Knollys (family) - Children of Sir Francis Knollys The Elder

Children of Sir Francis Knollys The Elder

Sir Francis's sons Sir Henry (died 1583), Sir Edward (died 1580), Sir Robert (died 1625), Sir Richard (died 1596), Sir Francis (died 1648) and Sir Thomas, were all courtiers and served the queen in parliament or in the field. Richard's family continued to live at Rotherfield Greys, while Francis Junior's descendants held Battle Manor in Reading. The latter's daughter, Lettice (died 1666), was the second wife of the parliamentarian, John Hampden. Francis Senior's daughter, Lettice (1540–1634), married Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex and then Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. She was the mother of Elizabeth's favorite, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.

Sir Francis Knollys's second son William (c. 1547–1632) served as a member of parliament and a soldier during the reign of Queen Elizabeth and was knighted in 1586. William inherited his father's estates in Oxfordshire (his eldest brother Henry having died without sons in 1583) and became in 1596 a privy councillor and comptroller, and subsequently treasurer, of the royal household. Sir William enjoyed the favour of the new king, James I, whom he had visited in Scotland in 1585, and was made Baron Knollys in 1603 and Viscount Wallingford in 1616. But in this latter year his fortunes suffered a temporary reverse. Through his second wife Elizabeth Howard (1586–1658), daughter of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, William was related to Frances, Countess of Somerset, and when this lady was tried for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury her relatives were regarded with suspicion; consequently Lord Wallingford resigned the treasurership of the household and two years later the mastership of the Court of Wards, an office which he had held since 1614. However, he regained the royal favor, and was created earl of Banbury in 1626. He died in London on 25 May 1632.

Some of Sir Francis Knollys's letters are in T. Wright's Queen Elizabeth and Her Times (1838) and the Burghley Papers, edited by S. Haynes (1740); and a few of his manuscripts are still in existence. A speech which Knollys delivered in parliament against some claims made by the bishops was printed in 1608 and again in W. Stoughton's Assertion for True and Christian Church Policie (London, 1642).