Lewis Wingfield

• Son of Sir John Wingfield and Elizabeth FitzLewis
• Lewys (Lewes, Ludovic) Wingfeld ixth sonne. Escheator of Norfolk 1492. Named as a co-executor of his mother’s will 1497. Comptroller [?of the Household] of the Bishop of Winchester 1513. Magistrate for Hampshire 1524. Co-executor of his brother Sir Richard’s will, 1525.
• Born: ABT 1469, Letheringham, Suffolk, England
• Died: 1525 / AFT 1526, Ireland

Wingfield Geneology from the Tudor Place

Married

• Married: Married: NN Daughter of MACWILLIAM
• Married: Margaret Noone, daughter of Henry Noone of Martlesham in Suffolk and Shelhanger in Norfolk.

Children with NN Daughter of MACWILLIAM

• 1. Richard WINGFIELD (Capt. of Portsmouth)

Children with Margaret NOON (dau. of Henry Noon) 1523, Southampton, Hampshire, England

• 2. Jane WINGFIELD
• 3. George WINGFIELD
• 4. Anne WINGFIELD
• 5. John WINGFIELD
• 6. Thomas WINGFIELD
• 7. Godfrey WINGFIELD
• 8. Robert WINGFIELD (Sir)

History

Sir Richard Wingfield KG
Born about 1469 in Letheringham, Suffolk, England

Ancestors

Son of John Wingfield KB and Elizabeth (FitzLewis) Wingfield Brother of Katherine Wingfield, John Wingfield, Lewis Wingfield and Elizabeth (Wingfield) Hall Husband of Katherine Woodville — married after 1495 (to 18 May 1497) [location unknown] Husband of Bridget (Wiltshire) Tyrwhitt — married before 1513 (to 22 Jul 1525) in Calais, Pas-de-Calais, France

Descendants

Father of Charles Wingfield, Margaret (Wingfield) Moyleward, Elizabeth Wingfield, Thomas Maria Wingfield, Cecilia (Wingfield) Maidenhead, Katherine Wingfield, Jacques Wingfield MP, Lawrence Wingfield, Jana (Wingfield) Wolrich and Mary Wingfield Died 22 Jul 1525 in Toledo, Spain

He was born at Letheringham, Suffolk, son of Sir John Wingfield and his wife Elizabeth FitzLewis. He was one of the major landowners in Huntingdonshire, and an influential courtier and diplomat in the early years of the Tudor dynasty of England. Lived at Kimbolton Castle.

Wingfield became a courtier during the reign of Henry VII of England. He married Catherine Woodville sometime after 1495. She was widow of both Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and Jasper Tudor, 1st Duke of Bedford. The marriage made him an uncle-by-marriage to Queen consort Elizabeth of York and her husband Henry VII.

He was made Lord Deputy of Calais in 1511. With Sir Edward Poynings and others, he was sent in 1512 to arrange a Holy League between Pope Julius II, the English king and other European sovereigns.

In 1514, Wingfield was sent to the Netherlands in order to attempt the arrangement of a marriage between Archduke Charles of Austria and Princess Mary Tudor, to secure a dynastic alliance between the Tudors and the rising Habsburgs. But Wingfield's mission failed, and Mary Tudor was married to Louis XII of France in 1514. Wingfield was also occupied in discharging his duties at Calais, but in 1519 he resigned his post there and returned to England.

In 1520, Wingfield was appointed ambassador to the court of Francois I of France. He is known to have helped in the arranging the meeting between Henry VIII of England and Francois at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He twice visited Emperor Carlos V in 1521 in an effort to convince him against declaring war on Francois I.

Henry VIII created him a Knight of the Garter in 1522. The future Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor was the only other Knight created during that year. Wingfield was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1524. For his services, Wingfield was granted lands throughout the Kingdom of England, notably Kimbolton Castle which was further expanded by him.

Ambassador to Spain. While on an errand to the Spanish court, Wingfield died at Toledo on 22 Jul 1525. He is buried at St John de Pois in that city.

Although no single-family predominated in Huntingdonshire, at least four of the knights Nicholas Harvey, William Lawrence, Tyrwhitt and Wingfield, were connected with Sir Richard Wingfield of Kimbolton, whose descendants later in the century were to share the representation with the Cromwells of Hinchingbrooke and the Tyrwhitt's of Leighton Bromswold.

Wingfield second wife, Bridget Wiltshire, was the daughter of Sir John Wiltshire of Stone Castle (b.1434 - d. Dec 1526) and Isabella Clothall. Sir John was comptroller of Calais under Henry VII. The date of her birth is listed in some accounts as 1477, but this seems too early in light of some of the birthdates of her children, which go as late as 1532.

A neighbour and close friend lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn, she became a member of Catalina of Aragon's household, sometime before 1520. As Lady Wingfield, she was at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520 and was invited to court by Anne Boleyn in 1530 when Anne was still only ' Lady Anne Rochford'.

By 1532, she had remarried and been widowed a second time. Her second husband was Sir Nicholas Harvey of Ickworth, a gentleman of the Privy Chamber and ambassador to Ghent. She may, however, have continued to call herself Lady Wingfield. By Harvey, Bridget had five children. She inherited Backenhoe from Harvey in 1532 and in 1534 passed it on to her third husband, Sir Robert Tyrwhitt of Leighton. Tyrwhitt was also friend of the Duke of Suffolk, no friend of Anne. Thomas Wyatt supposedly blamed the Duke for his arrest, so Lady Bridget's deathbed confession of Anne's "crimes" may have been details about her friendship with Thomas Wyatt from years before.

There is also a theory that Bridget may have been unhappy about Anne possibly scolding her about her relationship with Tyrwhitt, whom she married shortly after the death of her second husband. Since Harvey died in 1532, and there is no mention of Bridget in court records after Jan 1534, she married her third husband rather hastily after the death of the second. She died in childbirth. Supposedly, her deathbed utterances were condemnations of Anne's behaviour.

It was probably a spat between two women that got blown out of all proportion when Thomas Cromwell and his spies were looking for anything to pile on in their charges against Anne. In 1536 her name came up (as Lady Wingfield) when Anne Boleyn was charged with adultery. It was said that Bridget had made a deathbed confession concerning the Queen’s misconduct. This was apparently common gossip at the time. Exactly what she’s supposed to have confessed is unknown, as is the date of her death. She was still alive in Jan 1534.

Sources

• Royal Ancestry by D. Richardson Vol. III p. 517
• Royal Ancestry by Douglas Richardson Vol. V p. 20
• Visitation of Suffolk 1561 Page 80: Wingfield of Letherington
• The Visitation of Essex Page 582: Harvey, Hervey
• The Visitation of Huntingdonshire Page 112: Wingfield
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Wingfield, Sir Richard (b. in or before 1469, d. 1525) Mary L. Robertson

[[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wingfield,_Richard_%281469%3F-1525%2... https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wingfield,_Richard_(1469%3F-1525)_(D...)] Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 62

Wingfield, Richard (1469?-1525) by Isaac Saunders Leadam] Acknowledgements

   Entered from the Genealogy worksheets compiled by Ralph Pryor during his 40 years of research, travelling extensively in the military and in retirement. Entered by Greg Rose, Grandson.