Richard,Oliver, and Thomas

RICHARD, OLIVER AND THOMAS

by Cheryl Jane Munn

The Cromwells were related to the Munn line through Grandma Edna Andrews Munn. For example, we are related to Oliver Cromwell by my 1st cousin 13x removed. It varies based on how old you are.
The Cromwells were related to the Munn line through Grandma Edna Andrews Munn. For example, we are related to Oliver Cromwell by my 1st cousin 13x removed. It varies based on how old you are.
Oliver Cromwell is directly related to Thomas Cromwell. Thomas was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534-1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false charges for the execution.
Oliver Cromwell is descended from Thomas’ sister, Catherine. Her son Richard took the Cromwell name instead of Williams (Cathernine’s husband’s last name.) That is why Oliver has the Cromwell last name. Oliver was Thomas’ great-great-great- nephew.
Henry VIII believed that the Welsh should adopt surnames in the English style rather than taking their fathers’ names as Morgan and William, his male ancestors had done. Henry suggested to Sir Richard Williams, who was the first to use a surname in his family, that he adopt the surname of his Uncle Thomas Cromwell. For several generations, the Williamses added the surname of Cromwell to their own, styling themselves “Williams alias Cromwell” in legal documents.
Baron Henry Williams’ father Richard Williams changed his surname to “Cromwell” and was married to Frances Murfyn. He was also known as The Golden Knight. Sir Henry was the grandfather of Sir Oliver Cromwell (Lord Protector) and he also had a son John Cromwell and it was at this point in the Cromwell line that they moved to Malmesbury, England.

Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 to 3 September 1658) was a politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A leading advocate of the execution of Charles in January 1749, which led to the establishment of the Protectorate, he ruled as Lord Protector from 1653 to 1658.
Cromwelll has been variously described as a military dictator by Winston Churchill and a hero of liberty by John Milton, Thomas Carlyle and Samuel Rawson. Little exists of Cromwell’s religion in his early years. In 1631, likely as a result of a previous dispute, Cromwell sold most of his properties in Huntingdon and moved to a farmstead in nearby St. Ives. This move, a significant step down in society for Cromwell, also had a significant emotional and spiritual impact on Cromwell; an extant 1638 letter from him to his cousin, the wife of Oliver St. John, gives an account of his spiritual awakening at this time. Cromwell, describing himself as having been the “chief of sinners,” describes his calling as among “the congregation of the firstborn.”
Of interest in 1657: Cromwell was offered the crown by Parliament as part of a revised constitutional settlement, presenting him with a dilemma since he had been “instrumental” in abolishing the monarchy. Instead, Cromwell was ceremonially re-installed as Lord Protector in 1657 at Westminster Hall.
Thomas Cromwell, briefly Earl of Essex, was one of the most powerful proponents of the English Reformation, and the creator of true English governance. He became embroiled in Henry the VIII’s marriages and divorces eventually led to his beheading.
During his rise to power, Cromwell made many enemies, including Anne Boleyn, with his free ideas and lack of nobility. Being blamed by Henry VIII for his failure to make him content with a wife, Cromwell was arraigned under a bill of attainder and executed for treason and heresy on Tower Hill on 28 July 1540. Later the king expressed regret at the loss of his chief minister and his reign never recovered from the incident.
What intrigues me is the role of Cromwell in printing the first English Bible. “The Great Bible” was not known for its brilliance, but for its size. It was to be of a size to be read and consulted by every parishioner. Cromwell’s desire to see the Bible in English, available to everyone, cannot be denied, yet he saw no harm in turning a profit from it too. He invested in the printing and obtained a monopoly of the profits of the first five years of print runs. The book was to be the largest volume, printed on good quality paper and to cost 10 shillings.The parish priest and his flock were to share the purchase price between them. Whilst unlearned folk were not to dispute the content of the Bible, everyone was to be encouraged to read ‘the very lively word of God that every Christian person is bound to embrace, believe and follow’.

HOUSE OF PLANTAGENET

Our Daniell line enjoys this famous house through the Munn line. This Plantagenet home is in Leicester known as Nether Tabley. Leicester is often referred to in England.
Our ancestors Edmund Plantagenet, 1st Earl of Lancaster and Leicester (16 January 1245 – 5 June 1296) known as the epithet Crouchback [means “Crossback” refers to his participation in the Ninth Crusade indicating that he was entitled to wear a cross stitched into the back of his garments], Edmund of Lancaster was the second surviving son of King Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence. In his childhood he had a claim on the Kingdom of Sicily.

