[MR] Life of George la Zouche

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today while casting about for an interesting topic, I ran across George la
Zouche, 10th Baron Zouche. With a name like that, how could I not be
intrigued? I found a man who served England well under both Queen Elizabeth
and King James I. No big deal on that; there were lots of men of his
station who did more. But his life has three particularly interesting
facets that bear comment.

Zouche was the only commissioner to vote against the execution of Mary
Queen of Scots, against the wishes of William Cecil who stage-managed her
1586 trial. Zouche's stand was courageous, and apparently it caused no
great harm to his career.

In 1620, Zouche, a commissioner of the Virginia Company, arranged to have
four allegedly adulterous children of Katherine More, wife of Zouche's
secretary Samual More, "disposed of" by shipping them to the New World as
indentured servants aboard the Mayflower. Only one survived the voyage.
This appears to have been a callous and shameful abuse of power, but it
tells us quite a bit about the marriage and family laws of the time.

Finally, there was a fatal hunting accident at Zouche's estate in 1621. A
gamekeeper was shot with a crossbow by George Abbot, Archbishop of
Canterbury. Although the killing was ruled accidental, it clouded the
career of the Archbishop. He remains the only Archbishop of Canterbury to
have killed a man, unless you count heretics, of course.

Sorry for slopping over into post-period, but Zouche does have a foot in
the SCA era, having been born in 1556:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_la_Zouche,_11th_Baron_Zouche

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