English Legal History and its Materials

Political Refugees' Property

I'd like this topic. - Becky

The most celebrated political refugee from the reign of Mary Tudor seems to have been Katherine Willoughby, the Duchess of Suffolk, who fled to Poland when Mary came to the throne. Worried that her lands would be confiscated, she transferred some of the to her lawyer, William Herenden, apparently on the understanding that he would eventually transfer them back to her. The Duchess returned to England when Elizabeth became queen, but, very oddly, Herenden did not transfer her lands back. The result was the case Bartie v Herenden, at pages 121-123 of Baker and Milsom (Bartie was Katherine's second husband).

The questions I'm thinking about now are:

1. Why was the Duchess worried that her lands would be confiscated? What power did Mary have to do that? 2. Why did the "use upon a use" structure work? From the Baker LQR note (attached in PDF), it seems that similar structures had been declared void. Furthermore, the second use in this case was a secret one. How could the Duchess have proved anything? 3. The Duchess of Suffolk was not the only political refugee to flee England. What sort of arrangements did the rest of them make? 4. If the facts reported in Bartie v Herenden are correct, what on earth was William Herenden thinking when he refused to transfer the land back to the Duchess? Surely he didn't think he could get away with it - once Elizabeth became queen, people like the Katherine Willoughby were very much in favor. It just seems completely insane to refuse to transfer the land back.

Also when I started looking at this I got a bit sidetracked by the personality of Katherine Willoughby herself - it sounds like she was pretty awesome. Very tulmultuous life though - her two sons died within hours of each other of "the sweating sickness" (whatever that is), then all the religious persecution. And her second marriage was to a commoner, which must have caused a few ripples at the time. So I've ended up attaching more resources about Katherine Willoughby herself than about her legal arrangements. More legal stuff to come though.

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Attachments Attachments

  Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
pdf 93LQR33-38(1977).pdf props, move 1086.1 K 12 Nov 2008 - 22:20 BeckyPrebble  
pdf ArteOfRhetorique.pdf props, move 2638.3 K 12 Nov 2008 - 22:23 BeckyPrebble  
pdf HairbreadthEscape.pdf props, move 1091.6 K 12 Nov 2008 - 22:21 BeckyPrebble  
pdf KatherineWilloughby.pdf props, move 2898.4 K 12 Nov 2008 - 22:22 BeckyPrebble  
pdf MaryTudorParliament.pdf props, move 1335.8 K 12 Nov 2008 - 22:22 BeckyPrebble  
r3 - 12 Nov 2008 - 22:57:06 - BeckyPrebble
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