Arthur Brett (courtier)

Arthur Brett (1595–1642) was an English courtier in the reign of James VI and I.[1]

Career

Brett was a son of William Brett of Hoby and Rotherby, Leicestershire, and his wife Anne Beaumont. Anne was the sister of Mary Beaumont, mother of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.[2] Some sources give his father's name as "James".[3]

Brett gained a place at court as a groom of the bedchamber. He was the brother-in-law of Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex. In 1622, it was rumoured he might become the King's favourite, displacing his own relative George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.[4] A Scottish courtier, Thomas Erskine, 1st Earl of Kellie, who was sceptical about the rumour and Brett's chance of success, relayed the story in his letters to the Earl of Mar:

There hes a rumore past heir of laite in the court ... bye sume men that his majestie shuld begin to love and favore one young man called Breate. He is a groome in his bed-challmer, and cowsen germane to my Lord of Bukkinghame. I think I maye sweare that it was nather in the King's mynd nor in the young mans conceate.[5]

Buckingham was displeased by this situation and Cranfield had Brett sent abroad.[6] In 1624, Cranfield faced charges for corruption as Lord High Treasurer and, according to John Chamberlain, his predicament was greater because of his attempt to set up a "new idol".[7]

Brett had returned from France in March 1624, without Buckingham's leave, which made things worse for Cranfield, especially after Brett tried to get the King's attention by catching his bridle in Waltham Forest.[8] The Venetian ambassador heard that James roughly thrust him away and wished that he was hanged.[9] Brett was sent for a time to the Fleet Prison.[10] Brett was questioned by the Attorney General Thomas Coventry and claimed that he had returned to England because he had run out of money.[11] He was released in September 1624.[12]

Brett was buried at Gloucester Cathedral in 1642, where there was an inscription "Here lieth the body of Arthur Brett , Esquire, groom of the bedchamber unto King James, who died July 2, 1642".[13]

References

  1. ^ W Done Bushell, "The Bretts of Rotherby", Journal of the Associated Architects Societies, 31:2 (1912), pp. 471–483.
  2. ^ Roger Lockyer, Buckingham (Longman, 1981), p. 73: The Visitation of the County of Leicester in the Year 1619 (London, 1870), p. 206.
  3. ^ Visitation of Gloucestershire, 1682–3 (Exeter, 1884), p. 25.
  4. ^ David M. Bergeron, King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire (University of Iowa, 1999), pp. 118–119.
  5. ^ Henry Paton, Historical Manuscripts Commission Supplementary Report Mar & Kellie (London, 1930), pp. 133, 140.
  6. ^ Henry Paton, Historical Manuscripts Commission Supplementary Report Mar & Kellie (London, 1930), pp. 151, 153.
  7. ^ David M. Bergeron, King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire (University of Iowa, 1999), p. 119: Menna Prestwich, Cranfield: politics and profits under the early Stuarts (Oxford: Clarendon, 1966), p. 428.
  8. ^ Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, 2 (Philadephia, 1939), p. 571.
  9. ^ Allen B. Hinds, Calendar of State Papers Venice (London, 1912), p. 401.
  10. ^ Henry Paton, Historical Manuscripts Commission Supplementary Report Mar & Kellie (London, 1930), pp. 197–199: Folkestone Williams & Henry Birch, Court and Times of James the First, 2 (London: Henry Colburn, 1849), p. 467.
  11. ^ Robert E. Ruigh, The Parliament of 1624: Politics and Foreign Policy (Harvard University, Press, 1971), p. 314.
  12. ^ John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 4 (London, 1828), pp. 984–985.
  13. ^ J. P. Ferris, "The Real Arthur Brett", Recusant History, 18 (1986), p. 37: John Le Neve, Monumenta Anglicana (London, 1719), p. 200 no. 386.
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