[11] Her husband was arrested in 1540 whilst on recall to England, for alleged involvement in a plot to betray Calais, Henry VIII's cherished personal possession, to the French, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Although no evidence was ultimately found to implicate him and in 1542 he was due for release and pardon, he died in the Tower "at the sudden rapture",[12] having heard the good news but before regaining his freedom.

[13] The contemporary chronicler Elis Gruffydd described the event of 20 May 1540 thus:[14] That afternoon in the twilight Lord Sussex and the Council went to the Staple Inn where Lady Lisle kept house.

Her husband's arrest was a great shock to her, and John Foxe, the Protestant martyrologist, stated in his Actes and Monuments that immediately on hearing the news she "fell distraught of mind and so continued many years after".

[27] Foxe disliked Honor, and stated of her: "The Lord Lisly albeit...himselfe of a most gentle nature, beeing fiercelie set on, and incessantlie intised by the wicked Lady Honor his wife, who was an utter enemie to God's honour, and in Idolatrie, hypocrisie and pride incomparably evill, since beeing dailie and hourelie thereunto incited and provoked by Sir Thomas Palmer Knight, and John Rookewood Esquire, too enemies to God's word, beginning nowe to flourish at Calice".

These letters show her forceful personality and the influence she had over her husband, which was such that Thomas Cromwell himself felt obliged to write tactfully to Viscount Lisle pointing out that in matters of state a crown official could not simply do what his wife told him to.