Edward Clere (MP)

Edward Clere (1536–1606) was an English landowner and politician, serving as Member of Parliament for Thetford and Grampound.[1]

Site of Clere's house at The Place, Thetford

He was a son of John Clere of Ormesby. He was educated at the University of Louvain, Cambridge, and the Inner Temple. One of his older brothers died at Florence, and the other was killed at the battle of Pinkie in 1547. His father was killed fighting at Kirkwall in 1557. Clere inherited the manor of Blicking from Sir James Boleyn.[2]

Edward Clere entertained Elizabeth at his house at the former St. George's Priory, Thetford, during her Norfolk progress in 1578.[3]

Clere wrote a description of the entertainment given to Elizabeth I at New Hall in September 1579 by the Earl of Sussex. She was greeted by a theatrical entertainment presenting Jupiter and a thunderstorm. The next day there was jousting. A sleeping knight was brought in a chariot led by a maiden, and appeared to be revived by the Queen. Elizabeth was given a horse, a cloak, and a riding safeguard for hunting the next day. In his letter to Bassingbourbe Gawdy, Clere explained the drama promoted the Anjou courtship.[4]

Clere and Sir William Heydon had some responsibility for the defence of Norfolk in 1588.[5]

He died in London and was buried at Blickling on 14 August 1606.[6] His monument at St Andrews' Blickling has the heraldry of ten ancestors, claiming lineage from a spurious "Clere Monte", a companion of the Duke of Normandy.[7]

Edward Clere's papers and correspondence were auctioned in lots in 1866 as part of the collection of Sir John Fenn.[8]

  1. ^ "CLERE, Edward (1536-1606), of Ormesby, Norfolk". historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  2. ^ "CLERE, Edward (1536-1606), of Ormesby, Norfolk, History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  3. ^ Zillah Dovey, An Elizabethan Progress: The Queen's Journey Into East Anglia, 1578 (Sutton, 1999), p. 102.
  4. ^ Neil Younger, 'Drama, Politics, and News in the Earl of Sussex's Entertainment of Elizabeth I at New Hall, 1579', The Historical Journal, 58:2 (June 2015), pp. 343–366.
  5. ^ Robert Lemon, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1581–1590 (London, 1865), p. 431.
  6. ^ George W. Marshall, 'Pedigree of Clere of Blickling', Genealogist, vol. 3 (London, 1879), p. 293.
  7. ^ Felicity Heal & Clive Holmes, The Gentry in England and Wales (Macmillan, 1994), p. 35.
  8. ^ Catalogue of the collection of autograph letters and MSS formed by Sir John Fenn: Puttick and Simpson (London, 1866), pp. 8–9, lot 80 included the Newhall letter.