Anthony or Antony Standen (b. c. 1548 – d. ?) was an English servant of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley at the Scottish court. As an English Catholic exile he became a spy or intelligencer. Standen was recruited by Francis Walsingham and, using an alias Pompeo Pellegrini, provided critical information about preparations for the Spanish Armada. Imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1604, Standen wrote a short account of his adventures.Christopher Andrew, The Secret World: A History of Intelligence (Yale, 2018), p. 161: Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1 (London, 1754), p. 66.
Two brothers at the Scottish court
Standen was a "goodly tall fair man with flaxen hair and beard". According to his own accounts, in 1565 Standen came to Scotland at the instance of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox,HMC Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury, 16 (London, 1933), p. 15. and was appointed an equerry of the royal stable, or Master of the Horse, to Mary, Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 310 no. 464. Mary asked her wardrobe staff to make a mattress and bedding for Standen in July 1565 at the time of her wedding, and the accounts identify him as "Standy, escuyer de l'ecuyie du Roy".Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descossse (Edinburgh, 1863), p. 157.
His younger brother, also called Anthony, was made a cupbearer at Mary's table.Joseph Stevenson, History of Mary Stewart by Claude Nau (Edinburgh, 1883), pp. cii-civ: M. S. Giuseppi, HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 16 (London, 1933), p. 16. Both Standen brothers received a fee as members of the Scottish court in 1566.Gordon Donaldson, Thirds of Benefices (SHS: Edinburgh, 1949), p. 186. The Standen brothers did not have permission to travel outside of England and were regarded with disdain by English diplomats. Their father, Edmund Standen, wrote to them in January 1566, hoping their friends in Scotland might cause Elizabeth I to think better of them.Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury, 1 (London, 1883), no. 1074.
In October 1565 the English sailor Anthony Jenkinson was sent in the Ayde to Scotland during the political crisis of the Chaseabout Raid.Edward Delmar Morgan, Charles Henry Coote, Early voyages and travels to Russia and Persia, by Anthony Jenkinson and other Englishmen (London, 1886), pp. xlvi-xlviii, 167-176 He sailed into the Firth of Forth on 25 September 1565. His mission was to blockade Leith to prevent Lord Seton landing munitions for Mary sent from France. An adverse wind brought him within range of the cannon of the fortress isle of Inchkeith.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1563–1569, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 220–1. Jenkinson had been ordered not to declare that he had been sent by the English government, and said he was looking for pirates. Mary, Queen of Scots sent aboard Anthony Standen and his brother with a present of a bow and arrows and a "box of conserve" for Queen Elizabeth, with a gold chain and gilt cup for the captain. Jenkinson considered capturing Standen, and the English diplomat Thomas Randolph wished the ship had been blown back to England with Standen.Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 220-1.
After the murder of David Rizzio Standen wrote that he helped Queen Mary during the murder of David Rizzio and the subsequent events at Holyrood Palace.James Anthony Froude, History of England: Reign of Elizabeth, 8 (London, 1870), pp. 262–264, Froude used the Hatfield papers version of Standen's narrative. He accompanied Darnley to the queen's bedchamber before the conspirators gained access. He claimed to have grabbed the wrists of "Pety Balentyne" (Patrick Bellenden of Stenhouse), a servant of Lord Ruthven, who threatened Mary with a dagger. Bellenden was the brother of the Justice Clerk, John Bellenden.HMC Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury at Hatfield, vol. 16 (London, 1933), p. 16.Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Scotland: Mary Stuart, 5 (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1854), pp. 194–195 citing Vatican Capitoline MS.
When the royal couple escaped from Holyrood, Standen accompanied them to Seton Palace and Dunbar Castle. Arthur Erskine of Blackgrange and John Stewart of Traquair, a captain of the royal guard, also escorted Mary and Darnley to safety. Standen said that Mary spoke to the three of them in her bedchamber before they secretly left the palace after midnight. He wrote that Mary's female servant, a chamberer, rode behind him. The servant is sometimes identified as Margaret Carwood.HMC Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury at Hatfield, vol. 16 (London, 1933), p. 17Herries, John Maxwell, Historical memoirs of the reign of Mary Queen of Scots: and a portion of the reign of King James the Sixth (Abbotsford Club, 1836), p. 78
A French report mentions the captain of the guard and that royals rode behind the escuier, meaning Arthur Erskine.Alexander Teulet, Relations Politiques, 2 (Paris, 1862), p. 263 Claude Nau's account of these events did not emphasise Standen's role. Nau wrote that Mary planned the escape with Traquair, who passed the details on to Blackgrange, and a servant or valet of the king's bedchamber, possibly meaning Standen, with two or three soldiers completed the group riding to Dunbar.Joseph Stevenson, History of Mary Stewart by Claude Nau (Edinburgh, 1886), pp. 10–11, 16, 222, 227.
Lord Herries' Memoirs seem to mention Standen as "William Stainley",Historical memoirs of the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots (Edinburgh, 1836), p. 78 and the 19th-century historian Agnes Strickland thought this was a reference to a "William Standen".Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Scotland: Mary Stuart, 4 (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1853), p. 342. "Stainley" has also been identified as a "William Stanley", a young son of Rowland Stanley of Hooton not otherwise mentioned in any Scottish record.Wilfred Hammond, Catholic Nobles and the Elizabethan State (Boydell, 2025), pp. 139–140.
