Welsh Journals

Sir John Perrot (1528-1592): A Fourth Centenary Retrospective by Roger Turvey On the night of Friday 3rd November 1592 a sad, lonely and bitter old man passed away just a few days short of his sixty- fourth birthday. Had he lived those extra few days there would have been little cause for celebration for he died a prisoner in the infamous Tower of London in which he had been lodged for over eighteen months. The name of this unfortunate man was John Perrot a knight of Pembrokeshire. According to the Tower chaplain's burial register he was laid to rest, within the walls of his prison, in the church of St Peter Ad Vincula, a week later on the 10th.1 No special ceremony attended his burial, it was a quiet, almost routine and inconsequential affair as befitted the death of a traitor. Perrot died believing himself an innocent man wronged, forsaken by his queen whom he had served loyally for 34 years, forgotten by his friends and likely to be forgotten by posterity. Far worse was the fact that he believed himself to be a failure, the man whom his family could justly point to and accuse of betraying his and their birthright and honour. In short, the man responsible for wiping out over 250 years of Perrot progress, history and pride. For a traitor died with nothing to call his own save his soul: his estates, possessions, self respect and name were all forfeit to the Crown. Fortunately, this versatile and volatile Elizabethan gentleman did not forfeit his right to have his life story recounted. It is therefore fitting that Perrot is remembered this year for it marks the Four Hundredth anniversary of his death in 1592. When a man has been the subject of few serious published biographies in four hundred years it might reasonably be assumed that either he is of no lasting importance or that adequate material for a life does not exist. In the case of Sir John Perrot neither assumption would be correct. He was a man of remarkable personality a tempestuous and choleric character of Shakespearian proportions' whose varied career touched on sixteenth-century society at many points. That he has the rarity of having had a contemporary biography devoted to him, however limited, suggests that he had made his mark and impressed others in his time.3 The fact that in 1940 Mr Percy Evans was awarded the degree of M.A. for a thesis on the life and career of the subject of this commemorative paper clearly indicates the existence of sufficient material to sustain and