Thomas Armstrong (English politician)
{{short description|English Army officer and politician}}
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{{redirect|Sir Thomas Armstrong|the musician, Sir Thomas Armstrong|Thomas Armstrong (conductor)|other uses|Thomas Armstrong (disambiguation)}}
Sir Thomas Armstrong ({{circa|1633}} – 20 June 1684) was an English Army officer and politician who was executed for treason.Richard L. Greaves, Armstrong, Sir Thomas (bap. 1633, d. 1684), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004
His father, Colonel Sir Thomas Armstrong (died November 1662) fought in the 30 Years War in the Netherlands, was a royalist soldier during the English Civil War, and was twice imprisoned in the Tower of London by Oliver Cromwell during the Commonwealth.{{cn|date=December 2022}}
Following his implication in the Rye House Plot in 1683, Armstrong was hanged, drawn and quartered for high treason.
Life
During the Interregnum Armstrong was a supporter of Charles II, participating in the plot to seize Chester Castle in 1655, and carrying funds from Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford to Charles in exile. He was possibly imprisoned for a year on his return. In 1657, he married Catherine, daughter of James Pollexfen and niece of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon.
File:A True Account of the Apprehending of Sir Thomas Armstrong.jpg, 1684]]
Following the Restoration, he received, in February 1661, a commission as captain-lieutenant in the Royal Horse Guards. In August 1675, Armstrong killed the son of one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting at a London theatre. Armstrong was pardoned on the grounds that his opponent had drawn first.
Armstrong served with James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth in France from 1672, fighting at the Siege of Maastricht (1673) and alongside the Dutch, in 1678. He was wounded at St Denis. In 1679, he helped suppress the covenanter rising and fought at the battle of Bothwell Bridge, at the same time that the Popish Plot in England was scaring the Anglican establishment.
Monmouth's influence secured him as MP for Stafford in March 1679 to the First Exclusion Parliament.
Death
File:Execution of thomas armstrong 1683.jpg
Following the Rye House Plot, in 1683, he was indicted in the Court of King's Bench for high treason. A wanted man, Armstrong fled to Cleves and then Rotterdam but was captured in Leiden and sentenced to death by Judge George Jeffreys.{{cite web|url= https://open.conted.ox.ac.uk/sites/open.conted.ox.ac.uk/files/resources/Create%20Document/23_Drabble_pp229_243%20corrected.pdf|title= Two Perspectives on the Execution of Sir Thomas Armstrong (1684): Tory Triumphalism and Dutch Distaste|first=James|last= Drabble|page=230|publisher=University of Oxford|access-date=31 March 2023}}
He made a dignified end on the gallows at Tyburn on 20 June 1684, protesting that he died "a true and sincere Protestant ... and in the communion of the Church of England; and I heartily wish I had more strictly lived up to the religion which I believed". His lands and bonds totalling £12,700 were saved from forfeiture under his marriage settlement. Nevertheless, his trial was widely regarded as a flagrant miscarriage of justice. He was dragged by hurdle to Tyburn, where he was hanged, drawn and quartered, on 20 June 1684. His head was affixed to Westminster Hall, three of his quarters were displayed in London, and the fourth at Stafford.
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References
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{{s-bef | before=William Chetwynd | before2=Walter Chetwynd}}
{{s-ttl | title=Member of Parliament for Stafford | years=1679–1684 | with=Walter Chetwynd 1679 | with2=Sir Thomas Wilbraham 1679–1681 | with3=Edwin Skrymsher 1681–1684}}
{{s-aft | after=Edwin Skrymsher}}
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Category:People of the Rye House Plot
Category:People executed under the Stuarts for treason against England
Category:Executed English people
Category:Recipients of English royal pardons
Category:Year of birth uncertain
Category:People executed by Stuart England by hanging, drawing and quartering
Category:English politicians convicted of crimes
Category:Royal Horse Guards officers
Category:English MPs 1680–1681
Category:Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Stafford