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Sir Ralph Sadler or Sadleir PC, Knight banneret (1507 – 30 March 1587) was an English statesman, who served Henry VIII as Privy Councillor, Secretary of State and ambassador to Scotland. Sadler went on to serve Edward VI. Having signed the device settling the crown on Jane Grey in 1553, he was obliged to retire to his estates during the reign of Mary I. Sadler was restored to royal favour during the reign of Elizabeth I, serving as a Privy Councillor and once again participating in Anglo-Scottish diplomacy. He was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in May 1568.
At around seven years of age, Sadler was placed in the household of Thomas Cromwell, later Earl of Essex, where he received an excellent education. He was taught to read and write, becoming fluent in French, Latin and Greek, and acquired a working knowledge of the law. He proved to be not only intelligent and resourceful but also capable of great feats of horsemanship and was skilled at falconry.
Roger Ascham compared Sadler's appearance in terms of complexion, countenance and beard to Duke Maurice, although the Duke was taller. Sadler is also represented by his tomb effigy at Standon, and he may have been painted by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1535.
It was probably soon after Cromwell's elevation to the peerage, on 9 July 1536, that Sadler was named a gentleman of the Privy Chamber. In the same year, he became MP for Hindon, Wiltshire and his name also appears in the list of administrators named for Catherine of Aragon's will.
In January 1537, Sadler was sent to Scotland to investigate complaints made by Margaret Tudor, the King's sister, against her third husband, Henry Stewart, 1st Lord Methven, and to improve Anglo-Scottish relations. He succeeded in both respects. On 1 April 1537, Ralph met James V of Scotland, newly married to Madeleine of Valois, at Rouen.
Henry VIII was pleased with Sadler's work and sent him again to Scotland with a gift of horses. He was intended to discourage James V from accepting David Beaton proposed Franco-Scottish alliance. Sadler failed in that respect, but Henry VIII was nonetheless impressed with his work. As a New Year's Day gift in 1539, Sadler gave Henry VIII a gold signet ring with a dial. Later in that year, he was elected knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex.
In 1535 Sadler built Sutton House in Hackney, It is a red-brick, three-storey H-plan structure. Sadler sold the house and surrounding estate to John Machell, a cloth merchant, in 1550, having built a grander house, Standon Lordship, in Hertfordshire.
In 1576, Thomas Avery of Berden, Essex, bequeathed to Sadler a gold table or locket with an image of Cromwell, a reminder of his old master who was executed in July 1540.
Sadler survived the fall from power and subsequent execution of his friend and mentor in 1540; however, during the power struggle following Cromwell's demise, he was arrested and sent to the Tower. On the evening of 17 January 1541, the Imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, and the French ambassador, Charles de Marillac, reported to their masters that Sir Ralph Sadler and Sir Thomas Wyatt had been arrested, as had another courtier Sir John Wallop. The following morning they were taken from Hampton Court, with their hands bound, accompanied by 24 archers, to the Tower. Marillac noted that it "must be some great matter" for Wyatt "has for enemies all who leagued against Cromwell, whose minion he was."
Sadler was able to clear himself and was released in a few days, returning to the council chamber. He played a leading role in the examination of Catherine Howard and her relatives in November 1541, having regained the King's trust for his part in attending to matters of state while the court went on a summer progress of the North. Together with his allies in the council, notably Thomas Cranmer, Sadler gathered evidence in an unsuccessful attempt to discredit Norfolk and Stephen Gardiner, the men who had orchestrated Thomas Cromwell's downfall.
Following the Battle of Solway Moss, Sadler was sent to Scotland again, in March 1543, to arrange a marriage between the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, and Edward, Prince of Wales. He was a successful negotiator for the Treaty of Greenwich, although the marriage was not concluded. On 22 March 1543, he rode from Edinburgh to Linlithgow Palace to see the queen for the first time. Mary of Guise asked the nurse Jean Sinclair to show him the queen out of her swaddling clothes. The scene was depicted by a 19th-century artist Benjamin Haydon. Sadler wrote that the infant was "as goodly a child I have seen, and like to live". Mary of Guise reminded him that in turn Regent Arran wanted his son James Hamilton to marry Princess Elizabeth. Mary tried to work on him to intercede for Regent Arran to release Cardinal Beaton from imprisonment, alleging the Cardinal's political expertise could be employed to mutual benefit. Henry VIII wanted English servants in Mary's household, and Sadler recommended "Lady Edongcomb" for this role, his friend, Katherine Edgcumbe the widow of Peter Edgecumbe of Cotehele.
Sadler closely followed a Secret Bond between Arran and Cardinal Beaton in July 1543. When an agreement was reached, the Earl of Lennox escorted Mary to Stirling Castle. On 9 August 1543 Sadler wrote to Henry VIII describing his visit to Mary of Guise and the infant Queen;
"(Mary of Guise) is very glad that she is at Stirling, and much she praised there about the house, and told me, "That her daughter did grow apace; and soon," she said, "she would soon be a woman, if she took of her mother;" who indeed, is of the largest stature of women. And therefore she caused also the child to be brought to me, to the intent I might see her, assuring your majesty, that she is a right fair and goodly child, as any that I have seen for her age."
By November Sadler, fearing for his safety as the mood in Edinburgh turned against England, moved to Tantallon Castle, which belonged to the Earl of Angus. Regent Arran sent the Rothesay Herald to Tantallon, ordering him to return Sadler to England, having "seen daily his great practices made to seduce and corrupt true faithful subjects of this realm to the opinion of England." The Clan Douglas conveyed him to Berwick upon Tweed on 11 December 1543. All of his work in solidifying Anglo-Scottish relations came to nothing, and war followed after the Scottish rejection of Treaty of Greenwich in December 1543.
