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SIR FRANCIS ENGLEFIELD (c. 1520-1596)

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 455 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIR See also:FRANCIS See also:ENGLEFIELD (c. 1520-1596)  , See also:English See also:Roman See also:Catholic politician, See also:born probably about 1520, was the eldest son of See also:Sir See also:Thomas See also:Englefield of Englefield, See also:Berkshire, See also:justice of the See also:common pleas . His See also:mother was See also:Elizabeth, daughter of Sir See also:Robert Throckrnorton, one of the well-known Catholic See also:family of Coughton, See also:Warwickshire . See also:Francis, who succeeded his See also:father in 1537, was too See also:young to have taken any See also:part in the opposition to the abolition of the Roman See also:jurisdiction and See also:dissolution of the monasteries; and he acquiesced in these See also:measures to the extent of taking the See also:oath of royal supremacy, serving as See also:sheriff of Berkshire and See also:Oxfordshire in 1546–1547, and accepting in 1545 a See also:grant of the See also:manor of Tilehurst, which had belonged to See also:Reading See also:Abbey . He was even knighted at the See also:coronation of See also:Edward VI. in See also:February 1547 . But the progress of the See also:Reformation during that reign alienated him, and he attached his fortunes to the cause of the princess See also:Mary, whose service he entered before 1551 . In See also:August of that See also:year he was sent to the See also:Tower for permitting See also:Mass to be celebrated in Mary's See also:household . He was released in the following See also:March, and permitted to resume his duties in Mary's service . But in February 1553 he was again summoned before the privy See also:council, and may have been in confinement at the crisis of See also:July; perhaps he was only released on Mary's See also:triumph, for his name does not appear among those who exerted themselves on her behalf before the See also:middle of August . He was then sworn a member of the privy council like many others who owed their promotion to their See also:loyalty rather than to their See also:political abilities . Their See also:numbers swelled the privy council and sadly impaired its efficiency; but Mary resisted the various attempts to get rid of them because she liked staunch See also:friends, and regarded them as a salutary check upon the abler but less scrupulous members who had served Edward VI. as well as herself . Englefield sat as M.P. for Berkshire in all Mary's parliaments except that of See also:April 1554, but received no higher political See also:office than the lucrative mastership of the See also:court of wards . He was an ardent believer in persecution, was See also:present at See also:Hooper's trial, sought See also:Ascham's ruin, and naturally lost his office and his seat on the privy council at Elizabeth's See also:succession .

He retired to the See also:

continent before May 1559, and from that See also:time until his See also:death was an active participant in all schemes for the restoration of Roman Catholicism . At first his ideas took such comparatively mild forms as inducing the See also:pope to send a See also:legate to persuade Elizabeth to return to the See also:fold; but gradually they See also:grew more violent and treasonable, until Englefield became the See also:close confidant of See also:Cardinal See also:Allen, See also:Parsons and the " jesuited " Catholics, who advocated forcible intervention by See also:Spain and the succession of the infanta; in 1585 Englefield thought that Mary's succession, peaceful or other, would not be satisfactory unless it were owing to See also:Spanish support and she were dependent on See also:Philip . Englefield lived first at See also:Rome, then in the See also:Low Countries, and finally at See also:Valladolid . He was See also:blind for the last twenty years of his See also:life, and received a See also:pension of six See also:hundred crowns from Philip . He had been outlawed in 1564 and his estates sequestered, but they were not forfeited until 1585, when an See also:act of See also:attainder was passed against Englefield . Even then some legal difficulties stood in the way of their See also:appropriation by the See also:crown, for Engle-See also:field, obviously with an See also:eye to this contingency, had conditionally settled them on his See also:nephew Francis . The See also:long arguments on the point are given in See also:Coke's Reports, and a further act was passed in 1592 confirming the See also:forfeiture to the crown . The nephew, however, eventually recovered some of the family estates, and was created a See also:baronet in 1612 . His See also:uncle was alive in See also:September 1596, but apparently died at Valladolid about the end of that year . His See also:tomb there used to be shown to visitors as that of an eminent See also:man . See Dict. of Nat . Biog. xvii .

372-374; but additional See also:

light has been thrown on Englefield's career since the date of that See also:article by the publication of the Spanish and Venetian Calendars, the See also:Hatfield See also:MSS., the Acts of the Privy Council, and the Letters and Papers of See also:Henry VIII . (A . F .

End of Article: SIR FRANCIS ENGLEFIELD (c. 1520-1596)
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