷
His behaviour tended to polarise people into those who supported him and those who didn’t; it was very difficult to remain neutral on the subject of Sir John Perrot.

Even though he was back in Wales, his reputation in Irish affairs remained strong. During the first half of 1574 there were numerous communications relating to the need for a strong hand in control in Ireland, and Sir John’s name came up many times. In January, Patrick Sherlok, Sheriff of Waterford, was writing to Lord Burghley to advise him that the Earl of Desmond had allied with Turlough Lynaugh O’Neill and the ‘gentlemen of Thomond’ so that the potential rebels numbered 3,000. Sherlock requested that the Earl of Ormonde and Sir John Perrot be sent with a force of 1,000 English soldiers to avert any rebellion.
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The Queen added her opinion to Burghley, acknowledging that the Earl of Desmond’s behaviour was unacceptable. She was annoyed that the current Lord Deputy in Ireland had let matters get out of hand. She decided to send forces there under the command of Sir John. By March a memorial had been produced on the situation in Ireland. The Earl of Essex was to stay at his post there, despite having asked to be allowed to resign; Sir John was to be ordered to recover Munster and to pacify Leinster and Connaught.

However, instead of taking up a post in Ireland, Sir John joined the Council in the Marches of Wales, and became involved with suppression of piracy along the Welsh coast. The following year the Privy Council set up a commission to deal with piracy of which Sir John, with his experience, was made chief commissioner. Within 12 months Glamorgan and Monmouthshire followed suit and offered the post of chief commissioner to Sir John. By this time, however, he was forced to refuse on the grounds of ill health.

According to the
Dictionary of National Biography
, ‘His [Sir John’s] anti-piracy activities are chiefly of interest because of the bitter feud which they created between him and Richard Vaughan, deputy-admiral in Wales and chief commissioner for piracy in Carmarthenshire, who deeply resented Perrot’s interference in his sphere of influence.’ Vaughan ended up accusing the irascible Sir John of acting the tyrant, having illicit dealings with pirates himself, and subverting justice. Happily Sir John had no trouble convincing his judges of his innocence and was able to continue his activities.

In 1575, he became Mayor of Haverfordwest again, this time after establishing better relations with the corporation. In 1580, Sir John made a bequest of land and property valued at £30 to the town of Haverfordwest. This was the Perrot Trust that was still active in the late 1980s, yielding around £400 a year. The revenue from the Trust was used for civic improvement, including providing the first pavements in Haverfordwest.
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In 1579 Sir John was given command of five ships and on 29 August he set sail with his son Thomas. His orders were to wait off the coast of Ireland and watch for Spanish shipping trying to land. In September he was moored in Baltimore Bay, from where he sailed to Cork and then along the coast to Waterford. There, he met Sir William Drury, the Irish president, who had taken the job when Sir John retired. They never saw any Spaniards, but Sir John’s fleet chased and captured a pirate ship, the
Derifold
.

In his absence, and following failure to come up with more than one small prize, Sir John’s enemies had started a campaign to discredit him. They claimed that, far from pursuing the pirates, he was in league with them; his houses at Haroldston and Carew were said to be full of contraband goods, including looted Gascon wine. Certainly, the pirates seem to have been brazen when it came to selling on their stolen goods, and captures of pirates were few and far between. This time Sir John found it difficult to clear his name.