William Paulet, 3rd Marquess of Winchester


William Paulet, 3rd Marquess of Winchester was an English nobleman, the son of John Paulet, 2nd Marquess of Winchester and his first wife, Elizabeth Willoughby. His maternal grandfather was Robert Willoughby, 2nd Baron Willoughby de Broke.
He was made a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Mary I on 30 November 1553.

Career

The offices he held during his career included:
Paulet was summoned to Parliament on 5 May 1572 in his father's Barony of St John. He succeeded his father as 3rd Marquess of Winchester on 4 November 1576. During October 1586, he was one of the judges at the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, later acting as Lord High Steward at her funeral on 1 August 1587.
He is known as the author of The Lord Marquess Idleness, a remarkable and most ingenious acrostic of six Latin verses. It was published in 1586 and 1587.

Marriage and issue

Between 20 June 1544 and 10 February 1547/1548 he married Anne or Agnes Howard, daughter of William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham and his first wife, Katherine Broughton and had issue:
The marriage was not a happy one, and the couple were only reconciled, on one occasion, by Elizabeth I's intervention.
Paulet also had children with his recognised mistress Jane Lambert, who later married the much younger Sir Gerrard Fleetwood:
He died 24 November 1598 and was buried at Basing, Hampshire. His widow, Anne Paulet, died 18 November 1601. The date of Jane Lambert's death is not recorded.