Today we mark the death of Sir Anthony Kingston, who was the former Constable of the Tower.
He was the son of Sir William Kingston by one of Sir William’s first two wives. Sir William was the Constable who cared for Anne Boleyn, among other notable prisoners.
Sir Anthony served at the head of a thousand Gloucestershire men under the Duke of Norfolk in the suppression of the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536. He was knighted by Henry VIII on 18 October 1537. He held offices in the court, such as that of serjeant of the king’s hawks, and received land formerly belonging to the suppressed monasteries in Gloucestershire. He was appointed High Sheriff of Gloucestershire for 1533–34 and 1550–51.
Kingston was a member of Edward VI’s council for the marches of Wales. When Lady Jane Grey succeeded Edward, she sent orders to Kingston and Sir John St. Loe to levy forces and march towards Buckinghamshire, but her reign was over before they had time to obey.
Kingston was Knight Marshal in the parliament of 1555 and a supporter in it of the Protestant religion. It is said that he took the keys of the house away from the sergeant, with, it seems, the approval of the majority. But on 10 December, the day after parliament was dissolved, he was sent to the Tower of London on a charge of conspiring to put Elizabeth on the throne. He remained there till the 23rd. He submitted, asked pardon, and was discharged.
In the next year, 1556, however, Kingston was concerned in a plot to rob the exchequer in order to provide funds for the conspiracy devised by Sir Henry Dudley with the object of making Elizabeth queen and marrying her to Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon. Six Confederates were executed, but Kingston died, possibly by his own hand, on 14 April 1556 at Cirencester, or on his way from Devon to London to stand trial.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.
Suggested links:
Episode 167: Escapes from the Tower of London
Episode 011: The Pilgrimage of Grace
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.