Anthony Knyvett (1507–1554)

Sir Anthony Knyvett (circa 1507 – 1 March 1554) was an English courtier during the reign of King Henry VIII.

He was born in London, the son of Charles Knyvett, who was in the retinue of the Duke of Norfolk and John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, the Deputy of Calais. He was described as a gentleman usher of the privy chamber to Henry VIII, with Roger Ratcliffe, in the Eltham Ordinance of 1526.[1]

Knyvett was Lieutenant of the Tower of London and is mentioned in Foxe's Book of Martyrs for refusing to continue torturing the Protestant Anne Askew on the rack.[2] He was made Governor of Portsmouth in 1544 and oversaw the building of Southsea Castle in that year.[3] It is thought that he may have been involved in the fraud created by Elizabeth Crofts.[4]

In 1554, he joined Wyatt's Rebellion and was routed at the Battle of Hartley. He was executed at the Tower of London on 1 March 1554.[5]

References
  1. A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Government of the Royal Household (London, 1790), p. 154.
  2. Mason, J. (1848). Martyrologia; or, records of religious persecution. p. 226. Retrieved 1 October 2012. The Lieutenant of the Tower, whom they had threatened to report to the King because he would not rack her to their satisfaction, hastened away to the King before them, and begged His Grace's pardon for deficiency of obedience, pleading compassion towards a woman.
  3. Stephen Brooks and John McIlwain (editor), Southsea Castle, Pitkin Guides 1996, ISBN 0-85372-809-7 (pp.6-7)
  4. Daniel Hahn, ‘Crofts, Elizabeth (b. c.1535)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 7 Dec 2014
  5. Knevett Kinship Group - Sir Anthony Knyvett (c1507-1554) Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
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