Richard Leveson ( died 1605 ) Sir Richard Leveson ( c . 1570 – 2 August 1605 ) was an important Elizabethan seaman , politician and landowner . His origins were in the landed gentry of Shropshire and Staffordshire . A client and son - in - law of Charles Howard , 1st Earl of Nottingham , he became Vice - Admiral under him . He served twice as MP for Shropshire in the English parliament . He was ruined by the burden of debt built up by his father . Family background . Richard Leveson ' s parents were The Leveson and Corbet families were the most powerful of the landed gentry families in Shropshire , a county without a resident aristocracy . Both underwent a crisis in the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods as a result of overspending and succession problems , coupled with unwise exposure to the vagaries of the State . In Richard Leveson ' s case , the problems stemmed almost entirely from his father ' s impulsive and irrational behaviour , stemming apparently from a serious mental illness . Naval career . Leveson took to the sea in his teenage years and his career was secured by marriage in 1587 to Margaret , the daughter of Charles Howard , 1st Earl of Nottingham , who had been appointed Lord High Admiral in 1585 . In 1588 Leveson served as a volunteer on board the " Ark Royal " against the Spanish Armada , and in 1596 had a command in the expedition against Cadiz , on which occasion he was knighted . In 1597 he is said to have commanded the " Hope " in ' the Islands ' voyage ' under Robert Devereux , 2nd Earl of Essex , though other lists describe him as commanding the " Nonpareil " . It is possible that he moved from one ship to the other during the expedition . In 1599 he commanded the " Lion " in the fleet fitted out , under Lord Thomas Howard , in expectation of a Spanish attempt at invasion . In 1600 , with the style of ' admiral of the narrow seas , ' he commanded a squadron sent towards the Azores to look out for the Spanish treasure - ships . Great care was taken to keep their destination secret ; but the Spaniards , warned by experience , changed the route of their ships , and so escaped . In October 1601 he was appointed " captain - general and admiral of certain of her Majesty ' s ships to serve against the Spaniards lately landed in Ireland . " ( Cal . State Papers , Ireland ) , and in the early days of December fought a battle off Castlehaven and forced his way into the harbour of Kinsale , where , after a severe action , he destroyed the whole of the enemy ' s shipping under Pedro de Zubiaur . Early in 1602 Leveson was appointed to command a powerful fleet of nine English and twelve Dutch ships , which were " to infest the Spanish coast . " The Dutch ships were , however , late in joining , and Leveson , leaving his vice - admiral Sir William Monson , to wait for them , put to sea with only five ships on 19 March 1602 . Within two or three days the queen sent Monson orders to sail at once to join his admiral , for she had word that ' the silver ships were arrived at Terceira . ' They had , in fact , arrived and left again ; and before Monson could join him Leveson fell in with them . With his very small force he could do nothing . ' If the Hollanders , ' wrote Monson , ' had kept touch , according to promise , and the queen ' s ships had been fitted out with care , we had made her majesty mistress of more treasure than any of her progenitors ever enjoyed . ' It was not till the end of May that the two English squadrons met with each other , and on 1 June , being then off Lisbon , they had news of a large carrack and eleven galleys in Cezimbra bay . Some of the English ships had been sent home as not seaworthy ; others had separated ; there were only five with Leveson when , on the morning of the 3rd , he found the Spanish ships both under the command of Federico Spinola and Álvaro de Bazán strongly posted under the guns of the castle . At ten o ' clock he stood into the bay , and after a fight which lasted till five in the evening , two of the galleys were burnt , and the rest , with the carrack , " Saõ Valentinho " capitulated and were taken to England . The prize money from the carrack worth £3 , 000 was awarded by Queen Elizabeth . In 1603 , during the last sickness and after the death of the queen , Leveson commanded the fleet in the narrow seas , to prevent any attempt to disturb the peace of the country or to influence the succession being made from France or the Netherlands . This was his last service at sea . On 7 April 1604 he was appointed " lieutenant of the admiralty of England , " or , by the more common title , vice - admiral of England for life ( ib . Dom . ) , and in the following year was marshal of the embassy to Spain for the conclusion of the peace . Shortly after his return he died in London . Member of Parliament . The parliament of 1589 . Richard Leveson was elected a member of the English parliament for the first time on 7 November 1588 , sitting in the 1589 parliament . He was one of two members for the county of Shropshire , the other