Robert Strelley (by 1518 – 23 January 1554), of Great Bowden, Leicestershire, was an English politician, soldier, and courtier to Mary I of England.
He was a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Leicestershire in October 1553.
Strelley fought with Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk at the siege of Montreuil in 1544, and in Scotland, probably at the battle of Pinkie. He was with Mary I at Kenninghall, where Mary made him a member of her Privy Council, and at Framlingham Castle in July 1553, where she mustered an army of supporters. Robert Wingfield listed him, as a man "whose family was not obscure", in a catalogue of Mary's supporters.
Robert Strelley served as a Chamberlain of the Exchequer from 1553 until his death the following year. In 1548, he married Frideswide Knight, a descendent of Thomas de la Haye of Spaldington, Yorkshire, but left no children. Edward VI gave the couple property and a fee-farm rent income from the lands of Egglestone Abbey.
Strelley came from an extended family, and was a son either of Sir Nicholas Strelley of Linby or Sir Nicholas Strelley of Strelley. His will mentions a brother, also called Robert Strelley, who was a goldsmith in London, and two more brothers, John Strelley of London and Robert Strelley of Tirlington, a sister Joan Porter, a nephew William Saville, and a niece Elizabeth Stubbs. His property passed initially to his wife, Frideswide Strelley, and then by entail to the various relations named in the will.
References
1554 deaths
Members of the Parliament of England for Leicestershire
People from Great Bowden
English MPs 1553 (Mary I) Court of Mary I of England Year of birth uncertain