Sir William Petre (c. 1505 – 1572) (pronounced Peter) was Secretary of State to three successive Tudor monarchs, namely Kings Henry VIII, Edward VI and Queen Mary I. He also deputised for the Secretary of State to Elizabeth I. Educated as a lawyer at the University of Oxford, he became a public servant, probably through the influence of the Boleyn family, one of whom, George Boleyn, he had tutored at Oxford and another of whom was Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII. He rose rapidly in the royal service and was knighted in 1543. Sir William Petre was adept at side-stepping the great religious controversies of the day; in January 1544 he was appointed Secretary of State. He navigated the ship of state through the rest of Henry's troubled reign, managing a smooth succession in 1547. He held high office throughout the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I until, owing to ill health he retired a rich man to his manor of Ingatestone, in Essex, where he had built Ingatestone Hall. His son was John Petre, 1st Baron Petre of Writtle, raised to the peerage in 1603. The later Barons Petre have mostly been Roman Catholics. The musician William Byrd wrote a Pavan and a Galliard for Sir William Petre, which were published as part of his Parthenia. Origins Born in about 1505 or 1506, Petre was the eldest son of John Petre of Tor Newton in the parish of Torbryan, Devon, by his wife Alice Colling, daughter of John Colling of Woodland, Devon. The Petre family had been established at Tor Newton from at least the reign of King Richard II (1377–1399). John Petre was by trade a tanner and both of his grandfathers were franklins (small landowners). His brothers included: John Petre (died 1571), Customer of the ports of Dartmouth and Exeter in Devon and MP for Dartmouth in 1554. Richard Petre, Archdeacon of Buckingham. Robert Petre, an auditor of the Exchequer, whose monument survives in Ingatestone Church, Essex. He received a grant of arms in 1573. Education In 1519 Petre matriculated at the University of Oxford as a law student. He is claimed as a member of Exeter College, of which he was later a benefactor, but there is no evidence of him there as an undergraduate. In 1523 he became a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, of