William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele

Lord Saye.

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

Engraving of Lord Saye by Wenceslas Hollar, mid-seventeenth century.

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 14 April 1662.

His eldest son James (c. 1603–1674) succeeded him as 2nd viscount; other sons were the Roundhead 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.

Ancestry

References

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