Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/337

 created a baronet on 1 Sept. 1642. The baronetcy is still held by a descendant.

(d. 1558), a younger brother of Sir George and Nicholas's uncle, arranged in 1537 to enter the service of Cardinal Pole at Rome, with a view to acting as a spy on him in the interest of the English government; but Michael deceived Cromwell, and became the loyal and affectionate secretary of the cardinal. For a time he wrote home to the English government letters favourable to Pole without exciting suspicions of his duplicity. He is credited with the authorship of a volume entitled ‘A copye of a very fyne and wytty letter sent from the ryght reuerende Lewes Lippomanus, byshop of Verona in Italy,’ London, 1556, 8vo. Michael Throckmorton, who received a grant of Haseley in Warwickshire from Queen Mary in 1553, finally took up his residence at Mantua, where he died on 1 Nov. 1558 (cf. Letters and Papers of Henry VIII; Nine Historical Letters of the Reign of Henry VIII, by J. P. C[ollier], 1871; Cal. State Papers, 1547–80, pp. 67, 75–6). His son Francis was long known at Mantua by his hospitable entertainment of English visitors; he was buried at Ullenhall, Warwickshire, in 1617.

Nicholas was chiefly brought up by his mother's brother-in-law, Lord Parr. In youth he served as page to the Duke of Richmond, and probably went to Paris with his master in 1532. With two brothers he joined the household of his family connection, Catherine Parr, soon after her marriage to Henry VIII in July 1543. Unlike other members of his family, he accepted the reformed faith of his mistress, and remained a sturdy protestant till his death. He and two brothers were present as sympathising spectators at the execution of Anne Askew, the protestant martyr, in 1546 (Narratives of the Reformation, Camden Soc. pp. 41–2).

Throckmorton entered public life as M.P. for Malden in 1545, and sat in the House of Commons almost continuously till 1567. The accession of Edward VI was favourable to his fortunes. With the king's religious sentiment he was in thorough sympathy, and Edward liked him personally. He accompanied the army of the Protector Somerset to Scotland in August 1547, and, after engaging in the battle of Musselburgh, was sent to bear the tidings of victory to Edward. The king received him with the utmost cordiality and knighted him. He was subsequently appointed a knight of the king's privy chamber and treasurer of the mint in the Tower (Acts of Privy Council, iv. 76, 77, 84). He also received a grant of an annuity of 100l., which he resigned in 1551 in exchange for the manor of Paulerspury in Northamptonshire and other land in adjoining counties. He was present at the unfortunate siege of Boulogne in 1549–1550, and later in 1550 attended to give evidence at Gardiner's trial. He represented Devizes in the House of Commons from 1547 to 1552, and sat for Northamptonshire in Edward's last parliament in March 1553.

Throckmorton's signature was appended to the letters patent of 7 June 1553 which limited the succession of the crown to Lady Jane Grey and her descendants (Chronicle of Queen Jane, p. 100). Immediately after Edward's death and Lady Jane's accession, Throckmorton's wife acted by way of deputy for Lady Jane as godmother of a son of Edward Underhill, the ‘Hot-Gospeller,’ at his christening in the Tower of London (19 July 1553); the boy was named Guilford after Lady Jane's husband (Narratives of the Reformation, p. 153). On the same day Mary was generally proclaimed queen. Throckmorton is reported to have been at the moment at Northampton, and when Sir Thomas Tresham formally declared for Mary there, he is said to have made a protest in Lady Jane's favour, which exposed him to personal risk at the townspeople's hands (Chron. of Queen Jane, p. 12). But Throckmorton's devotion to Lady Jane was more specious than real, and he had no intention of forfeiting the goodwill of her rival Mary. He was credited by his friends with having taken a step of the first importance to Mary's welfare on the very day of Edward VI's death by sending her London goldsmith to her at Hoddesdon to apprise her of the loss of her brother, and to warn her of the danger that threatened her if she fell into the clutches of the Duke of Northumberland (Legend of Throckmorton, vv. 111 et seq.; cf. Life and Times, i. 117). On Mary's arrival in London she showed no resentment at Throckmorton's dalliance with Lady Jane's pretensions, and he sat as member for Old Sarum in her first parliament of October–December 1553.

But early next year Throckmorton's loyalty was seriously suspected. On 20 Feb. 1553–4 he was sent to the Tower on a charge of complicity in Wyatt's conspiracy. On 17 April 1554 he was tried at the Guildhall. Although he had not taken up arms, the evidence against him was strong. One of Wyatt's lieutenants, Cuthbert Vaughan, swore that he had discussed the plan of the insurrection with Throckmorton. Throckmorton admitted that he had talked to Sir Peter Carew and Wyatt of the probability