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William Fiennes Saye and Sele

Saye and Sele, William Fiennes, 1st Viscount (1582-1662). Saye and Sele was a leading member of the radical, win-the-warfaction in the House of Lords during the 1640s. As early as the 1620s he was a critic of arbitrary government and illegal taxation. Saye refused to pay ship money, and declined the military oath imposed by Charles on the nobility at the outbreak of the Bishops' wars with Scotland. He backed both the self-denying ordinance of 1645, which excluded the aristocracy from the leadership of the parliamentary armies, and the creation of the New Model Army. Politically inactive after 1649, Saye devoted himself to religion.

 
 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Saye and Sele, William Fiennes, 1st
Viscount (fīnz, sā'ənsēl) , 1582–1662, English politician and promoter of colonization in America. He was a Puritan in religious sympathy and a leader in the House of Lords of the opposition to James I and Charles I. From 1630, Saye, with Robert Greville (2d Baron Brooke), John Pym, and others, entered into several colonization schemes. The first of these was on Providence Island (now Providencia, part of Colombia) in the Caribbean. The second was at Saybrook (named for the two lords), Conn., settled in 1635 on the basis of a deed obtained from the 2d earl of Warwick. John Winthrop the younger (1606–76) was their governor at Saybrook. In 1633 they bought a plantation at Cocheco (now Dover, N.H.). The lords planned to settle in New England, but their plan for establishing a hereditary aristocracy in the colonies met with disfavor in New England, and after a few years they lost interest in the settlements. In 1641 they sold the Dover establishment to Massachusetts, and three years later they sold Saybrook to Connecticut. Providence Island was taken by the Spanish in 1641. In the English civil war Saye remained in the parliamentary party and played a decisive role in securing the adoption of the Self-Denying Ordinance (1645). In the dispute between the army and Parliament in 1647 he supported the army. He did not, however, desire the abolition of the monarchy, and he was one of the parliamentary commissioners who negotiated with Charles at Newport in 1648. He retired from public life after the king's execution (1649).
 
Wikipedia: William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele

William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele (june 28, 1582April 14, 1662), was born at the family home of Broughton Castle near Banbury, in Oxfordshire. He was the only son of Richard Fiennes, 7th Baron Saye and Sele. He was descended from James Fiennes, Lord Saye and Sele, who was lord chamberlain and lord treasurer under Henry VI and who was beheaded by the rebels under Jack Cade on July 4 1450.

Early life

Fiennes, like many of his family, was educated at New College, Oxford. He was a descendant and heir of the sister of William of Wykeham, the college's founder. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Temple of Stowe, in 1600. He succeeded to his father's barony in 1613, and in parliament opposed the policy of James I, undergoing a brief imprisonment for objecting to a benevolence in 1622. He showed great animus towards Lord Bacon. In 1624, owing probably to his temporary friendship with the Duke of Buckingham, he was advanced to the rank of a viscount, but notwithstanding this he remained during the early parliaments of Charles I a champion of the popular cause, and was in Clarendon's words the oracle of those who were called Puritans in the worst sense, and steered all their counsels and designs.

During the personal rule of Charles I, his energies found a new outlet in helping to colonize Providence Island, and in interesting himself in other and similar enterprises in America. Saybrook in Connecticut is named after Viscount Saye and Lord Brooke. He was a thorough aristocrat, and his ideas for the government of colonies in America included the establishment of an hereditary aristocracy. Many leading puritans (including John Pym) who were members of the Providence Island Company met with Fiennes at Broughton Castle to coordinate their opposition to the King. On several occasions Saye outwitted the advisers of Charles I by his strict compliance with legal forms earning him the nickname "old subtlety".

Although Saye resisted the levy of ship money, he accompanied Charles on his march against the Scots in 1639; but, with only one other peer, he refused to take the oath binding him to fight for the king "to the utmost of my power and hazard of my life". Then Charles I sought to win his favour by making him a privy councillor and master of the court of wards.

Civil war and after

When the Civil War broke out, however, Saye was on the committee of safety, was made lord lieutenant of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Cheshire, and raised a regiment that occupied Oxford. He was a member of the committee of both kingdoms; was mainly responsible for passing the self-denying ordinance through the House of Lords; and in 1647 stood up for the army in its struggle with the parliament.

In 1648, both at the treaty of Newport and elsewhere, Saye was anxious that Charles should come to terms, and he retired into private life after the execution of the king, becoming a privy councilor again upon the restoration of Charles II. He died at Broughton Castle on April 14, 1662.

His eldest son James (c. 1603-1674) succeeded him as 2nd viscount; other sons were the parliamentarians Nathaniel Fiennes and John Fiennes. The viscounty of Saye and Sele became extinct in 1781, and the barony is now held by the descendants of John Twisleton (d. 1682) and his wife Elizabeth (d. 1674), a daughter of the 2nd viscount.


This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.


 
 

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British History. A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele" Read more

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