ENGLEFIELD, SIR FRANCIS (c. 15 2o-1596) , English Roman Catholic politician, was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Englefield of Englefield, Berkshire, justice of the common pleas. Francis, who succeeded his father in 1537, took the oath of royal supremacy, serving as sheriff of Berkshire and Oxfordshire in 1546-47, and accepting in 1545 a grant of the manor of Tile hurst, which had belonged to Reading Abbey. He was even knighted at the coronation of Edward VI. But the progress of the Reformation alienated him, and he attached his fortunes to the cause of the princess Mary. On Mary's triumph, he was sworn a member of the privy council like many others who owed their promotion to their loyalty. He sat as M.P. for Berkshire in all Mary's parliaments except that of April 1554, but received no higher political office than the lucrative mastership of the court of wards.
At Elizabeth's succession, he retired to the continent. He in duced the pope to send a legate to persuade Elizabeth to return to the fold, and later became the close confidant of Cardinal Allen, Parsons and of those Catholics who advocated forcible inter vention by Spain and the succession of the infanta. In 1592 his estates were appropriated by the crown. Englefield died most probably at Valladolid.