being his own father , Walter . In the previous election , in October 1586 , Walter had been paired with Richard Corbet , his brother - in - law , and the two families had decisive influence over the choice of MP for several decades . At the time of his election he was only 18 years old , unusual but not unique in this period . The parliament lasted only from 4 February 1589 until 29 March . Leveson was not a prominent and the journals for the 1589 Parliament mention that he asked for leave of absence . The parliament of 1604 . The summoning of the first parliament of James I found Leveson at the height of his prestige . His capture of the Portuguese carrack was still fresh in the memory . At the funeral of Elizabeth I , he had acted as a knight of the canopy . On his arrival in London in May 1603 , James I made Leveson a gentleman of the Privy chamber . Later that year , he was given the task of taking Thomas Grey , 15th Baron Grey de Wilton to Winchester for trial as a participant in the Bye Plot . Throughout Elizabeth ' s reign , Shropshire had been represented by eight families , mainly based in the north of the county , of which the Levesons were one . Leveson must have seemed an obvious choice at the time and two of the prominent county gentry took the unusual step of countersigning the return to mark their approval : Vincent Corbet , Leveson ' s uncle , and Francis Newport . Newport ' s endorsement was significant : a former MP , and three times High Sheriff of Shropshire , he knew Leveson ' s difficulties well , as the Privy Council had sent him to arrest three of Sir Walter ' s servants in 1593 . The second member was Robert Needham , a cousin of Leveson and Corbet whose family estates were mainly around Cranage in Cheshire but whose seat was Shavington Hall in Shropshire . When the parliament assembled on 19 March 1604 , Leveson was one of those deputed to administer the Oath of Supremacy to the rest of the House of Commons , He was soon nominated to two committees directly concerned with family affairs of his patron , the Earl of Nottingham . One was the committee to deal with the naturalization of Nottingham ' s wife . Leveson ' s mother - in - law had died shortly before the queen . The earl then married a Scottish woman , about fifty years his junior , Margaret Stuart , a daughter of the so - called " Bonny Earl " , James Stewart , 2nd Earl of Moray . The secon committee dealt with provision for Leveson ' s sister - in - law , Frances Howard , known as Lady Kildare , as she was the widow of Henry FitzGerald , 12th Earl of Kildare . Her second husband , Henry Brooke , 11th Baron Cobham had been condemned to death in November 1603 for his part in the Main Plot to install Lady Arbella Stuart on the throne . He was not executed but held in the Tower of London until his health broke down in 1617 . As proposed by the committee , Parliament granted Cobham ' s lands to Lady Kildare . Parliament also drew on Leveson ' s professional expertise . He was named to a committee dealing with the relief of soldiers and sailors who had seerved in the Irish war and to another on a bill to prohibit the export of iron Early modern period – smoothbores | artillery . The latter was one of a series of measures proposed by the highly - experienced MP Robert Wroth , who had sought to set the agenda for the parliament by bringing forward a list of seven " grievances " or reform proposals around which he hoped to focus debate . The most important was a proposal to sweep away the abuses of the wardship system , but he also wanted reform of the Exchequer and elements of religious and social reform . Leveson was nominated to a committee to look at the whole programme proposed by Wroth , as well as to some of the committees on specific proposals . However , Wroth was a puritan , the last of the Marian exiles to serve in the House of Commons . His approach was not universally popular and there were powerful interests opposed to him in the Court and in the House of Lords , as well as cracks in his relationship with his patron , Robert Cecil . In the end , none of Wroth ' s program was carried . Leveson was nominated to a committee to consider Union between the kingdoms of Scotland and England ; another proposal that came to nothing at this stage . On 2 May there was a complaint the House ' s proceedings were not accurately reported to the king by those who had access to him . As a gentleman of the privy chamber , Leveson felt impelled to reply and stood up to do so . However , the puritan Sir Francis Hastings rose at the same time to press home the complaint . The House ruled in favour of Hastings and Leveson was forced to sit down . However , on 5 June he did address the House on a bill for the continuance and repeal of expiring statutes . The Parliament was not dissolved and was to last until 1611 . However , Leveson died before the next session was held in 1606 . He was replaced as MP after a by - election by the immensely wealthy Shrewsbury lawyer and businessman Sir Roger Owen . Finances . For most of Richard