James Basset

James Basset (1526–1558) was a gentleman from the ancient Devonshire Basset family who became a servant of Stephen Gardiner (c. 1483–1555), Bishop of Winchester, by whom he was nominated MP for Taunton in 1553, for Downton in 1554, both episcopal boroughs. He also served thrice as MP for Devon in 1554, 1555, and 1558. He was a strong adherent to the Catholic faith during the Reformation started by King Henry VIII. After the death of King Edward VI in 1553 and the accession of the Catholic Queen Mary I, he became a courtier to that queen as a gentleman of the Privy Chamber and received many favours from both herself and her consort King Philip II of Spain. Origins James Basset was the third son and youngest child of Sir John Basset (1462–1528), KB, of Tehidy in Cornwall and Umberleigh in Devon (Sheriff of Cornwall in 1497, 1517 and 1522 and Sheriff of Devon in 1524) by his second wife Honor Grenville (died 1566), a daughter of Sir Thomas Grenville (died 1513) of Stowe in the parish of Kilkhampton, Cornwall, and lord of the manor of Bideford in North Devon, Sheriff of Cornwall in 1481 and in 1486. Cousin of Sir Richard Grenville, Honor Grenville's nephew. His sister Anne Bassett was allegedly considered as a wife of King Henry VIII and may have been one of the Mistresses of Henry VIII. Childhood When James was two years old in 1528 his father died and shortly thereafter his mother remarried to Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle, who was an illegitimate son of King Edward IV, a half-brother of Queen Elizabeth of York, an uncle of King Henry VIII, and who was appointed by the latter to serve (1533–40) as Lord Deputy of Calais.