John Eliot (statesman)
Encyclopedia
Sir John Eliot was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 statesman who was serially imprisoned in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

, where he eventually died, by King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

 for advocating the rights and privileges of Parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...

.

Family and early life

The son of Richard Eliot (1546 - 22 June 1609) and Bridget Carswell (c. 1542 - March 1617), he was born at Cuddenbeak, a farm on his father's Port Eliot
Port Eliot
Port Eliot in St Germans, Cornwall, is the seat of the Eliot family, whose current head is Peregrine Eliot, 10th Earl of St Germans. Port Eliot comprises a house with its own church which is the parish church of St Germans. An earlier church building was the cathedral for the whole of Cornwall...

 estate at St Germans in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

. He was baptised on 20 April at St Germans Church
St German's Priory
St German's Priory is a large Norman church in the village of St Germans in south-east Cornwall, in the United Kingdom.-History:According to a credible tradition the church here was founded by St Germanus himself ca. 430 AD. The first written record however is of Conan being made Bishop in the...

, immediately next to Port Eliot. The Eliot family were an old Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 family that had settled in Cornwall.

John Eliot was educated at Blundell's School
Blundell's School
Blundell's School is a co-educational day and boarding independent school located in the town of Tiverton in the county of Devon, England. The school was founded in 1604 by the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the time, and relocated to its present location on the...

, Tiverton, and matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...

, on 4 December 1607, and, leaving the university after three years, he studied law at one of the Inns of Court
Inns of Court
The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. All such barristers must belong to one such association. They have supervisory and disciplinary functions over their members. The Inns also provide libraries, dining facilities and professional...

. He also spent some months travelling in France, Spain and Italy, in company, for part of the time, with young George Villiers
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham KG was the favourite, claimed by some to be the lover, of King James I of England. Despite a very patchy political and military record, he remained at the height of royal favour for the first two years of the reign of Charles I, until he was assassinated...

, afterwards 1st Duke of Buckingham
Duke of Buckingham
The titles Marquess and Duke of Buckingham, referring to Buckingham, have been created several times in the peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. There have also been Earls of Buckingham.-1444 creation:...

.

Parliamentary career

Eliot was only twenty-two when he began his parliamentary career as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for St Germans
St Germans (UK Parliament constituency)
St Germans was a rotten borough in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the English and later British Parliament from 1562 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:...

 in the "Addled Parliament
Addled Parliament
The Addled Parliament was the second Parliament of England of the reign of James I of England , which sat between 5 April and 7 June 1614...

" of 1614. In May 1618, he was knighted, and next year through the patronage of Buckingham he obtained the appointment of Vice-Admiral of Devon
Vice-Admiral of Devon
This is a list of people who have been Vice-Admiral of Devon. Between 1603 and 1623, a separate command existed for North Devon.-Vice-Admirals of Devon:*George Basset 1558*John Courtenay 1558–1560 with*Robert Yeo 1558–1560*George Basset 1560...

, with large powers for the defence and control of the commerce of the county. It was not long before the characteristic energy with which he performed the duties in his office involved him in difficulties. After many attempts, in 1623, he succeeded by a clever but dangerous manoeuvre in entrapping the famous pirate John Nutt
John Nutt
This article is about John Nutt the English pirate. For John Nutt the 18th century English printer, see John Nutt .John Nutt was a 17th-century English pirate. He was one of the more notorious brigands of his time raiding the coast of southern Canada and western England for over three years...

, who had for years infested the southern coast, inflicting immense damage upon English commerce. However, the pirate, having a powerful protector at court in Sir George Calvert, the secretary of state, was pardoned; while the Vice-Admiral, upon charges which could not be substantiated, was flung into the Marshalsea
Marshalsea
The Marshalsea was a prison on the south bank of the River Thames in Southwark, now part of London. From the 14th century until it closed in 1842, it housed men under court martial for crimes at sea, including those accused of "unnatural crimes", political figures and intellectuals accused of...

 prison, and detained there nearly four months.
A few weeks after his release, Eliot was elected Member of Parliament for Newport
Newport (Cornwall) (UK Parliament constituency)
Newport was a rotten borough situated in Cornwall. It is now within the town of Launceston, which was itself also a parliamentary borough at the same period...