THE HEART OF ROBERT BRUCE

(Braveheart)
On his deathbed in 1329, Robert the Bruce asked that his heart should be carried into battle against the “Infidels” because he himself had not been able to go on a Crusade. (Removing internal organs after death was a common practice in those days). Bruce’s body was buried in Dunfermline Abbey and when it was exhumed in 1818 it was found that his ribs had been sawn through, indicating that his heart had indeed been taken from his body.
Sir James Douglas is said to have taken Bruce’s heart in a casket with him to Spain in 1330 but, in a battle against the Moors, Douglas was killed. Sir William Keith brought Bruce’s heart back to Scotland and it was buried in Melrose Abbey.
In 1921, during excavations beneath the Chapter House at Melrose Abbey, a conical leaden casket was discovered. It measured 10 inches high and was 4 inches in diameter at the base but tapering towards the top. It was pitted but otherwise in good condition.
Colonel George Logan of the Munn line, of the British Army, was a descendent of the oldest son of Robert Logan, 7th Baron of Restalrig in Mid Lothian, Scotland. The family of Logan traces from Sir Robert
Logan, who, with Sir James Douglas, attempted to carry the heart of Robert Bruce to the Holy Sepulcher. Bruce’s heart now rests in Melrose Abbey in Scotland, but for the gallant attempt, the Logan family was granted the right to annex the Bloody Heart to Its Coat of Arms.
Tradition asserts that a descendant, Col. George Logan, born in Aberdeen Scotland, came to Charles Town as an officer in the British Army, and decided to remain. He was one of the early settlers of Charles Town, and his house is marked on Crisp’s survey of the city made in 1704. His son, Capt. George Logan, married Miss Martha Daniell, daughter of Robert Daniell, Landgrave and Governor.
Sailing from Aberdeen, George Logan arrived in Charles Town in 1690 dying in 1715. He was appointed a member of the General Assembly. He was a Commissioner for adjusting and examining public accounts. He was also assistant Judge under Chief Judge and Chief Justice Trott.
Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce was King of Scots from 1306 to his death in 1329. One of the most renowned warriors of his generation, Robert eventually led Scotland during the First War of Scottish Independence against England. He found success during his reign to regain Scotland’s place as an independent kingdom and is now revered in Scotland as a national hero.
The casket was reburied but in 1996, it was removed again from beneath the Chapter House floor and examined once more. Historic Scotland said “It is not possible to prove absolutely that it is Bruce’s heart. But it is reasonable to assume that it is”.
On 22 June 1998 it was reburied at Melrose Abbey. On 24 June (the anniversary of Bruce’s victory at Bannockburn in 1314) the Scottish Secretary of State unveiled a plaque on the ground at the place where the heart now lies. The design for the stone slab was created by Victoria Oswald, a BBC sound engineer. The inscription on the stone, from Barbour’s “The Brus” reads “A noble hart may have nane ease, gif freedom failye” Translated, this reads “A noble heart cannot be at peace if freedom is lacking” It incorporates a carving of a heart entwined in the Saltire, the basis of Scotland’s national flag.
Heart casket “A noble heart cannot be at peace if freedom is lacking”

ANTHONY ANTONIO DE JERONIMO BASSANO

Musicians

Antonio Bassano FS# LVLY BT1. Some of the musicians in King Henry VIII’s court were found to be Bassanos, Comys and Lupos and were to found musical dynasties that definitively shaped the English style and dominated the king’s music. The Bassanos turned out wind instruments that, according to contemporary records, were “so beautiful and good they are suited for dignitaries and potentates.” Research assures that musicians like the Bassanos were Jews. Antonio Bassano was born 1511. He died 19 October 1574 in All Hallows, Barkin Parish, London, England.
Antonio was born in Bassano del Grappa, Italy. He was one of six sons of Jeronimo Bassano who moved from Venice to England to the household of Henry VIII to serve the court, probably in 1540. Of his ten children, the five sons Mark Anthony, Arthur, Edward, Andrea and Jeronimo all served as musicians to the court of Henry VIII, and a daughter Lucreece Bassano married Nicholas Lanier the Elder, grandfather of the artist-musician Nicholas Lanier.
An English resident in Venice identified four brothers thought to be among the best musicians in the city
and recruited them for the king – against the express wishes of the Venetian government, which refused to grant the Bassano brothers permits to leave the city.
The Bassanos, all wind players, were soon followed by a group of six string players, also from Venice. With first names like Alberto, Vincenzo and Antonio, and family names denominating towns in northern Italy – Bassano, Vicenza and Milan – there was nothing about them identifying them as Jews. But the musicians had one set of names they used in official business, and another set of names which were revealed only in private or at rare documented moments, such as the witnessing of wills.
Beyond the Jewish character of these names, the discovery of these “secret” names was significant for the evidence they provided of a Spanish, and in some cases Portuguese, origin of the musicians.
Of course the very fact that the Italian musicians had been active in Venice outside the Ghetto – as the Senate’s attempt to keep them in the city suggests – is evidence that they were Marranos who had settled in Venice, living outwardly as Christians.

