WINDSOR, Thomas (1591-1641)

Nothing is known of Windsor’s early life, beyond his honorary admission to the Middle Temple at the age of eight, but as a Catholic he would have been educated privately. In April 1605, aged just 13, he inherited his father’s barony, together with a substantial but heavily encumbered estate and debts amounting to at least £15,000. Indeed, he was first mentioned in the Lords in the context of a 1606 bill to facilitate the sale of part of his patrimony.19 PA, HL/PO/PB/1/1605/3J1n31. Despite his tender years, he was not lacking in friends. In 1606 Robert Cecil^*, 1st earl of Salisbury, intervened as master of the Court of Wards to prevent Windsor from being deprived of his chamber at the Middle Temple,20 HMC Hatfield, xxiv. 60; MTR, 462. while the individual who purchased his wardship from the crown for £970 was none other than the powerful crypto-Catholic Henry Howard^*, earl of Northampton. It was most likely Northampton who encouraged Windsor to attend court, and possibly introduced him to Prince Henry’s circle. When, in 1606, Robert Fletcher published his Nine English Worthies, a history of the eight previous monarchs named Henry, with an account of the current prince, Windsor contributed a dedicatory verse to this ‘ninth worthy’, a slightly clumsy composition in which, to achieve a rhyme, he tactlessly implied that all nine men were already dead.21 WARD 9/162, f. 61v; R. Fletcher, The Nine Eng. Worthies (1606), sig. B2v.

By 1608 Windsor was married to Catherine, youngest daughter of another major Catholic courtier, the 4th earl of Worcester (Edward Somerset^*). The young Lady Windsor was a well known figure in royal circles, regularly participating in Anne of Denmark’s masques.22 Nichols, ii. 174, 245, 349. Her husband, by comparison, appears to have been a somewhat reclusive figure, probably because of poor health. In December 1607, he suffered a serious illness, subsequently attributed to the sorcery of the notorious astrologer, John Lambe, through which ‘his body and strength was greatly wasted and consumed’. It was later claimed that Lambe had bewitched Windsor’s ‘implement’, and if Windsor did indeed suffer some form of impotence it would help to explain his failure to produce an heir.23 Briefe Description of the Notorious Life of John Lambe (Amsterdam, 1628), 3-4; Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, ii. 601. Whatever the truth of the matter, Windsor’s presence at court was recorded only on major occasions, such as Prince Henry’s creation as prince of Wales in 1610, when the young baron became a knight of the Bath, and Henry’s funeral two years later. Instead, during this period he may have spent some time abroad. In March 1608 he certainly obtained a licence for foreign travel, and there is some suggestion that he visited Italy, though details are lacking.24 HMC Downshire, ii. 316; Nichols, ii. 497; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 412; HMC Hatfield, xxi. 24-5.

Windsor came of age in 1612, and 18 months later took his seat in the Lords for the first time. Unlike his father, he never exercised electoral patronage. He attended all but two or three days of the Addled Parliament. Although not known to have spoken in the House, he attracted nominations to three bill committees, the subjects of which were the establishment of an almshouse, grammar school and preacher at Monmouth, the manorial customs at Winslow, Buckinghamshire, and lawsuits concerning wills of land.25 LJ, ii. 694a, 700b, 711b.

Around 1615 Windsor became a Worcestershire magistrate, though he seems to have exercised his duties only rarely. In that same year, his mother’s death brought him additional estates in Suffolk, and he presumably spent some time in the county, as he was appointed a sewers commissioner there in 1617.26 Worcs. Q. Sess. Rolls, 201; WARD 7/74/71. Shortly afterwards, he visited Spa, in the principality of Liège, evidently hoping to ease his ailments by taking the waters there. On his way home, he stopped at Brussels, where he acquired pictures and books, and commissioned a suit of armour.27 SO3/6, unfol. (Mar. 1617); HMC Downshire, vi. 201, 293, 383, 396, 398. The latter purchase was apparently more for show than for actual use. In February 1618, back in London, Windsor was invited to participate in a tilt at Court, but declined on the grounds of continuing poor health. As he explained to his father-in-law, he had for the previous two years suffered from ‘a weakness and lameness in my knee, and all my right side; … further, a perpetual distemper of that side makes me so unfit that every day by reason of the pain I am forced unmannerly to retire and leave those that are my most familiars’.28 Add. 12514, f. 144r-v. It was perhaps partly to distract himself from these problems that he turned to collecting as a pastime. He later owned a quantity of ‘old coins’, and was said to be ‘much accomplished with learning, especially antiquities’.29 PROB 11/188, f. 85v; Collins, Peerage, iii. 683. Such activities imply that Windsor’s financial position had improved, perhaps as a result of his marriage, for although the size of his wife’s dowry is not known, his father-in-law was notably affluent. Nevertheless, he downplayed any suggestion of wealth when the government asked him to contribute towards the relief of the Palatinate in 1620. Writing to the Privy Council on 1 Dec., he stated:

