Gentleman of the Privy Chamber

 Cooke noblemen married aristocratic women with the names of de Malpas, Knollys-Belnap, and Saunders. The ladies’ backgrounds were Norman, usually results of various Plantagent indiscretions.

Sir Thomas’ grandson Sir John Cooke (1473) died at 43, leaving his eleven-year-old son Anthony to be raised by his uncle Richard Cooke, a diplomat for Henry VIII, and his stepmother, first a lady-in-waiting to Katherine of Aragon and later to Princess Mary.

Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall proved to be one of our most distinguished ancestors.  At the end of Henry VIII’s reign, he obtained his only court office, “Gentleman of the Privy Chamber,” which he maintained until the death of Edward VI. He taught the boy king, who made him a knight of the Bath, “good letters and manners”. Other children in the royal circle like Lady Jane Grey were also his students.

Etching of Sir Anthony Cooke. One statement from his funeral monument states: "Sir Anthony Cooke, knight, named tutor to King Edward VI because of his exceptional learning, prudence, and piety. Source: Wikipedia.

When he was about 17, he married a girl he had long been contracted to, Anne Fitzwilliam. Anne was a wealthy knight’s daughter and a descendant of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, by mistress #1, mistress #2, or mistress #3. By the way, Geoffrey in turn claimed direct descent from Charlemagne.

Please don’t get too excited about this. Every person of European origin can claim Charlemagne as a forefather. He lived a long time ago, and fathered 20 children. And the Plantagenets were very, er, sociable fellows themselves. Years ago, a book called The Last Plantagenets hit the best-seller list. Even its author, Thomas B. Costain, must have realized the title was misleading:  our earth will harbor Plantagenet offshoots until the sun supernovas and engulfs it.

 Anthony Cooke wrote Anne a touching epitaph, where he praised her for being attractive, but not so stunning that her beauty interfered with his studies.

Sir Anthony “The Scholar” was famed in Tudor England for personally educating his daughters as well as his sons. These daughters married spectacularly well and were renowned as poets and translators of religious and classical works in their own rights. Eventual Cooke offspring ranged from Sir Francis Bacon to the marvelous historical romance novelist Daphne du Maurier. Oh, and to some politician named Barack Obama.