 (February 1624). On 27 February, he delivered his first speech, in which he at once revealed his great powers as an orator, demanding boldly that the liberties and privileges of Parliament, repudiated by James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

 in the former Parliament, should be secured. In the first Parliament of Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

, in 1625, he urged the enforcement of the laws against the Roman Catholics. Meanwhile he had continued the friend and supporter of Buckingham and greatly approved of the war with Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

.

Buckingham's incompetence, however, and the bad faith with which both he and the King continued to treat the parliament, alienated Eliot. Distrust of his former friend quickly grew in Eliot's mind to a certainty of his criminal ambition. Returned to the parliament of 1626 as Member for St Germans, Eliot found himself, in the absence of other leaders of the opposition whom the King had secured by nominating them sheriffs, the leader of the House. He immediately demanded an inquiry into the recent disaster at Cádiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....

. On 27 March, he made an open and daring attack upon Buckingham and his administration. He was not intimidated by the King's threatening intervention on 29 March, and persuaded the House to defer the actual grant of the subsidies and to present a remonstrance to the King, declaring its right to examine the conduct of ministers. On 8 May, he was one of the managers who carried Buckingham's impeachment to the Lords and, on 10 May, he delivered the charges against him, comparing him in the course of his speech to Sejanus
Sejanus
Lucius Aelius Seianus , commonly known as Sejanus, was an ambitious soldier, friend and confidant of the Roman Emperor Tiberius...

.

Next day, Eliot was sent to the Tower
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

. When the Commons declined to proceed with business as long as Eliot and Sir Dudley Digges
Dudley Digges
Sir Dudley Digges , of Chilham Castle, Kent , was a Member of Parliament, elected to the Parliament of 1614 and that of 1621, and also a "Virginia adventurer," an investor who ventured his capital in the Virginia Company of London...

 (who had been imprisoned with him) were in confinement, they were released, and Parliament was dissolved on 15 June. Eliot was immediately dismissed from his office of Vice-Admiral of Devon, and, in 1627, he was again imprisoned for refusing to pay a forced loan, but liberated shortly before the assembling of the Parliament of 1628, to which he was returned as Member for Cornwall. He joined in the resistance now organized to arbitrary taxation, was foremost in the promotion of the Petition of Right
Petition of right
In English law, a petition of right was a remedy available to subjects to recover property from the Crown.Before the Crown Proceedings Act 1947, the British Crown could not be sued in contract...

, continued his outspoken censure of Buckingham, and after the latter's assassination in August, led the attack, in the session of 1629, on the ritualists and Arminians
Arminianism
Arminianism is a school of soteriological thought within Protestant Christianity based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic followers, the Remonstrants...

.

In February the great question of the right of the King to levy tonnage and poundage
Tonnage and Poundage
Tonnage and Poundage were certain duties and taxes first levied in Edward II's reign on every tun of imported wine, which came mostly from Spain and Portugal, and on every pound weight of merchandise exported or imported. Traditionally tonnage and poundage was granted by Parliament to the king...

 came up for discussion. On the King ordering an adjournment of Parliament, the speaker, Sir John Finch
John Finch
John Finch, 1st Baron Finch was an English judge, and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1629. He was Speaker of the House of Commons.-Early life:...

, was held down in the chair by Denzil Holles and Benjamin Valentine
Benjamin Valentine
Benjamin Valentine , was an English parliamentarian.Valentine was probably a native of Cheshire. He was elected on 3 March 1627–1628 to represent the borough of St. Germans in the parliament of 1628–9. He was in the House of Commons on 2 March 1628–9 when Speaker Finch would have obeyed King...

 while Eliot's resolutions against illegal taxation and innovations in religion were read to the House. In consequence, Eliot, with eight other members, was imprisoned on 4 March in the Tower. He refused to answer in his examination, relying on his parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made related to one's duties as a legislator. It is common in countries whose constitutions are...

 and, on 29 October, was again sent to the Marshalsea. On 26 January, he appeared at the bar of the King's Bench, in front of Lord Chief Justice Sir Nicholas Hyde
Nicholas Hyde
Sir Nicholas Hyde was Lord Chief Justice of England.He was the son of Lawrence Hyde and Ann Sybill and the brother of Henry Hyde and Lawrence Hyde, who became attorney-general...

