Anthony Knyvett (1507–1554) Explained

Anthony Knyvett (circa 1507  - 1 March 1554) was an English courtier during the reign of King Henry VIII.

He was born in London, the son of Charles Knyvett, who was in the retinue of the Duke of Norfolk and John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, the Deputy of Calais.

He was the son of Charles Knyvett by^[1] his wife Anne Lacy (d.1562), the daughter and heiress of Walter Lacy of London by his wife Lucy.^[2] His uncle, Sir Edward Knyvet in his will proved 10 December 1528 instructed his executors "to bring up young Antony Knyvet, my nephew son of my brother Charles Knyvet deceased".^[3]

It is thought that he may have been involved in the fraud created by Elizabeth Crofts.^[4]

In 1554, he joined Wyatt's Rebellion^{[5] [6]} and was routed at the Battle of Hartley. He was executed at the Tower of London on 1 March 1554.^[7]

Notes and References

1. Book: Little, Bob . A Perspective on Pendley: A History of Pendley Manor . 2014-07-10 . The Endless Bookcase Ltd . 978-1-908941-29-9 . en.
2. Book: Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011 . Douglas Richardson . 978-1-4610-4513-7 . 188 . en.
3. Book: Shakspeareana Genealogica . 1869 . Macmillan . 272 . en.
4. Daniel Hahn, ‘Crofts, Elizabeth (b. c.1535)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 7 Dec 2014
5. Web site: History of England (Froude)/Chapter 31 - Wikisource, the free online library . 2024-04-04 . en.wikisource.org . en . By eleven o'clock at night the river was crossed, and the march was resumed. The weather was still wild, the roads miry and heavy, and through the winter night the motley party plunged along. The Rochester men had, most of them, gone home, and those who remained were the London deserters, gentlemen who had com promised themselves too deeply to hope for pardon, or fanatics, who believed they were fighting the Lord's battle, and some of the Protestant clergy. Ponet, the late Bishop of Winchester, was with them; William Thomas, the late clerk of the council; Sir George Harper, Anthony Knyvet, Lord Cobham's sons, Pejham, who had been a spy of Northumberland's on the Continent, and others more or less conspicuous in the worst period of the late reign. [...] Jan. 26. On the 26th, Wyatt, being master of Rochester and the Medway, seized the Queen's ships that were in the river, took possession of their guns and ammunition, proclaimed Abergavenny, Southwell, and another gentleman traitors to the commonwealth,^[38] 38. 'You shall understand that Henry Lord of Abergavenny; Robert Southwell, knight, and George Clarke, gentleman, have most traitorously, to the disturbance of the commonwealth, stirred and raised up the Queen's most loving subjects of this realm, to [maintain the] most wicked and devilish enterprise of certain wicked and perverse councillors, to the utter confusion of this her Grace's realm, and the perpetual servitude of all her most loving subjects. In consideration whereof, we Sir Thos. Wyatt, knight, Sir George Harper, knight, Anthony Knyvet, esq., with all the faithful gentlemen of Kent, with the trusty commons of the same, do pronounce and declare the said Henry Lord of Abergavenny, Robert Southwell, and George Clarke to be traitors to God, the Crown, and the commonwealth.'—MS. Ibid..
6. Book: Froude, James Anthony . History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth . 2011-11-17 . Cambridge University Press . 978-1-108-03562-0 . en.
7. http://www.atu.com.au/~colin/knevett/a48.html Knevett Kinship Group - Sir Anthony Knyvett (c1507-1554)