Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven

From Darryl Lundy's Peerage page on Mervyn Tuchet:

http://www.thepeerage.com/p4754.htm#i47539

Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven [1]

• M, #47539,
• b. circa 1593,
• d. 14 May 1631
• Last Edited=10 Dec 2010

Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven was born circa 1593.[1] He was the son of George Tuchet, 1st Earl of Castlehaven and Lucy Mervyn.[1]

He married, firstly, Elizabeth Barnham, daughter of Benedict Barnham and Dorothy Smith, before 1619.[1]

He married, secondly, Lady Anne Stanley, daughter of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby and Alice Spencer, on 22 July 1624 at Harefield, London, England.[1]

He died on 14 May 1631 at Tower Hill, The City, London, England, beheaded.[1]

• He was invested as a Knight on 30 March 1608.[1]
• He succeeded to the title of 2nd Earl of Castlehaven, co. Cork [I., 1616] on 20 February 1616/17.[1] He succeeded to the title of 2nd Baron Audley of Orier, co. Armagh [I., 1616] on 20 February 1616/17.[1] He succeeded to the title of 12th Lord Audley, of Heleigh [E., 1313] on 20 February 1616/17, by writ.[1]
• On 14 May 1631 he was found guilty of unnatural acts with his page, and with assisting another to rape his wife, and was attainted. His English title was forfeited.[1[

Children of Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven and Elizabeth Barnham

• 1. Lady Frances Tuchet+[2]
• 2. Mervyn Tuchet, 4th Earl of Castlehaven+[3] d. 2 Nov 1686
• 3. George Tuchet [3]
• 4. Lady Lucy Tuchet+[4]
• 5. James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven [5] b. c 1617, d. 11 Oct 1684

Citations

• 1. [S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume III, page 86. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
• 2. [S15] George Edward Cokayne, editor, The Complete Baronetage, 5 volumes (no date (c. 1900); reprint, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1983), volume I, page 249. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Baronetage.
• 3. [S6] Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume III, page 88.
• 4. [S47] Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, editor, Burke's Irish Family Records (London, U.K.: Burkes Peerage Ltd, 1976), O'Grady, page 913. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Irish Family Records.
• 5. [S6] Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume III, page 87.

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From history timeline compiled by Ben M. Angel:

May 5 (April 25 Julian Calendar, Monday), 1631: At Westminster Hall, Irish Lord Audley, Melvin Truchet, second Earl of Castlehaven (age 38, imprisoned for six months on charges), is tried on two counts of “buggery” and one count of rape. Having selected 27 peers as jury and Lord Thomas, first Baron Coventry and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England (age 53), as Lord High Steward two weeks earlier, the trial involves Lord Audley having a sexual relationship with his footmen (Laurence Fitzpatrick and Giles Browning), and forcing his wife of seven years, Anne Stanley, Countess of Castlehaven (age 51, at one time considered heir to Queen Elizabeth), to also have sex with his footmen against her will. The accused, who pleads not guilty, is denied council by the Lord Steward.

The difference between rape and “ravishment” is discussed, wherein if the woman was “not chaste, but a whore,” the charge could be dropped. The Lord Steward responds that if there was no consent, even a prostitute could implement charges of rape, and since the Lady was held against her will by Lord Audley (who, in an unhappy marriage, felt that since he were her husband, he could do so with impunity) and taken by his footmen (after which she attempted to kill herself over the shame of the incident), the case is clearly rape.

The accused claimed the witnesses (his footmen, his wife, and his son, James Tuchet, age 21) are in a conspiracy to obtain his lands. (“And he willed the Lords to consider that it might be their own cases, or the case of any gentleman or man of worth that kept a footman, or whose wife was weary of him, or whose son being attained to age had a mind to draw his servants into a conspiracy.”)

After being found guilty (26-1 on the case of rape, and 15-11 on the cases of “buggery”), Lord Audley says he has no more to say, but refers himself to “God’s and the King’s mercy.” Lord Coventry passes sentence: “To be hanged by the neck until thou be dead, and the Lord have mercy on thy soul.” Lord Audley asks to be banished instead, rather than executed, to “give him time of repentance.” This is denied.

May 24 (May 14 Julian Calendar, Saturday), 1631: Mervin Tuchet, Lord Audley, second Earl of Castlehaven, is accompanied by the recently elected Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral Dr. Thomas Winniffe and Dr. Wickham to Tower Hill. Approaching the scaffold for the crimes of raping his wife Anne Stanley, Countess of Castlehaven, and committing “buggery” with his two footmen, Laurence Fitzpatrick and Giles Browning (both of whom will soon stand trial for the same crimes), he is said to seem cheerful. In his last speech, he denies the crimes he has been convicted of “upon my death, freely forgiving those that accused me, and have been the occasion of my death, even as freely as I myself do desire forgiveness at God’s hands.”