I believe that not any of my rank in England can more truly plead poverty than myself, being the heir of an estate much decreased in the proportion, and of poor remainder, which remaineth so charged with burdenous debts that I despair almost ever of the freedom, and also the greatest part of it so clogged with unavoidable issues [ie. annuities], that though I have the title of the inheritance, yet I am no partaker of the profits.

Despite pressure from the Council, there is no evidence that he ultimately paid up, and he was perhaps disinclined to support the Protestant cause on religious grounds.30 APC, 1619-21, p. 293; SP14/117/97; 14/118/1.

Windsor attended almost three-fifths of the 1621 Parliament’s sittings, his record being somewhat better after the summer recess than before it. He was briefly ill around 26 Feb., when his attendance was formally excused, and he probably succumbed again in late March, when he handed his proxy to his kinsman William Paget^*, 5th Lord Paget, and went missing for a month.31 LJ, iii. 4b, 29b; LD 1621, 1625 and 1628, p. 36; CP, xii. pt. 2, p. 799. Once again Windsor failed to contribute to debates, but he received nine nominations, including one to the conference committee at which the two Houses discussed how to apprehend the controversial patentee Sir Giles Mompesson^‡. He was also appointed to help consider the proposal by the royal favourite, George Villiers^*, marquess (later 1st duke) of Buckingham, for a new academy to educate the aristocracy and greater gentry. On 2 June Windsor was nominated to attend the king, when arrangements for the summer recess were being thrashed out.32 LJ, iii. 37a, 34a, 155a. In total he was named to six bill committees, three either side of the recess, whose subjects included navigation on two different stretches of the Thames, the Welsh cloth trade, and licences of alienation.33 Ibid. 22b, 101b, 171a, 182b. Besides this formal business, Windsor was a signatory in February to the controversial petition to James I, mainly from the minor peers, protesting about the social standing of Englishmen who had been granted Scottish or Irish peerages.34 A. Wilson, Hist. of Gt. Britain (1653), 187; LJ, iii. 24a; T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Jas. I, ii. 230-1. It was probably at the start of the summer recess that Windsor complained to the Privy Council, after a crowd led by two London constables forced their way into his house, seeking to arrest one of his servants who had allegedly killed another man in a fight. Informing the constables that they had breached his privilege as a peer, Windsor refused to hand over his attendant, and demanded redress from the Council. The outcome of this incident is not known.35 SP14/121/141. Windsor’s undated letter states that the incident occurred on Saturday 16 June, which most likely indicates 1621, given his known presence in London, but could also relate to 1627, 1632 or 1638. Windsor apparently asserted his privilege as a peer in general, rather than specifically as a member of the Lords.

Windsor was once again licensed to travel abroad in 1622, but if he did leave England it was a short trip. In April of the following year, he was appointed rear-admiral of the fleet sent to bring Prince Charles (Stuart^*, prince of Wales) back from Spain, following the Spanish Match negotiations in Madrid. It was then widely assumed that the Match would soon be concluded, and accordingly the king selected prominent Catholics to command the fleet, Windsor’s superiors being Francis Manners^*, 6th earl of Rutland and Henry Parker^*, 14th Lord Morley.36 CSP Dom. 1619-23, p. 558; D’Ewes Diary, 1622-4 ed. E. Bourcier, 131; APC, 1621-3, p. 496. In several sources Windsor is incorrectly described as v.-adm.: Chamberlain Letters, ii. 491; CSP Ven. 1623-5, p. 8; Add. 72276, f. 26v. Briefly left in charge of the fleet off the English coast in July, Windsor impressed the experienced sailor Sir Henry Mainwaring^‡, who wrote that he carried himself ‘very discreetly and worthily’, and was ‘commonly beloved and respected’ by the other seamen.37 Life and Works of Sir Henry Mainwaring ed. G.E. Manwaring, i (Navy Recs. Soc. liv), 105. This was potentially a great opportunity for Windsor to ingratiate himself with the future monarch, and he reportedly travelled in considerable state, offering lavish hospitality to the Spanish grandees who accompanied Charles back to Santander, and spending as much as £15,000 during the journey. When the prince arrived back in England without his expected bride, Windsor and his colleagues were mocked by Protestant observers for their financial folly, Simonds D’Ewes^‡ describing them as ‘almost out of heart to receive any great recompense for their great cost and gay clothes’.38 CSP Ven. 1623-5, p. 33; Collins, iii. 683; D’Ewes Diary, 156, 164.

