Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk

2025-10-23T18:05:29Z

2600:1700:3AD0:3530:95AD:C12A:2FB7:D76B: /* Marriage and progeny */

{{Short description|English nobleman}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{other people|Henry Grey|Henry Grey (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox nobility
| name = Henry Grey
| title = [[Duke of Suffolk]]<br />[[Marquess of Dorset]]
| image = Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, by Johannes Corvus.jpg
| caption = Possible portrayal of Henry Grey-(although now thought to be Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester)
| alt =
| CoA =
| more = no
| succession =
| reign =
| reign-type =
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| spouse = {{marriage|[[Frances Brandon]]|1533}}
| issue = [[Lady Jane Grey]]<br>[[Lady Katherine Grey]]<br>[[Lady Mary Grey]]
| issue-link =
| issue-pipe =
| full name =
| styles =
| titles =
| noble family = [[House of Grey]]
| house-type =
| father = [[Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset]]
| mother = [[Margaret Wotton, Marchioness of Dorset|Margaret Wotton]]
| birth_date = 17 January 1517
| birth_place = [[Westminster]], London, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1554|02|23|1517|01|17}}
| death_place = [[Tower Hill]], London, England
| death_cause = Execution
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}}
[[File:Coat of arms of Sir Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, KG.png|thumb|200px|Quartered arms of Sir Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, KG]]
'''Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, 3rd Marquess of Dorset''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|KG|KB}} (17 January 1517{{snd}}23 February 1554), was an [[Kingdom of England|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, Marchioness of Dorset|Margaret Wotton]] (1485–1541), 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.<ref>Julian Lock, "Fitzalan, Henry, twelfth earl of Arundel (1512–1580)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004.</ref>

In 1533, with the permission of [[King Henry VIII]], he married his half-second cousin [[Lady Frances Brandon]] (1517–1559), the daughter of King Henry's sister [[Mary Tudor, Queen of France|Mary]] and [[Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk]]. They had three daughters all second cousins-once-removed to him as well as daughters:
*[[Lady Jane Grey]] (1537–1554)
*[[Lady Katherine Grey]] (1540–1568)
*[[Lady Mary Grey]] (1545–1578)

==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 [[Order of the Bath|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 [[Sieges of Boulogne (1544–46)|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 Park|Bradgate]], Leicestershire, Grey concentrated on raising his family to greater heights. Thus, with the Protector's brother [[Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley|Thomas, Lord Seymour]], Grey conspired to have his daughter [[Lady Jane Grey|Jane]] married to the King. This plot failed, ending in Seymour's execution, but Grey emerged unscathed.<ref>{{cite DNB |wstitle= Grey, Henry (d.1554) |volume= 23 |last= Bradley |first= Emily Tennyson |author-link= Emily Tennyson Bradley |pages=184-186 |short= 1}}</ref>

In 1549, [[John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland|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 without a male heir and the dukedom of Suffolk became extinct.<ref>{{cite DNB |wstitle= Grey, Henry (d.1554) |volume= 23 |last= Bradley |first= Emily Tennyson |author-link= Emily Tennyson Bradley |pages=184-186 |short= 1}}</ref> Henry Grey was created [[Duke of Suffolk]] on 4 or 11 October 1551 at [[Hampton Court]], in the same ceremony that elevated John Dudley to the [[Dukedom of Northumberland]].<ref>C. S. Knighton, ''Calendar State Papers Domestic, Edward VI'' (London: HMSO, 1992), p. 207 no. 557.</ref>

==Protestantism==
Henry Grey was best known for his zeal for the [[Protestantism|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, [[Edward VI of England|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.<ref>''Grey, Henry, duke of Suffolk (1517–1554), magnate'' by Robert C. Braddock in [[Dictionary of National Biography]] ([[Oxford University Press]], 2004)</ref>

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 of England|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 (died 1570)|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, [[Lady Katherine Grey|Katherine]], the same day as Jane's wedding. The country was divided in its loyalties to the two contenders for Queen at the time.<ref>Eric Ives (ref.)</ref>

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]],<ref>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.)</ref> after his conviction for [[Treason|high treason]] for his part in Sir [[Thomas Wyatt the Younger|Thomas Wyatt's]] [[Wyatt's rebellion|attempt (January{{snd}}February 1554) to overthrow her]] after she announced her intention to marry King [[Philip II of Spain]]. Eleven days earlier, on 12 February, his daughter Jane and his son-in-law, Guildford, had been executed.

==Mummified head==
[[File:Holy Trinity Minories mummified head.png|thumb|The head found at [[Holy Trinity, Minories]]]]
According to Walter George Bell (writing in 1920),<ref name=Bell>Walter George Bell, ''Unknown London'' (London: John Lane, 1920), pp. 3–18.</ref> 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 Aldgate|St Botolph's Church, Aldgate]], to which Holy Trinity Parish had been annexed.<ref name=Bell />

The head was examined in the late 19th century by [[George Scharf|Sir George Scharf]], former Keeper of the [[National Portrait Gallery (London)|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 [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury|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.<ref name=Bell />

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.<ref>{{cite journal |author= |date=1990 |title=St Botolph, Aldgate T Q 3358 8120 (Julian Ayre, Sean O'Connor) SAB87. |url=http://www.hobleysheroes.co.uk/archives/67-london-archaeologist-1990-vol-6-10 |journal=London Archaeologist |volume=6 |issue=10 |access-date=12 January 2018 |archive-date=13 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180113092948/http://www.hobleysheroes.co.uk/archives/67-london-archaeologist-1990-vol-6-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Family tree ==
{{Suffolk family tree}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
*Robert C. Braddock, "Grey, Henry, duke of Suffolk (1517–1554)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/11535}}
*Eric Ives, "Lady Jane Grey, A Tudor Mystery", Wiley-Blackwell 2009,

{{S-start}}
{{S-off}}
{{s-new }}
{{s-ttl| title = [[Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire]]|years = 1549–1551 }}
{{s-aft| rows=2| after = [[Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon|The Earl of Huntingdon]]}}
|-
{{s-bef| before = [[Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon|The Earl of Huntingdon]]}}
{{s-ttl| title = [[Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire]]|years = 1552–1554 }}
{{S-legal}}
{{Succession box | before=[[William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester|The Earl of Wiltshire]] | title=[[Justice in Eyre]]<br />south of the Trent | after=[[Henry Radcliffe, 2nd Earl of Sussex|The Earl of Sussex]] | years=1550–1553}}

{{S-reg|en}}
{{s-bef| before = [[Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset|Thomas Grey]] }}
{{s-ttl| title = [[Marquess of Dorset]]
|creation=3rd creation|years = 1530–1554 }}
{{s-vac | forfeit }}
{{S-end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suffolk, Henry Grey, 1st Duke Of}}
[[Category:1517 births]]
[[Category:1554 deaths]]
[[Category:Dukes of Suffolk|301]]
[[Category:Knights of the Bath]]
[[Category:Knights of the Garter]]
[[Category:Lord high constables of England]]
[[Category:Lord-lieutenants of Leicestershire]]
[[Category:People executed under the Tudors for treason against England]]
[[Category:Executed English nobility]]
[[Category:Prisoners in the Tower of London]]
[[Category:16th-century English nobility]]
[[Category:Grey family|Henry]]
[[Category:Harington family|Henry]]
[[Category:People executed by Tudor England by decapitation]]
[[Category:People executed under Mary I of England]]
[[Category:English politicians convicted of crimes]]
[[Category:Barons Harington]]
[[Category:Barons Bonville|4]]
[[Category:Barons Astley (1295)]]

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Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk