History of the Throckmortons & Coughton Court
                    Sir George Throckmorton (d. 1553) was a knight in King Henry VIII's
                    household, but opposed the King's break with Rome. Of the King's
                    divorce and pending marriage to Anne Boleyn, Sir George said that the
                    King had 'meddled with both the mother and the sister'. He had to bring
                    his aunt Elizabeth, the abbess of Denny, to live with him when her convent
                    was closed in 1537 under the Dissolution of the Monasteries, making 25
                    nuns homeless. She brought with her a dole-gate, through which help was
                    given to the poor, and upon which her name is carved. This can still be
                    seen today in the Dining-Room.
                    Sir George married Catherine Vaux, daughter of Nicholas, 1st Baron
                    Vaux of Harrowden, and became Lord of Coughton in 1519. He
                    consistently opposed the changes in religion, and although the vast majority
                    of his 19 children and 112 grandchildren were ardent Catholics, there
                    were some who were staunch Protestants, including his sons Clement,
                    who founded a puritan family branch, and Sir Nicholas, who was
                    unfortunate enough to be an avid champion of Protestantism during the
                    reign of Mary I (although it is written that his Protestantism was said to
                    wax and wane). Sir Nicholas was found not guilty on a charge of treason
                    in connection with Thomas Wyatt's rebellion (he was freed, but the jury
                    was arrested!), and went on to be a minor player in the court of Queen
                    Elizabeth, bringing her the ring as proof of her sister's death, and acting as
                    an emissary to Mary, Queen of Scots.
                    Sir George's son and heir, Sir Robert Throckmorton (d.1581), continued
                    the family in the Catholic tradition. He married his children into the leading
                    Catholic families, and in these generations the increased persecution of the
                    Catholic spawned many relatives who became involved in plots against the
                    throne. The sons of his daughters Anne and Muriel, Robert Catesby and
                    Francis Tresham have been previously mentioned, and a third daughter
                    Mary was married to Edward Arden, who was also convicted of treason
                    and executed for his part in a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth in 1583.
                    This daughter kept an excellent record of a woman persecuted for
                    recusancy, documenting the fines and searches made at Coughton Court,
                    that is still in the family archives. A nephew, Francis Throckmorton, was
                    executed in 1584 for acting as a go-between for Mary Queen of Scots
                    and the Spanish Ambassador in an attempt to invade England and place
                    Mary on the throne. A niece Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Nicholas and
                    lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, also got into trouble by secretly
                    marrying Sir Walter Ralegh.
                    In the time of Sir Robert Throckmorton, and his son and heir Thomas
                    (1533-1614), Coughton became a centre for Catholic recusants. The
                    Tower Room of Coughton Court with its panoramic view for monitoring
                    any approach to the house made it an ideal location for the secret
                    celebration of the Mass, and there was also an ingenious double hiding
                    place built by Nicholas Owen in one of the turrets for the priests in the
                    event of a raid. The Throckmortons not only provided a relatively safe
                    place for people to worship; they also assisted in the underground
                    movements of the priests and established colleges abroad for training
                    English clergy. They were a crucial part of the network of families that
                    enabled Catholicism to remain alive throughout the reformation.
                    Thomas Throckmorton, along with his brothers-in-law Sir William
                    Catesby and Sir Thomas Tresham, were amongst the leading recusants of
                    their time. He was frequently fined and spent sixteen years in prison for his
                    non-attendance at church. In the Tower Room you can see a painted
                    tapestry called the Tabula Eliensis, dated 1596, that notes his coat of arms
                    and the arms of all the Catholic gentry who were imprisoned for recusancy
                    during Elizabeth I's reign, grouped by their places of imprisonment.
                    His grandson Robert was made a baronet by Charles I in 1642 and was
                    a Royalist, as were succeeding generations. Coughton Court was
                    occupied by the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War, and was
                    bombarded by the Royalist armies in order to drive the Parliamentarians
                    out. As they were being driven out, they set the house on fire. Robert died
                    during the war and left a son of nine and Coughton Court under
                    sequestration. Many years of neglect passed before young Francis could
                    start to repair the damage. The restoration continued with his son Sir
                    Robert, 3rd Baronet, who unfortunately met with a setback in 1688 when
                    a Protestant mob destroyed a 'newly erected Catholic Church', taking the
                    east wing of the house with it. The ruins remained for 100 years.
                    Subsequent generations of the Throckmortons maintained their Catholic
                    faith, with many of the daughters becoming nuns. The family continued to
                    marry only into other prominent Catholic families, and continued to hear
                    mass at Coughton Court, although with time their situation became easier
                    than those of their ancestors. The recusancy laws were repealed in 1792,
                    and members of the family were accepted into the command ranks of the
                    armed forces in 1819. The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 allowed
                    them into national office for the first time in almost three hundred years,
                    which Sir Robert George Throckmorton, 8th Baronet, took quick
                    advantage of, becoming one of the first Catholic MPs in 1831. He also
                    built the new Catholic church at the end of the south drive, alongside the
                    ruin of the church built by the earlier Sir Robert in the 15th century and
                    confiscated from the family during the Reformation.
                    During the Second World War the family fortunes ebbed, and although the
                    house was spared being sold, unlike much of the estate, it was occupied
                    by a Convent School for a while. Lady Lillian Throckmorton, widow of
                    Courtney Throckmorton and mother of Sir Robert, the 11th Baronet, was
                    given power of attorney while her son was in the Fleet Air Arm, and she
                    decided to turn Coughton Court over to the National Trust. Under special
                    arrangement, the National Trust leased Coughton Court back to Sir
                    Robert and his heirs for a 300 year term.
                    Sir Robert died in 1989, passing the lease of Coughton Court to his
                    cousin, Sir Anthony Throckmorton, the last male heir. Sir Anthony died in
                    1994 and the title died with him. However, Sir Robert's niece Clare
                    bought Sir Anthony's life interest in the lease and she manages the estate
                    today with her husband and three children.
                    Coughton Court Today
                    As you would expect from a family and a house with such a long and
                    interesting past, the house has many fascinating items and features from all
                    periods that are extremely well presented.
                    There are too many to list here, but the most interesting to me were a
                    collection of family documents on display many dealing with recusant
                    issues the family had to face, and other reminders of their catholic history,
                    such as a 17th century veneered cabinet that reveals a secret recess for the
                    Host during Mass, a chemise which has stitched upon it 'of the holy
                    martyr, Mary, Queen of Scots' (later tests prove that the linen was woven
                    in the year of Mary's death), a garter ribbon of Prince Charles Edward, a
                    glove of the Old Pretender, James III as well as locks of their hair, and a
                    perfectly preserved and beautiful velvet cope embroidered in gold by
                    Queen Catherine of Aragon and her ladies-in-waiting, as well as several
                    hiding places throughout the house.
                    In addition you will find the famous Newbury Coat, the original abdication
                    letter of King Edward VIII, a chair reputed to be made of the wood of
                    the bed where Richard III spent his last night before the Battle of
                    Bosworth, a tremendous collection of portraits and furnishings, and above
                    all the glorious gardens, which have recently been restored.
                    Reproduced by kind permission of the Gunpowder Plot Society