Arthur Brett (1595–1642) was an English courtier in the reign of James VI and I.W Done Bushell, "The Bretts of Rotherby", Journal of the Associated Architects Societies, 31:2 (1912), pp. 471–483.
Career Brett was a son of William Brett of Hoby and Rotherby, Leicestershire, and his wife Anne Beaumont. Anne was the sister of Mary Beaumont, mother of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.Roger Lockyer, Buckingham (Longman, 1981), p. 73: The Visitation of the County of Leicester in the Year 1619 (London, 1870), p. 206. Some sources give his father's name as "James".Visitation of Gloucestershire, 1682–3 (Exeter, 1884), p. 25.
Brett gained a place at court as a groom of the bedchamber. He was the brother-in-law of Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex. In 1622, it was rumoured he might become the King's favourite, displacing his own relative George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.David M. Bergeron, King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire (University of Iowa, 1999), pp. 118–119: David M. Bergeron, Royal Family, Royal Lovers (University of Missouri, 1991), p. 171. A Scottish courtier, Thomas Erskine, 1st Earl of Kellie, who was sceptical about the rumour and Brett's chance of success, relayed the story in his letters to the Earl of Mar:There hes a rumore past heir of laite in the court ... bye sume men that his majestie shuld begin to love and favore one young man called Breate. He is a groome in his bed-challmer, and cowsen germane to my Lord of Bukkinghame. I think I maye sweare that it was nather in the King's mynd nor in the young mans conceate.Henry Paton, Historical Manuscripts Commission Supplementary Report Mar & Kellie (London, 1930), pp. 133, 140.
Buckingham was displeased by this situation and Cranfield had Brett sent abroad.Henry Paton, Historical Manuscripts Commission Supplementary Report Mar & Kellie (London, 1930), pp. 151, 153.Neil Cuddy, "The Revival of the Entourage: The Bedchamber of James I, 1603–1625", The English Court (London: Longman, 1987), pp. 194, 221. Describing the affair and new rewards for Buckingham in a letter of 23 December 1622, the Venetian ambassador Alvise Valaresso wrote that courtiers reflected on the fall of the Earl of Somerset and said James's favour was "like a summer sky, from which, when quite serene, a thunderbolt sometimes falls unexpectedly".David M. Bergeron, Royal Family, Royal Lovers (University of Missouri, 1991), p. 171: Calendar State Papers Venice, 17, p. 530 no. 708.
In 1624, Cranfield faced charges for corruption as Lord High Treasurer and, according to John Chamberlain, his predicament was greater because of his attempt to set up a "new idol".David M. Bergeron, King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire (University of Iowa, 1999), p. 119: Menna Prestwich, Cranfield: politics and profits under the early Stuarts (Oxford: Clarendon, 1966), p. 428: Anthony F. Upton, Sir Arthur Ingram (Oxford, 1961), p. 99. Brett had returned from France in March 1624, without Buckingham's leave, which made things worse for Cranfield, especially after Brett tried to get the King's attention by catching his bridle in Waltham Forest.Jason O'Toole, Exploring Early Modern Sexualities: The Desires of King James VI & I (Bloomsbury, 2025), p. 101.Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, 2 (Philadelphia, 1939), p. 571. The Venetian ambassador heard that James roughly thrust him away and wished that he was hanged.Allen B. Hinds, Calendar of State Papers Venice (London, 1912), p. 401. Brett was sent for a time to the Fleet Prison.Henry Paton, Historical Manuscripts Commission Supplementary Report Mar & Kellie (London, 1930), pp. 197–199: Folkestone Williams & Henry Birch, Court and Times of James the First, 2 (London: Henry Colburn, 1849), p. 467. Brett was questioned by the Attorney General Thomas Coventry and claimed that he had returned to England because he had run out of money.Robert E. Ruigh, The Parliament of 1624: Politics and Foreign Policy (Harvard University, Press, 1971), p. 314. He was released in September 1624.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 4 (London, 1828), pp. 984–985.
Brett was buried at Gloucester Cathedral in 1642, where there was an inscription "Here lieth the body of Arthur Brett , Esquire, groom of the bedchamber unto King James, who died July 2, 1642".J. P. Ferris, "The Real Arthur Brett", Recusant History, 18 (1986), p. 37: John Le Neve, Monumenta Anglicana (London, 1719), p. 200 no. 386.
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