Edward Littleton (died 1558)

Richard had settled in Staffordshire, his mother's home county, and become surveyor to Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham.

[1] He became a tenant and probably steward of William Wynnesbury, who was lord of Pillaton and Otherton, in the parish of Penkridge, in the late 15th century.

In 1513, Littleton took part in Henry's invasion of northern France, in which his troops defeated the French at the Battle of the Spurs, going on to take the important stronghold of Tournai.

Littleton's companion in this campaign was Sir John Giffard of Chillington Hall, near Brewood, a near neighbour who distinguished himself in the fighting.

With the death of his mother Alice in 1529, Littleton inherited the Pillaton and Otherton estates, together with the hall, making him a much more important force locally.

Within months he was elected as the junior of Staffordshire's two Knights of the Shire – a designation for county members of parliament that does not imply a knighthood.

The most important measures in the early years were concerned with stripping away the privileges of the clergy, particularly those that tied them to the Pope, with whom Henry VIII was in continual conflict over the proposed annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

Both Giffard and Littleton were happy to buy and speculate in lands that came on the market as a result of the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries Act, the most important measure of the last session of the 1529–36 Parliament.

Certainly Littleton and Thomas Giffard, Sir John's son, were returned to Parliament by the shire again in 1536, with the king's approval.

However, Littleton had fallen out with the Staffords, previously friends and allies, over fishing rights on the River Penk at Dunston, north of Penkridge.

Stafford petitioned the Privy Council, claiming that the Sheriff had also discriminated against his son in the previous election, earlier in the year.

Littleton's most important intervention on a theological issue was in the case of George Blagge, at the time MP for Bedford.

At his trial at the Guildhall, the main witnesses for the prosecution were Littleton and Sir Hugh Calverley, MP for Cheshire.

Fortunately for him, the Lord Privy Seal, John Russell, appealed on his behalf to the king, who had not heard of the proceedings to that point.

The real sin of Blagge seems to have been that he was openly opposed to the influence of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, who was one of the most powerful men in the country.

Blagge feared that he would exercise too much influence over the future Edward VI and had said as much to Norfolk's son, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey.

[1] Pillaton itself, with the manor house, actually belonged to Burton Abbey,[5] probably since about, when Wulfric Spot donated land in the area.

The issue went to Thomas Cromwell who decided to sell to Giffard, who, after some negotiation, bought the site, mill and demesne lands, worth £7 9s.

Haughmond Abbey in Shropshire was a much larger property, put on the market after the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1539.

The smaller part, conferred on the church was known as the deanery manor, while the remainder was placed in lay hands – in the 16th century the Grevilles, who were Barons Willoughby de Broke.

The Crown conferred the deanery manor on John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, an immensely ambitious member of Edward's government.

The church acquired a Littleton family chapel in its south aisle and was partly rebuilt in Perpendicular style, with impressive square tower and east windows of local sandstone.

Stafford, a former friend who became his main enemy among the local magnates, described how, in his later years: It appears that some contemporaries regarded Littleton as an upstart.

He was buried in St. Michael's church, apparently in the family chapel, and a large alabaster tomb for himself and both his wives was installed.

Tomb of Sir Edwarde Lyttelton and his wives, Helen Swynnerton and Isabel Wood, in Penkridge parish church. Attributed to the Royley workshop in Burton on Trent.
Arms of Sir Edward Littleton.
Sir Thomas de Littleton, grandfather of Edward Littleton. An 18th-century engraving after a 15th-century painting.
William Wynnesbury of Pillaton Hall and his wife, grandparents of Edward Littleton. From their memorial, in the floor of the south chancel aisle, St. Michael's church, Penkridge.
Richard Littleton and Alice Wynnesbury, Edward's parents, on incised slab of their recessed table tomb in the south nave aisle, St. Michael's church.
Penkridge parish church today. Much of its external appearance seems to be the result of alterations in Perpendicular style made in the time of Edward Littleton. His acquisition of the deanery lease was a key step in his family's rise to fortune.
Remains of Pillaton Old Hall, near Penkridge , Staffordshire. The original moated manor house became ruinous after the family moved to Teddesley Hall , but the Gatehouse and Chapel were restored in the 1880s.
Sir William Paget, technically Littleton's overlord in the key estate of Pillaton, although he received only 16s. a year for it.
John Dudley, later to become Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland, pictured on a painted panel at Penshurst Place , Kent.
Arms of Sir Edward Littleton impaled with those of his first wife, Helen Swynnerton, on their tomb in St Michael's church, Penkridge, Staffordshire.
Arms of Sir Edward Littleton, impaled with those of his second wife, Isabel Wood.
Helen Swynnerton, represented in gable hood , distinctive of an earlier stage in the history of fashion than Isabel Wood's dress.