Sir Edward Montagu (c. 1488 – 10 February 1557) of Boughton, Hanging Houghton and Hemington in Northamptonshire was an English lawyer and judge in the time of Henry VIII and Edward VI. He was Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1539 to 1545 and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas from 1545 to 1553.

Life

He was born in or before 1488 at the royal manor house at Brigstock, Northamptonshire, the 2nd son of Thomas Montagu (d. 1517) of Hemington, and Agnes Dudley, daughter of William Dudley of Clopton, and Christiana Darrell. His grandfather, Richard Ladde, assumed the name of Montagu in about 1447. Montagu was a student at Cambridge and was admitted to Middle Temple on 22 May 1506. He served as Autumn Reader for the Inn in 1524 and 1531. He was made Serjeant-at-law in 1531, King's Serjeant in 1537 and was knighted on 18 October 1537. He was appointed Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1539, which office he resigned in 1545 and was transferred to the "less onerous, but more profitable" post of Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. He was a member of the Privy Council of Henry VIII, who appointed him one of sixteen executors of his last will, and governor to his son Edward. During the crisis of 1553 when Edward VI wished to alter the succession in favour of Lady Jane Grey, Montagu protested at the illegality of the proceedings. However, when the Duke of Northumberland called him a traitor and threatened him with physical violence, he withdrew his protest. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London on Mary's accession but bought his way out. In 1528 he purchased the manor of Boughton, near Kettering, Northamptonshire and built the family seat of Boughton House on the site.

Marriages and children

Montagu married three times:

Gallery

Death

He died at Boughton on 10 February 1557 and was buried on 5 March with much pomp (including a "hearse of wax") in the church of St Mary, Weekley, where there is an altar tomb with his full-length effigy in robes and collar of SS and the motto "Pour unge pleasoir mille dolours" ("For every pleasure, a thousand sorrows"). His widow married as her third husband, Sir John Digby. She died in May 1563.

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