Breconshire

County representation in Breconshire was monopolized during this period by the Vaughans of Porthaml and their relatives. Sir Roger Vaughan, the head of this branch of the family, took the county seat in 1559, but gave his son the opportunity to sit for the shire in 1563. When Rowland Vaughan died before the second session of the Parliament, he was replaced by Matthew Arundell from Dorset. Although Arundell had no obvious connexion with either Breconshire or the Vaughans. the most likely explanation for his return lies in a court connexion with the family. Arundell’s wife was in attendance at court and no doubt knew Blanche Parry, the Queen’s ‘chief gentlewoman’, who was a close relative of the Vaughans of Porthaml and a substantial Breconshire landowner in her own right. It is probable that her intervention was behind Arundell’s return. In the next Parliament, however, Sir Roger Vaughan resumed the seat. The next three Parliaments of the reign were taken by Thomas Games of Aberbran, a relative of the Vaughans, and the remaining four by Robert Knollys, who married Sir Roger Vaughan’s granddaughter and came into the Porthaml estates.