He finally shows fear as the executioner approaches him (somehow, the method of execution was changed from hanging to beheading), but bravely cooperates in his death; he is beheaded at age 38 in one blow, and is survived by three sons (James Tuchet, third Earl of Castlehaven – age 21, Mervin Tuchet, future fourth Earl of Castlehaven, and George Tuchet), three daughters (Lady Frances Tuchet – age 14, Lady Lucy Tuchet, and Lady Dorothy Tuchet), two stepsons (George Brydges, sixth Baron Chandos – age 11, and William Brydges, future seventh Baron Chandos – age 10), and two stepdaughters (Anne Brydges – age 19, and Elizabeth Brydges – age 12, who later marries her stepbrother James).

Sometime before 1608 (records of the marriage are lacking), Lord Audley married Elizabeth Barnham. Elizabeth was a sister-in-law of the philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon. Together, they had six children. By all accounts the marriage was a loving and successful one, ending with her death in 1622. His second marriage, on 22 July 1624, at Harefield, Middlesex, was to the former Lady Anne Stanley (1580–1647), elder daughter and co-heiress of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby (by his wife, Alice Spencer), and widow of Grey Brydges, 5th Baron Chandos. They had a daughter, Anne Touchet, who died young. Lady Anne was significantly older than Castlehaven, and the marriage was not a success. in 1628, Lord Castlehaven's son was married to her thirteen-year-old daughter, Elizabeth; a marriage of step-children.

In 1630, Castlehaven was publicly accused of raping his wife (Lady Anne Stanley) and committing sodomy with two of his servants. Castlehaven's son, James, claimed that it was the extent of Castlehaven's "uxoriousness" toward his male favourites which led to his initial lodging of a complaint.

At a trial by his peers, it was stated that one such favourite, Henry Skipwith, had arrived at Fonthill Gifford in 1621 and that within a few years he was so close to Castlehaven that he sat at the family's table and was to be addressed as "Mister Skipwith" by the servants. Several years later, Giles Broadway arrived at the house and received similar treatment. It was not long before Castlehaven was providing Skipwith with an annual pension, and he was accused of attempting to have Skipwith inseminate his daughter-in-law, to produce an heir from Skipwith instead of his son. In fact, the countess[who?] and Skipwith had an adulterous relationship.

Charges were brought against Castlehaven on the complaint of his eldest son and heir, who feared disinheritance, and were heard by the Privy Council under the direction of Thomas Coventry, Lord High Steward. Lady Castlehaven gave evidence of a household which she said was infested with debauchery, and the Attorney-General acting for the prosecution explained to the court that Castlehaven had become ill because "he believed not God", an impiety which made Castlehaven unsafe. However, he insisted he was not guilty and that his wife and son had conspired together in an attempt to commit judicial murder. All witnesses against Castlehaven would gain materially by his death (as the defendant put it: "It is my estate, my Lords, that does accuse me this day, and nothing else")[5] and "News writers throughout England and as far away as Massachusetts Bay speculated about the outcome."

Castlehaven maintained his innocence, and the trial aroused considerable public debate, After some deliberation, the Privy Council returned a unanimous verdict of guilty on the charge of rape. The sodomy charge was also upheld, but by a slim margin as not all jurors agreed that actual penetration had taken place.[6] The case remains of interest to some as an early trial concerning male homosexuality, but ultimately its greatest influence proved to be as a precedent in spousal rights, as it became the leading case establishing an injured wife's right to testify against her husband.

Castlehaven was convicted, attainted, and three weeks later beheaded on Tower Hill for his sexual crimes: namely the "unnatural crime" of sodomy, committed with his page Laurence (or Florence) FitzPatrick, who confessed to the crime and was executed; and assisting Giles Browning (alias Broadway), who was also executed, in the rape of his wife Anne, Countess of Castlehaven, in which Lord Castlehaven was found to have participated by restraining her.

The page who was executed, Laurence FitzPatrick, testified that Lady Castlehaven "was the wickedest woman in the world, and had more to answer for than any woman that lived". In The Complete Peerage, Cokayne adds that the death of Castlehaven was certainly brought about by his wife's manipulations and that her undoubted adultery with one Ampthill and with Henry Skipwith renders her motives suspicious. According to the historian Cynthia B. Herrup,[8] Anne was the equal of Lord Castlehaven in immorality.

Under the terms of the attainder, Castlehaven forfeited his English barony of Audley, created for heirs general, but retained his Irish earldom and barony since it was an entailed honour protected by the statute De Donis. When he was beheaded on Tower Hill on 14 May 1631, those Irish titles passed to his son James.