THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT ALSO TO LOOK AT KIP FENN, A MAJOR NOVEL ABOUT THE 21st CENTURY
- freely available on this site
Coningsby, Thomas ___ 1550-1625 ___
British ___ soldier, politician
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
There is very little information
about Coningsby available on the internet. He was born to Humphrey and Anne
(maiden name Inglefield), a rich family with extensive lands. Following
the death in quick succession of his father and elder brother he inherited,
as a boy, extensive estates, which, supplemented by later purchases, comprised
several Herefordshire manors as well as lands in Leicestershire, Shropshire
and Worcestershire. This wealth enabled him to play a leading part in regional
politics, especially when his fortunes became linked to those of the Earl
of Essex. He married Phillipa Fitzwilliam. In 1591, he accompanied Essex
to Normandy, on a mission to aid the then Protestant king of France, where
he acted as part time muster master to the English attachments. The same
year, in 1591, he was knighted by Essex. In 1593, Coningsby was elected
to Parliament for the city of Hereford. He also served as sheriff of the
county. He was the founder of some almshouses, now Coningsby Hospital. The
site was formerly occupied by a house of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem,
and parts of the hall and chapel date from this period, the 13th century.
The almshouses, consisting of twelve cottages, were built with stone from
parts of the existing structure as well as from the adjacent Blackfriars
Abbey (which had fallen into disrepair following the dissolution of the
monasteries in 1536). Coningsby's journal of the Siege of Rouen, a key event
in French history, is said to have been a source for Shakespeare's Henry
IV Part II. (Thanks to Robin J Conisbee Wood who provided additional material
for this potted biography. He has spent many years researching the Coningsby
family. robin80@tiscali.co.uk)
No biography link
DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1591 ___ military France
WEB TEXT LINKS
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Journal of the Siege of Rouen
May 2005, revised May 06
THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
Please
email if you have any corrections, additions or comments. |
IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS:
1) The first line of basic information
may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different
names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or
uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown,
or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British'
a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was
compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts
were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if
they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates
and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with
caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are
only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies.
4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges,
and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising.
I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some
variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited
myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their
original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the
titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries. |