Windsor apparently took out his frustration on his alleged nemesis John Lambe, reviving the old charge of sorcery in the autumn of 1623, and having him locked up in King’s Bench. Indeed, according to one contemporary writer, the Catholic Thomas Roper, Windsor would have ‘hanged him had he not had extraordinary good friends who saved his life’.39 CSP Dom. 1623-5, p. 90; Chamberlain Letters, ii. 601; Stuart Dynastic Policy and Religious Pols. 1621-5 ed. M.C. Questier (Cam. Soc. 5th ser. xxxiv), 338. Nevertheless, the king was not entirely ungrateful for the baron’s service during the summer, and bestowed some small marks of favour on him. In November, Windsor was chosen to help escort the archduke’s ambassadors when James granted them an audience, and shortly afterwards he was permitted to spend the winter in London, contrary to the proclamation instructing peers to pass the Christmas season in the country.40 Nichols, iv. 937; CSP Dom. 1623-5, p. 114.

Windsor was thus already in the capital when preparations were made for the 1624 Parliament. He turned up for the prorogation meetings on 12 and 16 Feb. and, once the session finally got underway, attended intermittently until 11 Mar., when he withdrew from the Lords in order to avoid taking the oath of allegiance. In so doing, Windsor acted in conjunction with several other devout Catholic peers, but his recent exposure to Catholic Spain, and his disappointment over the collapse of the Spanish Match, may also help to explain his dramatic change of attitude. He obtained a blank proxy from the clerk on 8 Mar., though he seems not to have made use of it, and was formally licensed to be absent two weeks later. Consequently, he attracted just one appointment during this session, being named to the committee for the bill to settle the estates of Anthony Maria Browne^*, 2nd Viscount Montagu, another Catholic who walked out in protest at the oath. In May, Windsor was presented by the Commons as a recusant officeholder.41 ‘Hastings 1621’, p. 35; CSP Ven. 1623-5, p. 247; PA, HL/PO/JO/5/1/2, f. 60v; SO3/7, unfol. (22 Mar. 1624); LJ, iii. 254b, 394b.

In October 1624 Windsor again went abroad, this time to Italy, and as a result he missed the first Caroline Parliament. There is no evidence that he formally sought leave of absence, and he never appointed a proxy.42 Procs. 1625, p. 45. By June 1625 Windsor was in Venice, eagerly assessing the news from England about the change of regime, and seizing on reports that Charles I was ‘very gracious to Catholics’. He was already planning to return home, and reached Paris in late August, by which time he was less sanguine about the prospects for his co-religionists. In a letter to a priest at Rome, whom he had met earlier in the year, he now lamented the ‘baseness of Catho[lics] in England’, and explained that he needed to get back soon, as he believed that he possessed a strong claim to the contested earldom of Oxford, through his paternal grandmother. In the event, however, he did not to pursue the matter on his return.43 AAW, ms. B47, ff. 226-7.

