initiative. William Fitzwilliam was appointed Treasurer of the Household in 1525, a post which gave him an ex officio seat on the evolving Privy council. He was appointed Captain of in 1524 and maintained a connection with Calais for the rest of his life, being largely responsible for the Calais Act of 1536; he also played a significant part in defusing religious unrest in Calais in the later 1530s He served as a member of parliament for Surrey from 1529 until his elevation to the peerage as Earl of Southampton in 1537. FitzWilliam acted as "enforcer" for King Henry VIII in the fall of the King's wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, the Pilgrimage of Grace, and the Exeter Conspiracy. In 1539, as Admiral, he conveyed King Henry's future fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, from Calais, and on first meeting her, wrote letters in her praise to the King, 'considering it was then no time to dispraise her, ... the matter being so far passed.' In Autumn 1538, William and the Bishop of Ely went to question Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury. William would hold her prisoner until May 1539. From 1540, William FitzWilliam was a capable Lord Privy Seal until his death in 1542, but he failed to address serious structural faults at the Duchy of Lancaster and the Admiralty administration, probably because with several offices he was overworked – a serious fault in the Tudor system. As regional magnate, he eliminated factional strife in Surrey. The Earl of Southampton was appointed Lieutenant and Captain-General in the North in 1542, to command an expedition to Scotland, but he was a sick man who had to be conveyed to Newcastle upon Tyne in a litter. Nevertheless, he died in October only three days after his arrival there. FitzWilliam was apparently buried in Newcastle, for although under his will, a chapel was to be built for his tomb at the parish church in Midhurst, Sussex, no tomb was erected there. Having no legitimate issue, his peerage became extinct. Upon his death, Cowdray House, originally purchased by FitzWilliam from Sir Henry Owen in 1529, was inherited by his younger half-brother, Sir Anthony Browne. Notes References Bibliography 1490s births 1542 deaths Knights of the Garter Fitzwilliam, William Fitzwilliam, William 15th-century English people 16th-century English nobility 16th-century Royal Navy personnel Esquires of the Body 1 People associated with the Dissolution of the Monasteries English