Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk

English nobleman

Frances Brandon
(m. 1533)
IssueLady Jane Grey
Lady Katherine Grey
Lady Mary GreyFatherThomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of DorsetMotherMargaret Wotton

Henry Grey, 2nd Duke of Suffolk, 3rd Marquess of Dorset KG KB (17 January 1517 – 23 February 1554), was an English courtier and nobleman of the Tudor period. He was the father of Lady Jane Grey, known as "the Nine Days' Queen".

Origins

He was born on 17 January 1517 at Westminster, London and was the son and heir of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset (1477–1530) by his wife Margaret Wotton (1485–1535), daughter of Sir Robert Wotton (c. 1463–1524) of Boughton Malherbe in Kent. Through his father, he was a great-grandson of Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of King Edward IV, by her first marriage to Sir John Grey of Groby.

Marriage and progeny

Before 1530, Grey was betrothed to Catherine FitzAlan, the daughter of William FitzAlan, 18th Earl of Arundel, whom he later refused to marry.[1]

In 1533, with the permission of King Henry VIII, he married his second cousin Lady Frances Brandon (1517–1559), the daughter of King Henry's sister Mary and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. They had three daughters all second cousins to him as well as daughters:

Career

Henry VIII's reign

Henry Grey became the 3rd Marquess of Dorset in 1530 following the death of his father. Before Henry VIII's death in 1547, Grey became a fixture in court circles. A knight of the Bath, he was the king's sword-bearer at Anne Boleyn's coronation in 1533, at Anne of Cleves' arrival in 1540, and at the capture of Boulogne in 1545. Twice he bore the Cap of Maintenance in parliament. He helped lead the army in France in 1545. In 1547, he became a Knight of the Order of the Garter.

Edward VI's reign

After Henry VIII's death in 1547, Grey fell out of favour with the leader of King Edward VI's government, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector of England. Returning to his home in Bradgate, Leicestershire, Grey concentrated on raising his family to greater heights. Thus, with the Protector's brother Thomas, Lord Seymour, Grey conspired to have his daughter Jane married to the King. This plot failed, ending in Seymour's execution, but Grey emerged unscathed.

In 1549, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, overthrew the Protectorship and secured power by appointing loyal friends to the Privy Council. Grey joined the Council as a part of this group. In July 1551 his wife's youngest half-brother, Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, died. Henry Grey was created Duke of Suffolk jure uxoris on 11 October 1551, in the same ceremony that elevated John Dudley to the Dukedom of Northumberland.

Protestantism

Henry Grey was best known for his zeal for the Protestant faith. The Swiss reformer Heinrich Bullinger dedicated a book to him in 1551 and frequently corresponded with the family. In Parliament and on the Privy Council, Grey pushed for further Protestant reforms. He is credited with making Leicestershire one of the most reliably Protestant counties in early modern England.

Queen Jane

Seriously ill, and fearing his own death, King Edward VI granted Northumberland's request for the marriage of Suffolk's daughter Lady Jane Grey to Northumberland's son, Lord Guildford Dudley, on 25 May 1553. Edward later altered his will to make Jane his designated successor. Edward died on 6 July 1553, and three days later Suffolk, Northumberland, and other members of the Privy Council proclaimed Jane queen.[2]

This proclamation failed; not by a large-scale rallying of forces in the country to Henry VIII's eldest daughter, the future Queen Mary I, as is often thought, but by a wavering Privy Council switching its allegiance to Mary during Northumberland's absence on the campaign against her. The decision was led by Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel, Suffolk's brother-in-law, and William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke. Arundel had been imprisoned earlier by Northumberland for having sided with the previous Protector, Somerset; but it is not clear why Pembroke revolted, especially since his son and heir, Henry Herbert, married Henry Grey's other daughter, Katherine, the same day as Jane's wedding. The country was divided in its loyalties to the two contenders for Queen at the time.[3]

By his wife's friendship with the new Queen Mary, Grey and his daughter and son-in-law temporarily avoided execution. However, Mary had Henry Grey beheaded on 23 February 1554 at around nine to ten o'clock in the morning on Tower Hill,[4] after his conviction for high treason for his part in Sir Thomas Wyatt's attempt (January – February 1554) to overthrow her after she announced her intention to marry King Philip II of Spain.

