Anne CALTHORPE

(C. Sussex)

Born: ABT 1505, Hepworth, Suffolk, England

Died: BET 28 Mar 1582 / 22 Aug 1579

Father: Phillip CALTHORPE (Sir Knight)

Mother: Jane BLENNERHASSETT

Married: Henry RADCLIFFE (2° E. Sussex) BEF 21 Nov 1538 Divorce 1555

Children:

1. Egremont RADCLIFFE

2. Frances RADCLIFFE

3. Maud RADCLIFFE

Married 2: Andrew WYSE BEF 23 Jun 1559

Children:

4. Elizabeth WYSE (bap. 2 Jan 1559, St.Gregory's, London) (m. Alexander Fitton 31 Oct 1578)

5. Anthony WYSE


Daughter of Sir Phillip Calthorpe and Jane Blennerhassett. She married, at some point BEF 21 Nov 1538, Henry Radcliffe, second Earl of Sussex.

Anne was at court when Catherine Parr was queen and shared her evangelical beliefs. Along with other ladies at court, she was implicated in the heresy of Anne Askew. In 1549 she was examined by a commission "for errors in scripture". She separated from her husband between May 1547 and Jun 1549. Barbara J. Harris, in a footnote to her essay "Aristocratic Women in Early Tudor England," says that he threw her out of the house after Thomas Wriothesley, E. of Southampton, accused her of adultery. She was said to have entered into a bigamous marriage with Sir Edmund Knyvett of Buckenham Castle (b. 1508 - d. 1551). According to a letter from Anne to her mother, Radcliffe evicted her without money, men, women, or meat and "no more than two gowns of velvet". In Sep 1552, she was arrested for dabbling in treasonous prophecies and spent five and a half months in the Tower of London. The Privy Council imprisoned two men, Hartlepoole and Clarke, for "lewd prophesies and other slanderous matters touching the king and the council". Hartlepoole's wife and the Countess of Sussex were jailed as "a lesson to beware of sorcery". According to a letter from the Duke of Northumberland, Anne had also treasonously claimed that one of Edward IV's sons was still alive.

Within eighteen months of Mary Tudor's accession to the throne, Anne fled abroad, probably to avoid persecution for her religious beliefs. Meanwhile, in Nov 1553, a bill was introduced in Parliament against "the adulterous living of the late countess of Sussex". It did not pass. In 1554, Sussex attempted to bastardize her children with a bill in Parliament but this also failed. In 1555, an act was passed barring the Countess from enjoying her dower and jointure rights, but this was because she'd left the country without permission, not because she'd been found guilty of adultery. Sussex's attempt to bastardize the children through an act of Parliament was apparently abandoned, but he may have continued ecclesiastical proceedings. He refers to Anne in his will as his "divorced wife". According to Sussex, she was “unnatural and unkind”.

Anne returned to England at some point before Dec 1556 when, motivated by a desire to help Princess Elizabeth escape a forced marriage to the Catholic Duke of Savoy, she twice met with the French Ambassador in England, in disguise, to broach the subject of spiriting Elizabeth away to France. When he discouraged the idea, Anne went to France herself, taking with her three of her ladies and three servants, to study the situation there in person.

When she returned to England in Apr 1557, after her estranged husband's death, she was imprisoned in the Fleet and questioned about her activities. In 1558, there was yet another bill in Parliament concerning the Countess of Sussex, this one to settle the matter of her jointure. By 1559, Anne had married Andrew Wyse (d. BEF 26 Jan 1568), a former royal official in Ireland who was in prison at the time. They had two children, Elizabeth (baptized 2 Jan 1559 in London), who married Alexander Fitton on 31 Oct 1578, and Anthony. Andrew Wyse returned to Ireland with his family in 1564. Apparently survived him by more than a decade.
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