Leveson ' s life he was heir to great estates , and in his later years he was forced to look on helpless as they were endangered and dissipated . He lived occasionally at Lilleshall , Trentham or Wolverhampton , but was on active service for long periods . Although his personal wealth was largely derived from his maritime activities , including his naval service , privateering and trade , he was appointed to some of the offices appropriate to the Staffordshire and Shropshire landed gentry . By 1594 , at latest , he was a justice of the peace in both counties . In 1596 he was made Custos Rotulorum of Shropshire , the senior position in the civil administration of the county , and an important honour . It was his father , Sir Walter Leveson , who placed the Leveson patrimony in great danger , as he was accused of piracy in 1587 , and later of sorcery . Initially he took rational measures to increase his income but gradually declined mentally . From 1598 Sir Walter was incarcerated in the Fleet Prison . Although his great estates were still largely intact , they were endangered by the massive debts he incurred as a result of the compensation and fines he was ordered to pay . The debt grew from about £10 , 500 in 1591 to £12 , 000 a decade later . By this stage , Richard ' s mother , Anne Corbet , had died and Walter had married Susan Vernon , a cousin of Robert Devereux , 2nd Earl of Essex . Walter wrote to Essex asking that he or one of the Vernons be appointed trustee of the family estates . However , Walter was in the grip of a persecutory delusion . He claimed that he was the victim of a plot connected to jealousy of his second marriage . When Richard made suggestions , his father accused him of plotting with a man with the surname Ethell to ruin him . Convinced that the death of his daughter - in - law would somehow solve his problems , he grew poisonous plants at Lilleshall and made an attempt on her life . Essex referred the Leveson case to Henry Howard , 1st Earl of Northampton , who engineered an agreement in June 1601 . Richard Leveson was to take on his father ' s assets and liabilities in return for an annuity of £580 , a generous allowance , as Sir John Leveson later valued the estates at only £600 a year . However , Sir Walter had to guarantee that there were no hidden liabilities . The agreement was never implicated because Richard suspected Sir Walter was plotting to transfer assets to his sister , Mary Curzon - a suspicion confirmed by Susan Vernon . He also foiled an attempt to transfer assets to his illegitimate half - sister , Penelope , by intercepting one of his father ' s servants . Writing to Robert Cecil in December 1601 , Leveson pointed out that Not until 1602 did Leveson inherit the estates on the death of his father , imprisoned to the last in the Fleet . This did not end his problems , but only added to them , as he was now responsible for his father ' s vast debts . In 1603 he and his step - mother faced legal action from Sir Julius Caesar , who was trying to recover £800 . Caesar was a dangerous opponent as he was a powerful and wealthy judge and government minister . The capture of the Portuguese carrack gave considerable relief , but the £3000 Leveson was awarded was far from sufficient to clear his debts . Worse , still it was later to create further financial difficulties . By this time the wreck of Leveson ' s finances was complete , and he was forced to put the estates into the hands of trustees , headed by his first cousin , Sir John Leveson of Halling , Kent . Sir John Leveson made progress , but little was achieved before the death of Sir Richard Leveson , less than three years later . Rumours then began to circulate that Sir Richard had actually been fabulously wealthy as a result of his seafaring profits . In 1607 Leveson ' s cabin steward , Walter Grey , claimed that Leveson had concealed and stolen vast quantities of calico and pearls from the carrack - goods which did not form part of his share but rightly belonged to the queen . He alleged that Leveson had a vast cache of pearls in a barn at Sheriffhales , near his Lilleshall estate . Altogether , it was calculated , Leveson had defrauded the queen of goods to the value of £40 , 000 . This was an overwhelming problem for Sir John Leveson , who had no hope of extracting such a vast sum from the estates . He investigated further and was able to undermine trust in Grey ' s story by bringing witnesses to testify that he had ended on bad terms with Leveson . He then uncovered further evidence that Grey had been given a deed promising £450 out of any fine connected with the carrack affair . The deed had been drawn up by Thomas Sackville , 1st Earl of Dorset , the Lord High Treasurer and a Scottish courtier called Sir James Creighton . Dorset had an interest in exerting leverage on the Leveson estate , as his grandson Edward Sackville was engaged to marry Richard Leveson ' s cousin , Mary Curzon : the daughter of the Mary Curzon who had earlier conspired with Sir Walter , and heiress of Sir George Curzon of Croxall