Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley

Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley (09 September 1567 – 23 June 1643) was an English peer, politician, and landowner.

[2] In 1595 he drew up a warrant for his company led by Francis Coffyn and Laurence Bradshaw to travel and perform.

Legh was made High Sheriff of Staffordshire on the day of the election and had to be given leave of absence by Parliament.

[6] Pursuing a property dispute with the Worcestershire Lytteltons, Sutton put up his brother John as a candidate, in an attempt to stop the election of Sir Edward Littleton of Pillaton Hall, a close ally of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.

As a peer, Sutton should have no part in elections to the Commons, Littleton maintained, apparently the first time this constitutional principle was expressed.

The other candidate, Sir Christopher Blount, Essex's stepfather, was also offended at having been placed below Sutton on the election indenture.

His wife, Essex's mother, wrote to the Earl complaining about the outrage, and Sutton was summoned before the Privy Council.

[7] Edward Sutton brought his illegitimate son Dud Dudley home from Balliol College, Oxford to manage his ironworks, but this strategy was not entirely successful.

John had been compensated for his exclusion from a portion of his father's estate by the promise of an annuity from his brother, which Edward never paid.

The electoral fraud of 1597 might have helped John establish new contacts and income streams, but the parliament lasted little more than three months and the scandal made any further parliamentary career impossible for him.

Always short of money, Edward Sutton fought numerous battles to maintain his inheritance and income, many of them through violence.

He then claimed the right to seize outlaws' goods on other Lyttelton estates and raided them, driving off the sheep and cattle.

Lyttelton complained to the Star Chamber, which found in his favour, fining Sutton heavily for rioting and cattle rustling.

[1] It was this that led Sutton to attempt revenge by blocking Edward Littleton's election, as he was a distant kinsman of Gilbert Lyttelton.

[16] At the Star Chamber, Gilbert Lyttelton attempted to discredit Dudley by claiming that he had abandoned his wife in London without support to live with Elizabeth Tomlinson, "a lewd and infamous woman, a base collier's daughter".