Peter Edgecumbe (died 1539)

Sir Peter (or Piers) Edgecumbe (1468/69 – 1539) of Cotehele, Cornwall was an English courtier, sheriff and Member of Parliament.[1]

Peter Edgecumbe
Arms of Edgcumbe: Gules, on a bend ermines cotised or three boar's heads couped argent
High Sheriff of Cornwall
In office
1498–1499
1505–1506
1516–1517
1534–1535
High Sheriff of Devon
In office
1494–1495
1497–1498
1518–1519
1529–1530
Member of Parliament of England
In office
1515
1529
Personal details
Born1468/1469
Died1539 (1540) (aged 69-71)
Spouse(s)Jane Dernford
Katherine St John
Children3, including Richard
Parent
Cotehele

Biography

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He was born the son of Richard Edgecumbe of Meavy, Devon and Cotehele and admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1488. He succeeded his father in 1489.[citation needed]

He was an esquire of the body by 1489 and created a Knight of the Bath by 1504. He succeeded his father as constable of Launceston Castle from 1489 to his own death. He was pricked High Sheriff of Devon for 1494–95, 1497–98, 1518–19 and 1529–30 and High Sheriff of Cornwall for 1498–99, 1505–06, 1516–17 and 1534–35. He was knight of the shire for Cornwall in the Parliament of England in 1515 and 1529.[citation needed]

In 1497, he enlisted the men of Devon and Cornwall to suppress Perkin Warbeck's rebellion and was involved in the relief of Exeter.[2] In 1513 he accompanied Henry VIII to France where, in recognition of his bravery, he was made knight banneret. In 1520 he was present with Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.[citation needed]

He died in 1539, having married twice. His first marriage was with Jane, the daughter and heiress of James Dernford of West Stonehouse and widow of Charles Dynham of Nutwell, Devon, with whom he had 3 sons, including his heir Richard Edgecumbe and 4 daughters.[citation needed]

He married secondly by 1525[citation needed], Katherine, the daughter of Sir John St John of Bletsoe, Bedfordshire and the widow of Sir Griffith ap Rhys of Carmarthen. She was a lady in waiting to Anne of Cleves in 1540.[3] The diplomat Ralph Sadler admired Catherine's gravity, and in July 1543 advised Henry VIII to send her to Scotland to join the household of Mary, Queen of Scots at Stirling Castle, under a provision of the Treaty of Greenwich. This plan was cancelled by the War of the Rough Wooing.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "EDGECOMBE, Sir Peter (1468/69-1539), of West Stonehouse and Cotehele, Cornw". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  2. ^ Henry Ellis, Original Letters, Series 1 vol. 1 (London, 1824) p. 34.
  3. ^ George W. Bernard, The King's Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church (Yale, 2005), p. 549.
  4. ^ Arthur Clifford, Sadler State Papers (Edinburgh, 1809), p. 230, as Lady Edongcomb