Their official names, including several Johns and Baptists, confirm this. But the uncovering of the crypto-Jewish identity of the musicians, together with their Iberian roots, sheds light on an episode in Anglo-Jewish history which had long been a riddle.
“Toward the end of 1541, Henry VIII received information that some Portuguese nationals living in London were ‘secret Jews’.” Normally, so far as one can tell, he would have taken little notice of such an accusation. All his other actions suggest that, if anything, he tended to favor Jews rather than persecute them.
But the circumstances were exceptional. He was anxious at this time to ally himself more closely with the Emperor Charles V and this was one way of showing himself a true Catholic and a friend of Spain.
The Jewish musicians stayed at the Tudor court, shaping the nature of English music. The appointment of the original six string players from Venice, incidentally, marks the first use of the word “violin” in English, although the terms viol, violin and violon would continue to be used interchangeably to describe the different-sized string instruments of the court band. Its function was essentially as a dance
band, according to Boothby, and the rediscovery of some of the earlier viol music in Fretwork’s new program brought to the surface the original Italian dance rhythms. “It was a discovery to play some of these more obscure composers. It’s very clear, functional dance music,” says Boothby of the Pavanes, Courantes, Allemandes and other dances the Jewish musicians brought over to England.
It was Emilia Bassano, one of the daughters of those Bassanos wind players, who may have left the greatest mark of all on English culture as Shakespeare’s Dark Lady. The inspiration behind his central sonnets, the poet immortalized her beauty, wit and cruelty – but not her name.
Taken from “The Bassanos, Venetian Musicians and Instrument Makers in England, 1531 – 1665” by David Lasocki Roger Prior, published by Scholar Press.

NICHOLAS LANIER THE ELDER

Musicians

Nicholas Lanier the Elder originally came from Rouen, France. He was a court musician for King Henry II in France, Master of the King’s Music in the English court with Queen Elizabeth and James I, and married Antonio Bassano’s daughter from the Venetian courts in Venice, Italy.
Nicholas Lanier the Elder FS# 27S8 FZR. He had a wonderful reputation of being sober and honest. He served in the court of the late French king, Henry II having been engaged to serve as a messenger, and as a replacement for the one Peter Guillaume, one of queen of France’s flute players, lately dead.
The Laniers were Protestants who left France to escape the early persecutions. Protestantism began in 1555, and the height of the persecutions was reached in the massacre of St. Bartholomew on the eve of August 24, 1572. It was in 1560 that the conspiracy began. One part hoped to enrich themselves by the estates of the heretics who were executed or banished. The other party hoped to gain the favor of the masses by punishing the Protestants. The estates of those who fled were sold, their children who remained behind were exposed to the greatest sufferings. France lost thousands of useful and rich inhabitants whose industry, wealth, and skills found a welcome reception in foreign countries. To prevent the emigration of the Protestants, the frontiers were guarded with the utmost vigilance; yet more than 500,000 escaped to England, Holland, Switzerland, and Germany.
In 1561 the Earl of Hertford was visiting in Paris, and there met young Nicholas Lanier. He was recommended as a good flute, and also cornet player. During the Protestant persecutions in France, the Lanier family fled as Huguenots to England. His father and grandfather left France to escape persecutions as well. His aunt, Emilia Bassano, was the daughter of Venetian musicians at the Tudor court. Nicholas arrived in England in 1561 and settled in the parish of St. Olave’s, Hart Street, London.
After arrival in England he served in the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England, reported first in 1516. The name of Lanier’s first wife is unknown but following the custom then at court, marriages were
arranged or at least approved by the Queen. Lanier was paired with Lucretia Baptista Bassano, daughter of the Italian musician, Anthony Bassano. The couple prospered, acquiring a great deal of property in East Greenwich, Blackheath and nearby. Their home was reportedly fitted up with a theater.
Lanier was appointed Musician of the Flutes in 1604. Three generations of this remarkable family served British royalty as court musicians, poets and artists.
In 1626, Lanier became the first composer to hold the title Master of the King’s Music, an honour given a musician of great distinction.
He and Lucretia Bassano had nine children including the musicians. After Nicholas’ death in 1666, Andrea succeeded him as Musician of the Flutes for life.