Sir Thomas Arundell of Wardour Castle in Wiltshire (c. 150226 February 1552) was a Cornish administrator and alleged conspirator. Arundell was connected by birth and marriage to the crown and to several of the most important families in England, and by the time of the death of King Henry VIII was one of the most experienced government officers in England. Those in power had concerns about his influence and his family's devotion to the old religion. Vague and unproven allegations of complicity in the southwestern rebellion in 1549 were made against him. In late 1551 he temporarily aligned himself with the Protector Somerset, thereby putting himself in conflict with John Dudley, Earl of Warwick. He was arrested and charged with conspiring to overthrow the government and murder the Earl. He was convicted, and beheaded on Tower Hill on 26 February 1552. His property was confiscated, but in June 1552 the Crown began restoring it to his widow and, from 1553, to his son. Biography Thomas Arundell, born about 1502, was the younger of the two sons of Sir John Arundell (1474–1545) of Lanherne, St. Mawgan-in-Pyder, Cornwall, Receiver General of the Duchy of Cornwall and "the most important man in the county", by his first wife, Lady Eleanor Grey (d. by December 1503), the daughter of Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset. Arundell was educated at Lincoln's Inn, and began his career in the household of Cardinal Wolsey, where he was a contemporary of Thomas Cromwell. He was knighted at the coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn. Arundell held a number of administrative positions, principally in the West Country. He was the first receiver of the Court of Augmentations for Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset, and in 1533 succeeded his father as Receiver-General of the Duchy of Cornwall. He was a Justice of the Peace for Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, and was appointed to commissions for gaol delivery, oyer and terminer, and the defence of the counties of the south-west coastline. He commanded the Dorset militia during both the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536–7, and King Henry VIII's expedition to France in 1544. He was twice High Sheriff of Dorset and Somerset (1531), was keeper of the royal parks in Dorset, and in 1539 sat on the Council of the West with his father. He was elected Member of Parliament for Dorset in