Sir Edward Littleton (ca. 15551610) was a Staffordshire landowner, politician and rebel from the extended Littleton/Lyttelton family. A supporter of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, he was the victim of a notorious electoral fraud in 1597 and a participant in the Essex Rebellion, although he escaped with his life. In the reign of James I he was elected a member of the parliament of England.

Background

Littleton's father was Edward Littleton (died 1574) of Pillaton Hall, near Penkridge. His mother was Alice Cockayne (1535–1602), the daughter of Francis Cockayne of Ashbourne Hall, Derbyshire.

The Littletons had been based at Pillaton since the early years of the century. Littleton's grandfather, Sir Edward Littleton, had skilfully and aggressively expanded the estates of his family during the turbulent years of the English Reformation and had represented Staffordshire in five parliaments. His father had consolidated the family's holdings but had been content mainly to live the life of a country gentleman.

Landowner

Littleton succeeded to the family estates in 1574, on the death of his father. He had married Margaret Devereux only recently, the marriage settlement dated 23 March 1573.The History of Parliament: Members 1604–1629 – LITTLETON, Sir Edward I (c.1548–1610) (Author: Ben Coates) Littleton inherited 16,000 acres in the Penkridge area and another 600 elsewhere in Staffordshire, 1,400 acres in Warwickshire, 900 acres in Shropshire and 940 acres in Worcestershire. His mother survived until 1602 and her jointure, a third of the estate, was, he later claimed, a major drain on his wealth, as was the property held in tail by his siblings.Cecil Papers, 1–15 June 1601 His mother's jointure was certainly large: it included all of the Warwickshire and Shropshire estates, as well as lands in Staffordshire. However, the death of his father-in-law, Sir William Devereux, in 1579 probably eased matters considerably, as Devereux left considerable legacies to his daughters.The History of Parliament: Members 1558–1603 – Devereux, Sir william (c.1525–79) (Author: W.J.J.) Certainly Littleton was sufficiently prominent and wealthy to serve two terms as High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1581 and 1593. His subsidy assessment rose from only £5 in 1576 to £20 in 1590 and he could afford to settle an allowance of £100 on his eldest son, also Edward, at his marriage in 1599. By any standards, he was actually a large and wealthy landowner, of considerable regional importance.

Whatever the calls on his wealth, Littleton was able to find the money to make strategic investments when the opportunity arose. One of the most important sources of the Littletons' wealth were the leases they held, particularly that on the lands of the former college of St. Michael, Penkridge. Littleton's grandfather had taken out an 80-year lease on the lands of the deanery in 1543 – four years before the collegiate church was turned into a local parish church by the dissolution of chantries in 1547. The reversion was held briefly by John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland during his period of power in the reign of Edward VI, but it returned to the Crown after his execution under Mary I in 1553. In 1581 the college, "with all its rights, members, lands, tithes, and appurtenances" was sold by the Crown to a pair of speculators: Edmund Downynge, a former MP with close Exchequer links,The History of Parliament: Members 1558–1603 – Downing, Edmund (Author: P. W. Hasler) and Peter Aysheton. The sale of reversions and monopolies were essential forms of patronage exercised by the Crown in Elizabeth's reign, giving the government a stream of revenue outside parliamentary control. In 1583 the estate was sold to John Morley, another MP involved in the Exchequer,The History of Parliament: Members 1558–1603 – Morley, John I (d.1587) (Author: W.J.J.) and a Thomas Crompton – probably the Thomas Crompton (died 1608) who was a London businessman and academic and had family land at Stafford.The History of Parliament: Members 1558–1603 – Crompton, Thomas I (c.1558–1609) (Author: P. W. Hasler) In 1585 Edward Littleton was able to buy the college property from John Morley, Elizabeth his wife, and Thomas Crompton. This land, described as the liberty of the deanery in 1598 and later as the deanery manor, was part of the Littleton estates until at least the 19th century. With it came many of the rights and duties of the college itself, including the jurisdiction of the royal peculiar. This gave the Littletons advowson of the church and kept the parish out of the Diocese of Lichfield until 1858.Victoria County History: Staffordshire: Volume 3, 34: The College of St. Michael, Penkridge.

Many of the Littleton's estates were still held by feudal land tenure. The fundamental bond of feudal society, the fief in return for military service, was obsolete, but the Littletons still paid 16 shillings a year to their overlord, Baron Paget, for Pillaton manor.Victoria County History: Staffordshire: Volume 5, chapter 16, Penkridge, section 2, Manors

Political career

The Paget connection In the decade following his succession, Littleton seems to have been in the political camp of his overlord, Thomas Paget, 3rd Baron Paget, a prominent Catholic nobleman. However, in the 1580s Lord Paget, together with his brother Charles took refuge in France under the protection of the Catholic League. They were implicated in the Babington Plot, a conspiracy to assassinate Elizabeth I. Lord Paget was attainted, losing all his estates, and took refuge in Spain.