With England now at war with Spain, Windsor found himself in a more hostile environment. In December the government ordered the confiscation of his private arsenal, and although these weapons were never returned to him he was subsequently charged for the cost of their maintenance. At about the same time, he was dismissed as a magistrate.44 CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 179; 1627-8, p. 315; APC, 1627-8, p. 44; Chamber Order Bk. of Worcester, 352-3. Windsor stayed away from both the 1626 Parliament and the coronation (one of only two Catholic barons to miss the latter event), being granted leave of absence on the grounds of ‘indisposition of body’.45 CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 560; SP16/20/8. Prior to this session, he was apparently approached by a fellow collector, the Catholic sympathizer Thomas Howard^*, 21st (or 14th) earl of Arundel, who hoped to obtain a Commons seat for one of his servants, John Cotes. In reality, Windsor possessed negligible influence over the boroughs closest to his homes, such as Droitwich in Worcestershire, and Chipping Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, and proved unable to help. He did, however, award his proxy for this Parliament to the earl.46 Add. 6297, f. 151v; Procs. 1626, iv. 12. When Arundel was imprisoned during this session, and the proxies which he held seemed likely to be reassigned, the Catholic antiquarian Edmund Bolton claimed that one of the barons concerned was offering to transfer his proxy to Buckingham; given their shared interests, Bolton may well have had Windsor in mind.47 SP16/529/9; Oxford DNB, vi. 481.

During the next two years Windsor endeavoured to cooperate with the government, contributing £200 towards the Forced Loan, for which he was appointed a commissioner in Worcestershire. As the county’s only resident peer, he was also called upon by the Privy Council in February 1628 to help raise funds towards the expedition being prepared to assist Denmark against Habsburg forces.48 E401/1913, unfol. (1 Feb. 1627); APC, 1627-8, p. 285. Nevertheless, he preferred to avoid attending the 1628-9 Parliament. For the first session he obtained a formal dispensation, and awarded his proxy to Edward Sackville^*, 4th earl of Dorset. However, there is no record of him requesting leave in the 1629 session, and on 9 Feb. he was noted as being absent without explanation.49 SO3/9, unfol. (11 Mar. 1628); Lords Procs. 1628, pp. 27, 87; LJ, iv. 25a. Despite this continuing aversion to Westminster, he passed the winter of 1628-9 in London, where he was reported by the lord mayor as a resident recusant.50 CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 409.

Windsor spent much of the following decade living in retirement. In 1631 he was persuaded to sign a petition to the Pope against the bishop of Chalcedon, titular head of the English Catholic community, during a power struggle between secular and regular clergy. However, he had formerly been well disposed towards the bishop, and is said to have regretted opposing him.51 Newsletters from the Caroline Ct., 1631-8 ed. M.C. Questier (Cam. Soc. 5th ser. xxvi), 78, 81; AAW, ms B47, f. 227. Windsor continued to receive occasional administrative duties, and although he was never restored to the Worcestershire bench, his closer involvement with several of the county’s towns in the late 1630s suggests that he was at least respected as a leading figure in local society. Nevertheless, at about this time both he and his wife felt obliged to obtain letters of protection from the king on account of their recusancy.52 CSP Dom. 1639-40, pp. 215, 611. Like most peers, Windsor was summoned in early 1639 to attend the king at York, in preparation for the First Bishops’ War. He eventually offered Charles £500 instead, but it is doubtful whether this money finally materialized, given that he aimed to raise the sum on credit.53 SO1/3, ff. 114v-15; CSP Dom. 1638-9, p. 511.

Windsor was licensed to stay away from Parliament, as usual, in April 1640. He did travel to York in September that year for the Great Council of Peers, an assembly which he could attend without taking the oath of allegiance, but apart from signing a letter addressed to the corporation of London, he left no trace on that body’s proceedings. Having thus fulfilled the obligations of his rank, he then reverted to type and obtained permission to absent himself from the Long Parliament.54 SO1/3, ff. 176, 197v; SP16/466/42, p. 37; Devon RO, 1700M/C/P/17.

Windsor drew up his will on 16 Nov. 1641, describing himself as ‘sick in body’. The principal beneficiary was his intended heir, his nephew Thomas Windsor alias Hickman^† (later 1st earl of Plymouth), to whom he left his lands, books, ancestral portraits, Parliament robes, and his pendant of the order of the Bath. He also specified monetary bequests in excess of £4,000 to other relatives, friends, servants and the poor, presumably an indication that he had finally overcome the financial problems of his youth.55 PROB 11/188, ff. 84v-6. Windsor died three weeks later, and was buried at Tardebigge. His barony fell into abeyance, but was restored at the Restoration to his nephew Thomas, as he had hoped.56 CP, xii. pt. 2, p. 800.