Sir Michael Stanhope (before 1508 – 26 February 1552) of Shelford in Nottinghamshire, was an influential courtier who was beheaded on Tower Hill, having been convicted of conspiring to assassinate John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, and others.
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Origins
He was born before 1508, the second son of Sir Edward Stanhope (d. 6 June 1511) of Rampton in Nottinghamshire, by his first wife Adelina Clifton, a daughter of Sir Gervase Clifton of Clifton in Nottinghamshire. The Stanhopes were an ancient Nottinghamshire family and Sir Edward Stanhope fought at the Battle of Stoke in 1487 and, in 1497, at the Battle of Blackheath, where he was knighted on the field for his valour. He was a Knight of the Body and Constable of Sandal Castle.
Sir Edward Stanhope married secondly (as her third husband) Elizabeth Bourchier (d. 1557) a daughter of Fulk Bourchier, 10th Baron FitzWarin (1445–1479), by whom he had an only daughter Anne Stanhope (c. 1510–1587), Sir Michael Stanhope's half-sister and the wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, eldest brother of Queen Jane Seymour
Career
In 1529, following the death of his elder brother, Richard Stanhope (d. 21 January 1529), without male issue, Michael Stanhope succeeded to some of the family estates, excluding the paternal seat of Rampton which descended to his only daughter and heiress Saunchia Stanhope, the wife of John Babington. By 1532 he was in the service of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland. By 1535 Stanhope's half sister, Anne Stanhope, had married Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, the eldest brother of Queen Jane Seymour, third wife of King Henry VIII, and thus Stanhope entered the King's service.