Everything about Henry Grey 1st Duke Of Suffolk totally explained
Henry Grey, 2nd Duke of Suffolk (
17 January 1515 –
23 February 1554), known as the
Marquess of Dorset between 1530 and 1551, was an
English nobleman of the
Tudor period and the father of
Lady Jane Grey.
Henry VIII's reign
The son of
Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset and of Margaret Wotton; through his father he was a great-grandson of
Elizabeth Woodville, the queen of
Edward IV of England, by her first marriage to
Sir John Grey of Groby. Henry Grey became the 3rd
Marquess of Dorset in
1530 after his father died.
(External Link
) In
1533, with the permission of King
Henry VIII he married
Lady Frances Brandon (
1517–
1559), the daughter of Henry VIII’s sister Princess
Mary Tudor and
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. The couple had three children who survived infancy:
Lady Jane Grey (
1537–
1554),
Lady Catherine Grey (
1540–
1568), and
Lady Mary Grey (
1545–
1578).
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 joined the
Order of the Garter.
Edward VI's reign
After Henry VIII's death in 1547, Grey fell out of favor with the leader of
King Edward VI's government,
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and 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. As a reward, he was created
Duke of Suffolk on
11 October 1551, in the same ceremony that elevated John Dudley to the Duchy of
Northumberland.
Protestantism
Henry Grey was best known for his zeal for the
Protestant faith. The Swiss reformer
Henry 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 for 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 Jane to Northumberland's son,
Lord Guildford Dudley, on 21 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. This proclamation failed, with a large-scale rallying of forces in the country to Henry VIII's eldest daughter,
Mary I.
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, 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
Philip II of Spain.
Trivia
According to the archives of
Ripley's Believe It or Not the severed head of the Duke was discovered in a vault in London's Holy Trinity church perfectly preserved by oak sawdust from the scaffold on which he'd been executed, 297 years earlier.
In Fiction
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