Hall , Derbyshire . Discovery of the deed meant that Sir John was able to discredit Grey , who had a financial interest in perjuring himself , but doubts lingered and he was up against the most powerful faction in government . He was still faced by a large fine , albeit reduced to £5000 . After Sir John ' s death in 1615 , his widow , Christian , took up the challenge of stabilising the Leveson family finances . After numerous further setbacks , she paid off the debts in 1623 . This allowed the estates to pass later that year to Sir Richard Leveson ' s designated heir , the son of Sir John and Christian , and another Sir Richard Leveson . Death and succession . Richard Leveson fell ill while staying in the home of a friend , Hugh Bunnell , next to St . Clement ’ s , Temple Bar , on 22 July 1605 . Initially he complained of fever . This was complicated by constant diarrhoea and he died on 2 August 1605 . He was buried on 2 September in St Peter ' s Collegiate Church , Wolverhampton . Leveson had made his will on 17 March 1605 . In it he chose to characterise life in terms of the travails of landholding : As he had no male issue , he left the bulk of his property to his godson and third cousin , Richard Leveson ( 1598 – 1661 ) , son of Sir John Leveson ( d . 1615 ) , who had once shared in his privateering activities . However , also named as heir was Leveson ' s illegitimate daughter , Anne Fitton , who he hoped would marry the young Richard Leveson . Richard Leveson went on to become a Member of Parliament and a prominent royalist soldier in the English Civil War . However , he married Katherine Dudley , leaving his benefactor ' s plan in tatters . Leveson ' s will also awarded £1000 to Penelope , his illegitimate half - sister , whom he had previously managed to exclude from inheriting from his father ' s property . Marriage and family . At the age of 17 , Leveson married by license , dated 13 December 1587 , Margaret , daughter of the Charles Howard , 1st Earl of Nottingham and Catherine Carey . The couple had one child , who died while young . Margaret later suffered increasingly from a mental disorder , allegedly because of the loss of her child , although she also suffered at least one attempt on her life by father - in - law . As Richard Leveson lay dying , her father wrote to Robert Cecil asking for her wardship . The wardship was instead granted to her brother , William Howard , 3rd Baron Howard of Effingham . Margaret ' s wardship finally passed to her father after Effingham ' s death in 1615 . In the final years of his life , Leveson set up home at Perton , near Wolverhampton , with the noted courtesan Mary Fitton , the daughter of Sir Edward Fitton of Gawsworth , Cheshire ( 1548 - 1606 ) and Alice Holcroft ( d . 1627 ) . They were second cousins : Leveson ' s paternal grandmother was also called Mary Fitton . They had a daughter , Anne , for whom Leveson sought to provide in his will . Mary Fitton continued to reside at Perton after Leveson ' s death , marrying another naval officer , Captain William Polewhele . The affair with Mary Fitton appears to have had no effect on Leveson ' s personal or political relations with Lord Howard , who continued to write of him as a son . Portraiture . There are three examples of a portrait miniature of Leveson by the Huguenot artist Isaac Oliver , apparently all painted personally by Oliver towards 1600 , one of which is held by the Wallace Collection . They are regarded as typical of the style of Oliver , who studied under Nicholas Hilliard , the leading English miniaturist of the period . Oliver went on to become the official miniaturist to Anne of Denmark . St Peter ' s Collegiate Church has a striking statue and monument to Leveson . The bronze statue is by Hubert Le Sueur , another Huguenot artist who made a career in England . It originally formed part of a family group in the chancel . After damage during the English Civil War , it was detached and reassembled in the lady chapel . A bronze plaque now recites Leveson ' s main naval achievements , while another gives details of his family connections . Le Sueur went on to work for Charles I , producing a well - known equestrian statue of him now at Charing Cross . A portrait of Sir Richard Leveson , said to be by Anthony van Dyck , belongs to the Duke of Sutherland , the head of the Leveson - Gower family . Probably this painting was of a later Sir Richard , the uncle of Lady Christian ( Leveson ) Temple who had married the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos ' s ancestor , Sir Peter Temple . This portrait was purchased for £65 02s 00p from the sale of the possessions of the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos held at Stowe House , Buckinghamshire in 1848 . It was described in the sale catalogue as by Van Dyck ( whereas other paintings are described as ' after Van Dyck ' or a ' copy of Van Dyck ' ) . The catalogue records that Sir Richard is shown ‘ in a black dress , with a frill ’ and that the painting was ‘ bought ‘ after a very active competition . ’