Thomas Stukley, born around 1520 and raised…

Thomas Stukley, born around 1520 and raised the son of Sir Hugh Stukley, of Afheton, near Ilfracombe in north Devon, a well-off clothier and knight of the body to King Henry VIII, and Jane Pollard.

Descended on his mother's side from a noble line, Thomas is supposed by some of his contemporaries to be an illegitimate son of Henry VIII himself.

He had been present at the siege of Boulogne in 1544-1545, and again in 1550 on the surrender of the city to the English.

A standard-bearer at Boulogne from 1547 to 1550, he had then entered the service of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset.

A warrant had been issued against him in 1551 after his master's arrest, but he had succeeded in escaping to France, where he serves in the French army.

His military talents have brought him to the attention of Henri I Montmorency, and he is sent to England with a letter of recommendation from Henry II of France to his supposed half-brother Edward VI of England.

He proceeds on arrival on September 16, 1552, to reveal the French plans for the capture of Calais and for a descent upon England, the furtherance of which, according to his account, is the object of his mission to England.

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, evades the payment of any reward to Stukley, and seeks to gain the friendship of the French king by pretending to disbelieve Stukley's statements.

Stukley, who may well be the originator of the plans adopted by the French, will be imprisoned in the Tower of London for some months.