James Tuchet, 7th Baron Audley

James Tuchet, 7th Baron Audley (c. 1463 – 28 June 1497) was a leading rebel in the 1st Cornish Rebellion of 1497 opposing the rule of Henry VII of England. James Tuchet was born in Heleigh Castle, Staffordshire to John Tuchet, 6th Baron Audley and Anne Echingham. He was sentenced for treason and beheaded with the defeat of the Cornish Rebellion of 1497.

Marriages and issue

About 1483 Audley married Margaret Darrell, the daughter of Richard Darrell of Littlecote, Wiltshire by Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Stafford, widow of Humphrey Stafford, styled Earl of Stafford, and daughter and coheir of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, by whom he had a son and heir, John Tuchet, 8th Baron Audley.

Audley married secondly, about Michaelmas 1488, Joan Bourchier (d. 3 March 1532), daughter of Fulk Bourchier, 10th Baron FitzWarin, and Elizabeth Dynham, by whom he had a son, John Tuchet.

Cornish Rebellion of 1497

Tuchet was an army commander who succeeded to the title of 7th Lord Audley, of Heleigh on 26 September 1490. He became one of the commanders of the 1st Cornish Rebellion of 1497 in Wells during June 1497. The Cornish army under the command of Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank had marched to Wells and then onto Winchester via Bristol and Salisbury in a remarkable unopposed progress right across the south of England. In Somerset Lord Audley had helped take command of the army which marched through Guildford and onto Blackheath near Deptford, south-east London where a battle took place on 17 June 1497. The Cornish were beaten by the King's forces and the leaders Michael An Gof, Thomas Flamank, and Lord Audley were captured on the battlefield.

Henry VII was said to be delighted and gave thanks to God for deliverance from the rebellious Cornish. An Gof joined Flamank and Audley in the Tower of London and a week later they were tried and condemned. An Gof and Flamank enjoyed the king's mercy by being hanged until they were dead before being disemboweled and quartered. Their heads were then stuck on pikes on London bridge. As a peer, Lord Audley was treated more graciously: on Wednesday, 28 June 1497, he was taken from Newgate gaol to Tower Hill where he was beheaded. He was buried at Blackfriars, London. His title was forfeit but was restored to his son John in 1512.