The cradle knight According to a narrative of a talk between Darnley and his father, Standen smuggled his mistress into Edinburgh Castle during Mary's pregnancy, and it was rumoured the woman was also Darnley's mistress.Andrew Lang, Mystery of Mary Stuart (London, 1901), pp. 74–75 Cambridge University Library, 'Some parte of the talke between the late king of Scotland my sonne and me, therle of Lennox ryding between Dondasse and Lythkoo', Lennox narrative, CUL 3434 Oo. VII. 57.
Standen was knighted by Darnley around this time. He described the circumstances of his knighthood in his "Relation" which he sent as a petition to King James in April 1604;"after Her Majesty was most happily delivered of the then Lord the Prince ... at which time in acknowledgement of Standen's services, it pleased the King by the Queen's appointment to honour him with the order of knighthood, as also it pleased Her Majesty, some days after the childbirth to cause the knight to be called into her bedchamber, where the infant Prince laid asleep, a cross of diamonds fixed on his breast, upon this cross Her Majesty commanded the knight to lay his hand, to whom it her pleasure herself to give the oath of fidelity."Joseph Stevenson, The History of Mary Stewart by Claude Nau (Edinburgh: Paterson, 1883), p. ciii: Mrs Hubert Barclay, The Queen's Cause: Scottish Narrative, 1561–1587 (London, 1938), p. 151: Standen's "Relation" is in The National Archives, TNA SP14/1/237.
Standen wrote that Mary, Queen of Scots, declared he was the first Englishman to do homage to the prince, saying, "For that you saved his life". He wrote that Mary said her baby had unclenched his fists, a sign of a generous nature. In another version of Standen's narrative, Darnley organised a tournament of running at the ring to celebrate the royal birth, and Standen won the prize of a jewel.M. S. Giuseppi, HMC Calendar of the Manuscripts of Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield, 16 (London, 1933), p. 18.
Lord Herries' Memoirs describes a conversation between Mary, Darnley, and "William Stainley" in which she brought up the risk of her injury by gunshot during the murder of Rizzio.Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Scotland: Mary Stuart, 4 (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1853), pp. 342–343: Historical memoirs of the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots (Edinburgh, 1836), p. 79 An English envoy Henry Killigrew came to Edinburgh to congratulate Mary on the birth, and refused to speak to Standen.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 289.
Another English man, William Rogers, came to Edinburgh in June and went hunting and hawking with Anthony Standen and Darnley. On his return to Oxford, he wrote to William Cecil that he had deliberately befriended the Standens and for a few days was thought to be a new member of Darnley's entourage. He offered to capture the two Standens and another English Catholic, Christopher Rokesby.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 293: Allan James Crosby, Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, 8 (London, 1871), no. 552.
France and Italy Mary sent him to Charles IX of France, with an official payment of £100 Scots,Gordon Donaldson, Thirds of Benefices (SHS: Edinburgh, 1949), p. 186. and he received a pension of annuity from the Cardinal of Lorraine. Anthony, the younger Standen brother, was in Edinburgh in February 1567 after the murder of Lord Darnley, and with the other English servants Welson and Gwyn sought a passport.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 317 no. 479. He was imprisoned at Berwick for a year. In 1570 he was said to be involved with Corbeyran de Cardaillac Sarlabous in a plot to invade England.Kathleen Lea, 'Sir Antony Standen and Some Anglo-Italian Letters', English Historical Review, 47:187 (July 1932), p. 463-4.
In 1576 he was banished from Antwerp by Philip II of Spain for over familiarity with Madame de Blomberg, mother of Don John of Austria. From 1582 Standen worked for Mary Queen of Scots in Florence, and in 1587 started working for Francis Walsingham.Kathleen Lea, 'Sir Antony Standen and Some Anglo-Italian Letters', English Historical Review, vol. 47 no. 187 (July 1932), p. 465-6.
On 23 March 1583 he wrote to James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, expressing his wish to return to Scotland and serve James VI until Mary Queen of Scots was freed. He said he had told the Grand Duke of Tuscany of the likely "association" of Mary and James, by which the captive queen would be returned to Scotland. He would like the portrait of the king for the Grand Duke. Standen wondered if the duke's daughter Eleanor de' Medici would be a suitable bride for James.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1581–1583, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1914), pp. 339-40. On the same day he wrote to John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, also conjecturing that Eleanor de' Medici, a wise and fair lady, would be a good bride for James VI.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1581–1583, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1914), pp. 339-42.
Standen obtained information from the Tuscan ambassador in Spain, Giovanni Figliazzi, in 1587 and 1588 and was able to report to Walsingham on preparations for the Armada, using in his correspondence an alias "Pompeo Pellegrini".Christopher Andrew, The Secret World: A History of Intelligence (Yale, 2018), p. 161: Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 1 (London, 1808), p. 172. The historian Conyers Read discussed the identification of Pellegrini with Standen, some writers suggest that Pellegrini was the younger Standen.Conyers Read, Mr Secretary Walsingham, 3 (Archon Books, 1967), pp. 289–293.