One of Sir Anthony Cooke's daughters married William Cecil, Lord Burghley, who funded Sir Anthony’s
exile to the Continent. Our noble progenitor made the mistake of supporting
Lady Jane Grey’s quest for the throne, so when Mary Tudor became Queen, he fled
the country. While in Strasbourg he heard Peter Martyr lecture, and the
experience reinforced his Protestant inclinations. He stayed abroad for three
years, corresponding with the leading reformers in Europe and writing pamphlets
for circulation in England.
He
returned home when Elizabeth I ascended the throne and promptly began writing her
lists of instructions on how to handle religious issues. Gloriana reacted as
she always did when some male presumed to give her orders: she totally ignored
him. Undiscouraged, he participated in a number of commissions concerning the
establishment of the Church of England, but fussed about the new church being
too elaborate and “Popish”.
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| Book of Common Prayer, Church of England. Source: http://www.search.windowsonwarwickshire.org.uk/ |
A modern
biographer condemns Sir Anthony as having a “dark and unforgiving nature.” A
seventeenth-century historian was kinder: “Sir Anthony took more pleasure to
breed up statesmen than to be one. Contemplation was his soul, privacy his
life, and discourse his element.”
The last
decade of his life was spent in consolidating his estate and refurbishing
Gidea Hall, where Queen Elizabeth
visited him in the summer of 1568.
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