Mummified head

The head found at Holy Trinity, Minories

According to Walter George Bell (writing in 1920),[5] in 1851 the severed head of the Duke of Suffolk was discovered in a vault in the Church of Holy Trinity, Minories, in the City of London, suggested to have been preserved by the tannin-rich oak sawdust used to pad the basket on the scaffold on which he had been beheaded 297 years earlier. Bell believed the head might have been hidden by the Duke's widow to prevent it from being exposed on a spike on London Bridge. Both of them had worshipped in the chapel at Holy Trinity. The church was closed in 1899 and deconsecrated, when the head found a new resting place at St Botolph's Church, Aldgate, to which Holy Trinity Parish had been annexed.[5]

The head was examined in the late 19th century by Sir George Scharf, former Keeper of the National Portrait Gallery, who noted a strong resemblance between its features and those in the portrait of the duke then in the possession of the Marquess of Salisbury at Hatfield House. However, Bell also notes a scandal at Holy Trinity in 1786 in which a sexton had been found sawing and chopping up coffins in the vaults and using the wood to stoke the fire in his quarters. Many of the bodies had been partly dismembered in the process, and Bell warned his readers that the surviving head might well have resulted from this debacle.[5]

In later years, the head was sealed in a vault in the crypt at St Botolph's, until a planned conversion of the space into an office resulted in an archaeological investigation of the site between April and July 1990. The archaeologists recovered the head from the vault and the Rector of the church buried it in the churchyard.[6]

Family tree

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Family tree of the Earls, Marquesses, and Dukes of Suffolk and the Earls of Bindon and Berkshire
Earl of Norfolk (1st creation), before 1069
Ralph the Staller
(c. 1011–1068)
1st Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk, or of the East Angles, ?–1068
Ralph de Gael
(c. 1040 – c. 1096)
2nd Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk, or of the East Angles, 1068–1074
Earldom of Norfolk and Suffolk, or of the East Angles (1st creation) extinct, 1382Earl of suffolk (2nd creation), 1337
Robert Ufford
(1298–1369)
1st Earl of Suffolk, 1337–1369
Earl of suffolk (3rd creation), 1385
Michael de la Pole
(1330–1389)
1st Earl of Suffolk, 1385–1388
William Ufford
(1330–1382)
2nd Earl of Suffolk, 1369–1382
Earldom of Suffolk (2nd creation) extinct, 1382
Thomas de Mowbray
Duke of Norfolk
Michael de la Pole
(1367–1415)
2nd Earl of Suffolk, 1398–1399, 1399–1415
Marquess of Suffolk, 1444
Earl of Pembroke (6th creation), 1447
Duke of Suffolk (1st creation) 1448
Robert Howard
(1385–1436)
Margaret de Mowbray
(c. 1388–1459)
Elizabeth MowbrayMichael de la Pole
(1394–1415)
3rd Earl of Suffolk, 1415
William de la Pole
(1396–1450)
4th Earl of Suffolk, 1415–1450
1st Marquess of Suffolk, 1444–1450
Earl of Pembroke, 1447–1450
1st Duke of Suffolk, 1448–1450
Earldom (3rd creation), Marquessate, and Dukedom (1st creation) of Suffolk and Earldom of Pembroke (6th creation) forfeit, 1450
John Howard
(1425–1485)
Duke of Norfolk
Cecily NevilleRichard Plantagenet
Duke of York
Earldom (3rd creation), Marquessate, and Dukedom (1st creation) of Suffolk restored, 1463
Thomas Howard
Duke of Norfolk
Richard III
Duke of Gloucester
King of England
Edward IV
King of England
Elizabeth PlantagenetJohn de la Pole
(1442–1492)
2nd Duke of Suffolk, 2nd Marquess of Suffolk, 5th Earl of Suffol, 1463–1492
Elizabeth Boleyn
(c. 1480–1538)
Countess of Wiltshire
Thomas Howard
Duke of Norfolk
Lord Edmund HowardElizabeth of YorkHenry VII
King of England
Edmund de la Pole
(1472–1513)
3rd Duke of Suffolk, 3rd Marquess of Suffolk, 1492–1493
6th Earl of Suffolk, 1492–1504
Marquessate and Dukedom (1st creation) of Suffolk surrendered, 1493
Earldom of Suffolk (3rd creation) forfeit, 1504
Marquess of Pembroke, 1532Duke of suffolk (2nd creation), 1514
Anne Boleyn
(c. 1501 or 1507–1536)
Marquess of Pembroke
1532–1536
Henry VIII
King of England
Mary Tudor
Queen of France
Charles Brandon
(1484–1545)
1st Duke of Suffolk, 1514–1545
Marquessate of Pembroke forfeit, 1536
Duke of suffolk (3rd creation), 1551
Henry Howard
Earl of Surrey
Catherine Howard
(c. 1524–1542)
Henry Grey
(1517–1554)
1st Duke of Suffolk, 1551–1554
3rd Marquess of Dorset
Frances Grey
Dukedom of Suffolk (3rd creation) forfeit, 1554
Thomas Howard
Duke of Norfolk
Jane Grey
Disputed Queen of England
Henry Brandon
(1535–1551)
2nd Duke of Suffolk, 1545–1551
Charles Brandon
(1537–1551)
3rd Duke of Suffolk, 1551
Dukedom of Suffolk (2nd creation) extinct, 1551
see Dukes of Norfolk family treeEarl of Suffolk (4th creation), 1603
Thomas Howard
(1561–1626)
1st Earl of Suffolk, 1603–1626
Earl of Berkshire (2nd creation), 1626
Theophilus Howard
(1584–1640)
2nd Earl of Suffolk, 1626–1640
Thomas Howard
1st Earl of Berkshire
James Howard
(c. 1620–1689)
3rd Earl of Suffolk, 1640–1689
George Howard
(1625–1691)
4th Earl of Suffolk, 1689–1691
Henry Howard
(1627–1709)
5th Earl of Suffolk, 1691–1709
Charles Howard
(1615–1679)
2nd Earl of Berkshire
Thomas Howard
(1619–1706)
3rd Earl of Berkshire
William HowardPhilip Howard
(1629–1717)
Earl of Bindon, 1706
Henry Howard
(1670–1718)
1st Earl of Bindon, 1706–1718
6th Earl of Suffolk, 1709–1718
Edward Howard
(1672–1731)
8th Earl of Suffolk, 1722–1731
Charles Howard
(1685–1733)
9th Earl of Suffolk, 1731–1733
Craven HowardDorothy HowardCapt. Charles Howard
Charles Howard
(1693–1722)
2nd Earl of Bindon, 7th Earl of Suffolk, 1718–1722
Henry Howard
(1706–1745)
10th Earl of Suffolk, 1733–1745
Henry Bowes Howard
(1686–1757)
4th Earl of Berkshire, 1706–1745
11th Earl of Suffolk, 1733–1745
Catherine GrahamCapt. Philip Howard
Earldom of Bindon extinct, 1722
Henry Howard
(1739–1779)
12th Earl of Suffolk, 5th Earl of Berkshire, 1745–1779
Thomas Howard
(1721–1783)
14th Earl of Suffolk, 7th Earl of Berkshire, 1779–1783
John Howard
(1739–1820)
15th Earl of Suffolk, 8th Earl of Berkshire, 1783–1820
Henry Howard
(1779–1779)
13th Earl of Suffolk, 6th Earl of Berkshire, 1779–1779
Thomas Howard
(1776–1851)
16th Earl of Suffolk, 9th Earl of Berkshire, 1820–1851
Charles Howard
(1804–1876)
17th Earl of Suffolk, 10th Earl of Berkshire, 1851–1876
Henry Howard
(1833–1898)
18th Earl of Suffolk, 11th Earl of Berkshire, 1876–1898
Henry Howard
(1877–1917)
19th Earl of Suffolk, 12th Earl of Berkshire, 1898–1917
Charles Howard
(1906–1941)
20th Earl of Suffolk, 13th Earl of Berkshire, 1917–1941
Michael Howard
(1935–2022)
21st Earl of Suffolk, 14th Earl of Berkshire, 1941–2022
Alexander Howard
(b. 1974)
22nd Earl of Suffolk, 15th Earl of Berkshire, from 2022
Arthur Howard
(b. 2014)