Littleton had supported Paget locally but had never sympathised with his religious views and seems not to have been harmed by Paget's demise. Amias Paulet, unimpeachably puritan and the gaoler of Mary, Queen of Scots, regarded Littleton as one of the few trustworthy Staffordshire gentry and described him as "a very honest religious gentleman".

The Devereux faction in Staffordshire

From the late 1580s, Edward Littleton and most of his relatives were closely allied to Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. Even while Essex was at university, Edward Littleton, looking to the future had presented a horse to him. Edward Littleton's wife, Margaret Devereux, was a cousin of the earl. Essex regarded Staffordshire as his own county and power base.Hammer, Paul E. J. (1999): The Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics: The Political Career of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, 1585–1597, Cambridge university Press, . Essex's main seat, Chartley Castle, was in Staffordshire, between the county town of Stafford and Uttoxeter, and Littleton's brother, James, managed it for him. Essex was Staffordshire's senior civic official, the Custos Rotulorum, for several years. His mother Lettice Knollys lived at Drayton Bassett with her third husband, Sir Christopher Blount. Knollys became godmother to Edward Littleton's daughter Laetitia or Lettice.

Essex is still often portrayed primarily as a suitor of the ageing Queen Elizabeth IA good example is Ross, Josephine (1975): The Men Who would be King (also published as Suitors to the Queen), London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, . Other historians prefer to see his career as both part of and contributory factor in a revival of factional politics in Elizabeth's court and administration after a relatively collegial period in the 1570s and 1580s. The primary causes of this were the unsettled question of the succession to Elizabeth's throne and the often-related foreign policy and military issues of the period. After the death of his step-father, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, in 1588, Essex emerged as the new figurehead for most of his main causes: moderately puritan but aggressively anti-Spanish.

A group of Staffordshire landowners formed a local Essex faction – mainly members of the Littleton, Bagot, Chetwynd, Trew and Aston families. However, the alliance was not confined to the Littletons of Pillaton, who were a cadet branch of the family. The Worcestershire Lytteltons (as their version of the name is generally spelt) were also closely involved with Essex, although they were motivated equally strongly by a detestation of Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley, his and their main enemy in the region. In the 1590s Gilbert Lyttelton was conducting a bitter dispute with Dudley over Prestwood, a small estate near Kinver.The History of Parliament: Members 1558–1603 – Dudley, alias Sutton, Edward (1567–1643) (Author: J.E.M.) This sometimes degenerated into raiding and street skirmishes.The History of Parliament: Constituencies 1558–1603 – Staffordshire Essex was considered a Puritan sympathiser, and the Staffordshire Littletons decidedly Protestant, while their Worcestershire cousins leaned toward Catholicism, but local interests overcame ideological differences.

In the 1590s Edward Littleton's duties to Essex included promoting his cause in parliamentary elections. The county seats had been controlled by the Harcourt family of Ellenhall and Ranton Abbey, part of a group of Catholic sympathisers that included for a time the Astons. With the death of Simon Harcourt in 1577, their grip slackened, and into the power vacuum moved the Dudleys. Edward Sutton took a seat in 1584 while still only 17 years of age. He did not stand in 1586, after he succeeded to his father's barony. From this point, however, Essex began to take a real interest. The members elected in 1588, Walter Harcourt and Thomas Gerard, were both in 1591 recruited into the army Essex led to aid Henry IV of France and knighted by Essex at Rouen.

The 1593 election Attempts by Essex to dictate the course of the 1593 election proved demoralising, partly because of the insistent tone of his instructions to Sir Edward Littleton, Sir Edward Aston and Richard Bagot, his agents on the ground. On 2 January 1593 Essex wrote urging them to secure the election of his step-father Christopher Blount.Digital image of copy at Folger Shakespeare Library A week later he wrote again, this time asking them to support Gerard as second member.Digital image of copy at Folger Shakespeare Library He added in a postscript:

"I should think my credit little in my own country, if it should not afford so small a matter as this, especially the men being so fit."

However, Sir William Harcourt had also given notice of his intention to stand for election, and he too could be counted a supporter of Essex. Then Gerard accepted a nomination in his native Lancashire, putting his weight behind Harcourt. However, Essex did not revise his instructions, leaving Bagot and Littleton, who were afraid of offending their patron, perplexed as how to proceed.Jeremy Crick (2007): A contested election This gives a slightly different interpretation of the switch in candidates. As Essex had made this a test of authority, were they to pursue his express wishes, or were they to secure the best result for him? Littleton wrote to Bagot in exasperation:

"If Sir Thomas release us (as by his letter it seemeth he hath) and willeth that those procured for him should give their voices for Sir Walter Harcourt, and he would accept of it as to himself, I know not what more is to be required at our hands."

Blount and Harcourt were duly elected for Staffordshire, despite the confusion, while Gerard was returned as one of the Lancashire members.

The 1597 election scandal