Henry Grey KG KB
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Henry Grey KG KB (1517 - 1554)

Henry "1st Duke of Suffolk, 3rd Marquess of Dorset" Grey KG KB
Born in Bradgate, Leicestershire, Englandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Husband of — married about 1535 in Suffolk Place, Southwark, London, Englandmap
Descendants descendants
Died at age 37 in Tower Hill, London, Englandmap
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Biography

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Henry Grey KG KB is Notable.

Lord Henry Grey, 3rd Marquess of Dorset and Duke of Suffolk, is best known as the father of Lady Jane Grey, proclaimed as Queen of England in 1553. He was beheaded in 1554 at the order of Queen Mary I.

Origins

Henry Grey was descended from one of the oldest titled families in England. He was a cousin of Henry VIII, both descended from Elizabeth Woodville. Before she married King Edward IV, Elizabeth was the widow of Sir John Grey. Her son Thomas Grey was created Marquess of Dorset by Edward IV, and his son Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, was the father of Henry Grey, 3rd Marquess of Dorset and Lord Ferrers of Groby, Harington, Bonville, and Astley. [1] [2] [3]

Henry Grey was born 17 January 1517, heir to Thomas Grey and his second wife Margaret Wotton.[4] His father Thomas Grey being in great favor with both Henry VIII and the Duke of Suffolk, Charles Brandon, Henry Grey was a courtier from his childhood, when he joined the household of the king's illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond. There, he was educated and also perhaps first exposed to the reformed religion that was beginning to be introduced into England. It was also at court that he acquired a lifelong gambling habit.[5] [6] Following his father's death, Henry was once banished from court, and Margaret Grey had to ask the king's secretary, Thomas Cromwell, to try to keep her son in line if he saw him there engaged in ‘any large [gambling] or great … swearing or any other demeanour unmeet for him to use, which I fear me shall be very often, I pray you, for his father’s sake to rebuke him, and if he has any grace, he will be grateful to you when he grows older’.[7]

Henry Grey was often engaged in ceremonial courtier duties: carrying regalia in processions at funerals and coronations. He was made Knight of the Bath 1533 and Knight of the Garter 1547, and he was named Lord High Constable for the coronation of Edward VI in 1547. While the aging veteran dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk marched off to wars and rebellions, the Marquess of Dorset was slow to carry out the military duties traditional for his rank.[2] Only months after being appointed Warden of the Scottish Marches in 1551, he resigned the position.[8]

Lord Thomas Grey died 11 October 1530, when Henry was thirteen years old. His Will had left the guardianship of his son to his wife Margaret, but Henry was contracted in marriage to Katherine FitzAlan, daughter of the Earl of Arundel. He refused the match,[9] which incurred a large penalty that Margaret was unable to pay. Accordingly, she sold his wardship to Charles Brandon, who needed a husband for his eldest daughter Frances - ranking higher in precedence than Katherine. Unfortunately for Brandon, his wife Mary Tudor, widow of the late French king, died at about this time, cutting off much of his income. He attempted to get out of his payments to Margaret; lawsuits ensued and the king got involved. But the marriage of Henry Grey and Frances Brandon was accomplished some time in 1533.[10] [11] [12]

The fact that their eldest daughter, Jane Grey, was not born until 1536 has led some historians to suppose the existence of two previous infants who died young. But both subsequent children - daughters - followed at similar intervals: Katherine in 1540 and Mary in 1545.[13]

Rise and Fall

Henry Grey, Marquess of Dorset, was not yet thirty years of age when King Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547, leaving a nine-year-old heir in Edward VI and a guardian council ready to establish an official reformation of the English church and enrich themselves in the process. These were both goals dear to Henry Grey's heart. He was a patron of the New Learning and the protestant divines coming to England's universities,[14] but when it came to political ambition, his sense of rank and entitlement was not supported by a talent for leadership; Henry Grey was a follower. He attached himself first to Thomas Seymour, younger brother of the Lord Protector Edward Seymour, who raised himself to the rank of Duke of Somerset on the strength of being the young king's uncle. Seymour convinced Grey to sign over the wardship of his daughter Jane Grey on the strength of a promise, which he could not fulfill, to marry her to the young king. Seymour overreached himself to the point where he was attainted and executed in 1549, while Henry Grey rushed to distance himself from his former ally.[15]

He attached himself next to John Dudley, a man even more ambitious and ruthless, and began to take on duties in government, being named in 1549 to the Privy Council.[1] At about this time, in 1551, his father-in-law, Charles Brandon, died without living male heirs, leaving his title available. Henry Grey was thus created Duke of Suffolk on 11 October, in right of his wife Frances Brandon,[1] while John Dudley, not to be outdone, raised himself to Duke of Northumberland and Lord Protector.[16] On 25 May 1553, Lady Jane Grey was married to Dudley's fourth son Guildford.[17] This has often been considered as part of a plot to put Jane Grey on the throne as queen, with Guildford as king, Edward VI being terminally ill, but at that date, Edward's "Devise for the Succession" had not yet named Jane as his direct heir.

Nonetheless, at Edward's death on 6 July 1553, the two dukes made a united effort to put Jane Grey on the throne and maintain her there against the campaign of Mary Tudor, whom everyone outside the council still regarded as the rightful heir, to take it from her. It is notable that Grey was originally nominated to lead the armed force against Mary, with sources in disagreement as to why he did not. One traditional account claims that Queen Jane, "with weeping tears, made the request to the whole council that her father might tarry home in her company." But other sources tell a completely different story: that Henry Grey refused the command and offered excuses. "The duke was most unhappy at being entrusted with such a weighty task, and on the virtuous and salutary advice of his wife Frances, refused the offer, using some fainting fits, or according to others, attacks of giddiness as his excuse. His daughter, the so-called queen, strongly urged him to embark on his expedition, saying with great boldness that she could have no safer defense for her majesty than her most loving father."[18] [19] It would not have been the first time that Henry Grey attempted to evade a military duty. But was it possible that Henry Grey was involved in sabotage of his daughter's reign? Or perhaps his wife Frances, the good friend of Mary Tudor? Was it possible that Frances's jealousy at being passed over for the crown caused her to take Mary's side?

