Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven
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Mervyn Tuchet, otherwise Audley, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven; 12th Baron Audley; 2nd Baron Audley of Orioer (1593 - 14 May 1631) was the son of George Tuchet, 1st Earl of Castlehaven (1551-1617) and his wife, née Lucy Mervyn (d. before 1610)
Before 1617, he married Elizabeth Barnham (1592 - about 1622/24), daughter of Benedict Barnham and his wife née Dorothea Smith, and by her had six children:
- James (about 1617-1684)
- Frances (b. 1617)
- George (d. about 1689)
- Mervyn (d. 1686)
- Lucy (d. 1662)
- Dorothy (d.1635)
Mervyn Tuchet, Lord Audley, succeeded his father as Earl of Castlehaven on 20 February 1616/7.
On 22 July 1624 he married, at Harefield, Middlesex, Lady Anne Stanley (1580-1647), elder daughter and co-heiress of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby1 (about 1559-1594) and his wife, née Alice Spencer (d. 1637), formerly wife of Grey Brydges, 5th Baron Chandos. By her he had one daughter, Anne.
He was beheaded on Tower Hill for a number of sexual crimes, (an "unnatural crime" committed with his page, Laurence (or Florence) FitzPatrick, who confessed to the crime and was executed) and for assisting Giles Browning (or Giles Broadway), also executed, in the rape of the Countess of Castlehaven (née Anne Stanley), in which Lord Castlehaven participated by restraining his wife. The charges were brought against him on the complaint of his son, who feared disinheritance, about the promiscuousness of his mother, to the Privy Council.
Laurence Fitz Patrick testified that the Countess of Castlehaven "was the wickedest woman in the world, and had more to answer for than any woman that lived."
Cockayne, in the Complete Peerage adds that the death of the Earl was certainly brought about by the Countess's manipulations, and her unquestionable adultery with one Ampthill and with Henry Skipwith renders her motive suspicious.
According to Cynthia B. Herrup, A House in Gross Disorder: Sex, Law, and the 2nd Earl of Castlehaven, Oxford University Press, 1999, Anne was the equal of Lord Castlehaven in immorality.
The 2nd Earl of Castlehaven was attainted of felony on 14 May 1631, forfeiting his English Peerage, as it was created for heirs general but retaining his Irish Earldom and Barony (since it was an entailed honour protected by the statute De Donis). When he was beheaded on Tower Hill that same day, his Irish titles passed to his son, James.
| Preceded by: George Tuchet | Earl of Castlehaven | Followed by: James Tuchet |
| Baron Audley of Orioer | Followed by: Forfeit |
Note
1The marriage of Katherine Gray to Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford (d. 1621) was of questionable validity: if it be deemed invalid, and if one excludes the descendants of James VI & I, then Ferdinando Stanley would have been the heir of the Tudors. He was approached by conspirators and offered the English throne if he would help in their conspiracy against Elizabeth I. He declined, and was then poisoned by the conspirators. Anne Stanley would have succeeded him to the throne, but her children by Baron Chandos would have proceeded her daughter by the Earl of Castlehaven in the succession.