, with Holles and Valentine, to answer a charge of conspiracy to resist the King's order, and refusing to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the court (see R v. Eliot, Hollis and Valentine.) He was fined £2000 and ordered to be imprisoned during the King's pleasure and till he had made submission. This he steadfastly refused. While some of the prisoners appear to have had certain liberty allowed to them, Eliot's confinement in the Tower was made exceptionally severe. Charles's anger had always been directed chiefly against him, not only as his own political antagonist but also as the prosecutor and bitter enemy of Buckingham; "an outlawed man," he described him, "desperate in mind and fortune."

Death and burial

In the spring of 1632, he fell into a decline. In October he petitioned Charles for permission to go into the country, but leave could be obtained only at the price of submission and was finally refused. He died of consumption on 27 November 1632, and was buried at St Peter's Ad Vincula Church within the Tower.

When his son requested permission to move the body to St Germans, Charles refused, saying: "Let Sir John Eliot be buried in the church of that parish where he died." The suspicious manner of Eliot's death, as the result of the King's implacability and severe treatment, had more effect, probably, than any other single incident in embittering and precipitating the dispute between King and parliament. Eliot was a great orator, inspired by enthusiasm and high ideals, which he was able to communicate to his hearers by his eloquence, but he was inferior to John Pym
John Pym
John Pym was an English parliamentarian, leader of the Long Parliament and a prominent critic of James I and then Charles I.- Early life and education :...

 both as a party leader and as a statesman.

In 1668, the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

 reversed his conviction, restating the law in Strode's case
Strode's case
Strode's Case 3 Howell's State Trials 294 is one of the earliest and most important English cases dealing with parliamentary privilege.- Facts :...

, affirming that the conviction “...was an illegal judgment, and against the freedom and privilege of Parliament”.

Works

Eliot languished in prison for some time, during which he wrote several works:
  • Negotium posterorum, an account of the parliament in 1625;
  • The Monarchie of Man, a political treatise;
  • De jure majestatis, a Political Treatise of Government, which is in large part a summary of a work by Henning Arnisaeus
    Henning Arnisaeus
    Henning Arnisaeus was a German physician and moral philosopher. He is now known for his writings on political theory.-Life:...

    ;
  • An Apology for Socrates, his own defence.

Family

In 1611, Eliot married Radigund or Rhadagund, (c. 1595 - June 1628), daughter of Richard Gedie of Trebursye in Cornwall, by whom he had five sons and four daughters:
  1. John Eliot
    John Eliot (died 1685)
    John Eliot was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1640 and from 1660 to 1685..Eliot was the son of Sir John Eliot of Port Eliot. He was educated at Blundell's School in Tiverton and at Lincoln College, Oxford...

    (18 October 1612 - March 1685), who married Honora Norton
  2. Richard Eliot
    Richard Eliot
    Richard Eliot was the wayward second son of Sir John Eliot and Rhadigund Geddy .Richard went to the University of Oxford at his father's suggestion, but did not fare well with academic life. He became embroiled at Oxford in various difficulties, which are mentioned without further detail in his...

    (c. 1614 - unknown)
  3. Elizabeth Eliot (c. December 1616 - unknown), who married Nathaniel Fiennes
    Nathaniel Fiennes
    Nathaniel Fiennes was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1659...

  4. Edward Eliot (c. July 1618 - unknown), who married Anna Fortescue
  5. Bridget Eliot (c. April 1620 - unknown), who married Peter Fortescue
  6. Radigunda Eliot (c. October 1622 - unknown)
  7. Susanna Eliot (c. October 1624 - unknown), who married Edward Norton
  8. Thomas Eliot (c. September 1626 - unknown)
  9. Nicholas Eliot (c. June 1628 - unknown), who married a Miss Prideaux


Peregrine Nicholas Eliot, 10th Earl of St Germans
Peregrine Eliot, 10th Earl of St Germans
Peregrine Nicholas Eliot, 10th Earl of St Germans was born on 2 January 1941 to Nicholas Richard Michael Eliot, 9th Earl of St Germans and his wife Helen Mary née Villers ....

, (b. 1941) is descended from the youngest son, Nicholas.
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