John Dudley did indeed mistrust his colleagues on the Privy Council, as he expressed in his address to them on setting out at the head of his army: "If we thought you would through malice, conspiracy or dissension leave us your friends in the briars and betray us . . ." Dudley left to confront Mary on the morning of 14 July; on the 19th, the majority of the council agreed to proclaim Mary as queen. Henry Grey took down his daughter's canopy of state, then abandoned her to join the others, apparently making no attempt to win them back. One ambassador wrote: "Although the duke of Suffolk remained as [Northumberland's] deputy, as he was not hold as [a] man of great valour and therefore lacked authority . . ." [20]

Frances Grey being welcomed by Queen Mary, she pleaded for her husband and, after a brief stay in the Tower, Henry Grey was released to house arrest.[21] It was John Dudley who paid the price with his life, on 22 August, and Mary claimed she had no intentions of further penalizing the Grey family.

Henry Grey changed her mind, however, when in January 1544 he decided to join Wyatt's Rebellion after Queen Mary announced that she was going to marry Philip of Spain and make him king of a Catholic England. Grey, with his two brothers, John and Thomas, were supposed to raise Leicestershire, but the plot was prematurely betrayed and the Greys were able to raise only 140 men. Grey hid in a pile of hay in a large hollow oak tree near Astley church for several days, evading capture, but was eventually betrayed for £200 by his gamekeeper Underwood. (The oak tree blew down in a gale in 1891. There is a sandstone monument to the Duke on the spot where the tree once stood.) At his trial, Henry Grey excused himself, not from his zeal for religion, but his outraged sense of entitlement - "the small esteem in which the council held him" when he was the highest-ranked nobleman.[22]

He was beheaded 23 February 1554, eleven days after his daughter met this fate.[8] Henry Grey's actions had proved to Queen Mary that Jane would only be a continual focus for rebellion if left alive.[23] [24] The Grays' castellated manor of Astley with Bentley Park, was sold by letter patent, by the Crown, on 22 December 1554, to Henry's 6th cousin twice removed, Edward Chamberlayne, MP for £1,580 (equivalent in 2017 to £368,631.38). [25]

"The Fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge: the innocent Lady must suffer for her Father's fault." [26]

Sources

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011. N.p., Douglas Richardson. pp. 303-308. Magna Carta
  2. 2.0 2.1 G E Cokayne. The Complete Peerage (Edition 1, Volume 3), 1890. pp. 148-149. Cokayne
  3. The Visitation of the County of Leicester, 1612. London: Harleian Society, 1890. Visitation
  4. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Grey, Henry, Duke of Suffolk. ODNB
  5. Tallis, Nicola. Crown of Blood. pp. 8-10. London: Michael O'Mara Books Ltd, 2016.
  6. Ives, Eric. Lady Jane Grey. p. 74-75. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
  7. Tallis, p. 12.
  8. 8.0 8.1 Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 23: Grey, Henry (d.1554) by Emily Tennyson Bradley DNB
  9. Sources are not agreed on whether this contract constituted an actual marriage.
  10. Tallis, pp. 12-14.
  11. Ives, p. 24.
  12. Gunn, Steven. Charles Brandon. pp. 145-146. Amberley Publishing, 2016.
  13. Weir, Alison. Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy. pp. 158-159. London: Vintage, 2008.
  14. Ives, pp. 68-75.
  15. Ives, pp. 47-48.
  16. Ives, pp. 112-113.
  17. Ives, pp. 151-158.
  18. Ives, pp. 198-199.
  19. Talllis, pp. 1270-171.
  20. Ives, p-. 216.
  21. Tallis, pp. 200-201.
  22. Ives, p. 266.
  23. Ives, pp. 261-268.
  24. Tallis, pp. 248-256.
  25. Deed Relating to Astley. Retrieved from Collections Shakespeare (Here;) Accessed 8 Apr 2022.
  26. Sir Robert Baker. "A Chronicle of the Kings of England from the time of the Romans Government unto the Death of King James. London: 1670. p. 458.

Old Citations:

[S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. IV, p. 420-422.

[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. I, p. 301.

[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 308.

[S6] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 168-169.

[S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. I, p. 509.

[S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. III, p. 164-165.

[S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. V, p. 208-210.

[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 307.

[S6] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 167.

[S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. III, p. 163-164.

[S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. IV, p. 421.

[S11572] The Lineage and Ancestry of H.R.H. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, by Gerald Paget, Vol. II, p. 33.

[S6] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 170.

[S11583] The Wallop Family and Their Ancestry, by Vernon James Watney, p., 702.





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The bio section states that Charles Brandon died about 1551. He actually predeceased Henry VIII by 17 months, dying in August 1545.
posted by Mark Harrison
Please provide your source for this statement, as the death date is established by the following source - ↑ 8.0 8.1 Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 23: Grey, Henry (d.1554) by Emily Tennyson Bradley DNB
posted by Robin (Felch) Wedertz
I plan to edit this biography to remove redundancies from cut-and-paste entries and add inline citations.
posted by Lois (Hacker) Tilton