Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton

Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, KG was an English peer, secretary of state, Lord Chancellor and Lord High Admiral. A naturally skilled but unscrupulous and devious politician who changed with the times, Wriothesley served as a loyal instrument of King Henry VIII in the latter's break with the Catholic church. Richly rewarded with royal gains from the Dissolution of the Monasteries, he nevertheless prosecuted Calvinists and other Protestants when political winds changed.

21 December 1505

Born on the same birth day (21 December): Barry Gordon • Freddy Sanchez • Kiefer Sutherland • Kurt Waldheim • Max Maven • Nikolaos Sifounakis • William H. Osborn

Born in the same month (December 1505): Christine of Saxony • Philipp von Hutten