Sadler was replaced by William Paget as Secretary of State in April 1543, owing to his frequent absences on diplomatic missions, but was appointed Master of the Great Wardrobe. He was treasurer for the war against Scotland with the Earl of Hertford during his punitive expedition to Edinburgh in May 1544. Sadler accompanied Hertford into Scotland, in the same role in September 1545. He accompanied Lord Hertford again, this time at the Battle of Pinkie in the post of High Treasurer of the Army. On 10 September 1547, in recognition of his services during the fighting, Sadler was made a knight banneret.
Sadler was present when Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, was arrested, and he also accompanied the force that put down Robert Kett's Norfolk Rebellion. When Henry VIII was preparing his will on Boxing Day 1546, he had already appointed Sadler onto the Council of Regency that was to rule England during Edward VI's minority and left him £200 in his will.
In 1550 Sadler sold his mansion at Hackney. He was one of the signatories of Edward VI's will in 1553, proving one of the radicals in a Protestant government. He signed the device settling the crown on the Protestant Jane Grey, and was noted by Lord Burghley as one of those expected to act on her behalf.
During the reign of Elizabeth I, restored to royal favour, Sadler was sent to Scotland on 8 August 1559 to arrange an alliance with the Scottish Protestants, and forward the cause of the Lords of the Congregation and Duke of Chatelherault. After the English became directly involved in the fighting at the Battle of Leith, he was one of the architects of the Treaty of Edinburgh. In 1568 he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
Sadler was again reluctantly appointed gaoler of Mary, Queen of Scots, from the summer 1584 to spring 1585, when she was housed at Wingfield Manor and Tutbury Castle. Mary's secretary Gilbert Curle, devised a code that seemed to include Sadler as the "carrier" and his assistant John Somers as the "carrier's man". An intercepted letter appeared to compromise Somers, and Sadler vouched for his loyalty to Francis Walsingham.
During Mary's time with Sadler, Elizabeth was nervous about Mary's plans against her. Sadler reported that the guards at Sheffield and Wingfield carried swords and daggers, pistols, polearm. He was instructed to restrict Mary's freedom. Walsingham chid Sadler and Somers for letting Mary ride from Tutbury to go falconry and for giving her "more lybertye now then at any tyme when she was in the E of Shrewsbury chardge".
According to Andrea Clarke, there was "a tangible, palpable sense of heightened levels of fear among Elizabeth's government and ministers about her safety in the midst of the danger posed by Mary Queen of Scots, who for many Catholics was a figurehead". Sadler was required to post guards round the castle and to search the grounds "once or twice a moneth". After the Babington Plot, Sadler was on the council that sentenced Mary to death.
Sadler may have had an illegitimate son, Richard.
Ellen Mitchell and Matthew Barre had been legally married in 1526, in Great Dunmow in Essex. They had two daughters before Barre abandoned them and went to Ireland. Ellen stayed in Dunmow for about a year trying to find out where he had gone. She then became a servant of the prioress at the nunnery of Clerkenwell. Determined to find Matthew, she visited his birthplace and with his brothers made further enquiries, but without success. Despairing of an answer she returned to Clerkenwell. Not long afterwards a man belonging to the city of Salisbury positively assured her that her husband was dead. Recommended by the Prioress of Clerkenwell, Ellen entered the service of Thomas Cromwell's mother-in-law, Mercy Pryor, and was dwelling in his house when Ralph Sadler became enamoured of her. Ralph Sadler and Ellen married believing that Matthew Barre was dead.
A version of Ellen's story was given by an Elizabethan writer, Nicholas Sanders, and attempted to cast doubt on her character, without success. Sanders claimed that Ellen (née Mitchell) was related to Thomas Cromwell, and that she had worked for him in his household. Given that Cromwell was known to take pity on widows, this is not unlikely.: Ellen may have been employed in Thomas Cromwell's household, where she met Ralph Sadler, however, the rest of Sanders' story is without foundation. The 17th-century historian Gilbert Burnet considered that Sanders' story was a fiction. Sanders was a Jesuit, a Catholic recusant writing with an agenda. He took delight in attempting to discredit leading public figures in England. There was no scandal surrounding the marriage between Ellen and Ralph when it took place. Cromwell's paternal aunt was Margaret Mitchell, and Ellen may have been a relative of Margaret and her husband William, or William's brother Thomas, all of whom once lived with and worked for Walter Cromwell. Rather than slandering Ellen and Ralph, this shows a friendly familial beginning.
An investigation found that Ellen's first marriage was valid, and Sadler was therefore obliged to have his children legitimised by a private act of Parliament. In 1546, this act of Parliament, (37 Hen. 8. c. 30 ) was passed on his behalf. The act set aside Ellen's marriage to Matthew Barre and made her marriage to Ralph Sadler a true and proper union. Sadler managed to prevent the publication of the act and its details never appeared among the statutes of the period. The only known contemporary reference to the act appears in a transcript entitled The Unprecedented Case of Sir Ralph Sadleir in the Library of the Inner Temple. Matthew Barre disappeared from the scene.
This episode damaged Sadler's reputation, but not irretrievably. His marriage to Ellen was saved and the couple lived on, without further incident, for many years. Sadler's wife was still living in 1569; however, there is no further record of her and there is no surviving tomb for her.
Sadler left the majority of his vast landholdings, including Standon and Buntingford, Hertfordshire, to his eldest son and heir, Thomas Sadler. Henry Sadler received the manors of Hungerford, Berkshire, and Everley, Wiltshire, Jane Bash received a diamond ring and an annuity was provided for Richard Sadler.Richard Sadler may have been an illegitimate son, or his grandson, the second son of Edward Sadler. see
He is also a minor character in Philippa Gregory's book The Other Queen, with an account given of the time he spent as gaoler of Mary, Queen of Scots.
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