Arms

Arms of Grey

The arms of the head of the Grey family are blazoned Barry of six argent and azure in chief three torteaux gules.[7]

Notes

  1. ^ Julian Lock, "Fitzalan, Henry, twelfth earl of Arundel (1512–1580)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
  2. ^ Grey, Henry, duke of Suffolk (1517–1554), magnate by Robert C. Braddock in Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004)
  3. ^ Eric Ives (ref.)
  4. ^ The Diary of Henry Machyn, Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London, 1550-1563. (1848). In Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk. Retrieved January 31, 2024, from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/camden-record-soc/vol42/pp50-66 (ref.)
  5. ^ a b c Walter George Bell, Unknown London (London: John Lane, 1920), pp. 3–18.
  6. ^ "St Botolph, Aldgate T Q 3358 8120 (Julian Ayre, Sean O'Connor) SAB87". London Archaeologist. 6 (10). 1990. Archived from the original on 13 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  7. ^ Woodward, John (1896). A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign. Vol. 2. p. 49.

References

  • Robert C. Braddock, "Grey, Henry, duke of Suffolk (1517–1554)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004,
  • Eric Ives, "Lady Jane Grey, A Tudor Mystery", Wiley-Blackwell 2009,
Political offices
New title Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire
1549–1551
Succeeded by
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire
1552–1554
Legal offices
Preceded by Justice in Eyre
south of the Trent

1550–1553
Succeeded by
Peerage of England
Preceded by Marquess of Dorset
3rd creation
1530–1554
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