Thomas Grey (conspirator)
William Grey daughter whose first name is unknown Joan Grey Elizabeth Grey Margaret Grey | |
|---|---|
| Father | Sir Thomas Grey |
| Mother | Joan Mowbray |
Sir Thomas Grey (30 November 1384 – 2 August 1415), of Heaton Castle in the parish of Norham, Northumberland,[1] was one of the three conspirators in the failed Southampton Plot against King Henry V in 1415, for which he was executed.
Family
Sir Thomas Grey, born 30 November 1384 in 'le Midyllgathouse’ at Alnwick Castle,[2] seat of the Percys, Earls of Northumberland, came from a family long prominent among the nobility in the border region of Northumberland.[3]
He was the eldest son and heir of Sir Thomas Grey (1359 – 26 November 1400) of Heton near
He had three brothers and a sister:[6]
- John Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville (d. 1421), who married Joan de Cherleton, stepsister of Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March.[7]
- Sir Henry Grey of Ketteringham, Norfolk, who married Emme Appleyard.[8]
- William Grey, Dean of York and Bishop of London (1426) (d. 1436).[9]
- Matilda Grey (1382 – 22 August 1451), who married Sir Robert Ogle (d. 12 August 1436) of Ogle, Northumberland, by whom she had children.[10]
A Soldier's Life
Grey's father, Sir Thomas Grey (1359–1400), and
Grey was only 16 years of age when he succeeded his father in 1400, and was shown great favour in the early years of the reign of Henry IV, including the grant of the wardship of his own inheritance while he was under age.[11] By August 1404 he had been retained for life by Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, but by May 1408 was in the service of Henry, Prince of Wales.[11]
In 1412, Grey betrothed his 12-year-old son and heir, Thomas Grey, to Isabel, the 3-year-old daughter of Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge. The marriage took place on 18 February 1413. As part of the marriage settlement, Grey acquired the lordship of Wark-in-Tyndale at a 'bargain price', which was nonetheless more than he could afford, leading Pugh to conclude that Grey was Cambridge's 'dupe', 'whose intrigues brought them both to disaster'.[12]
Grey, Cambridge, and Henry Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Masham, were the ringleaders of the failed Southampton Plot of 1415, which was a plot to assassinate King Henry V at Southampton before he sailed to France and to replace him with Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March.[13] On 31 July 1415, Mortimer revealed the plot to the King at Portchester Castle, near Portsmouth.[14] The conspirators were promptly arrested and executed. Sir Thomas Grey was beheaded at the North Gate of Southampton on 2 August 1415.[15] Grey's part in the Southampton Plot was attributed by Grey himself to 'poverty and covetousness'.[16]
The Southampton Plot is dramatized in Shakespeare's Henry V, and in the anonymous play, The History of Sir John Oldcastle.
Family
Sir Thomas Grey married, before 20 February 1408, Lady Alice Neville, the daughter of
- Edward III Plantagenet, and Philippa of Hainault[18] and Anne Mortimer; they had one son, his heir Thomas Grey; Isabel married secondly, on the 25th April 1426, by validated papal dispensation Henry Bourchier.[19]
- Sir Ralph Grey (d. 17 March 1442), who married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry FitzHugh, 3rd Baron FitzHugh, and Elizabeth Grey, and left children.[20]
- Sir John Grey.[21]
- Eleanor who married Sir John Arundel.[21][23]
- Joan Grey, who married Sir John Salvin.[21]
- Elizabeth Grey, who married firstly, Sir William Whitchester, and secondly, Sir Roger Widdrington.[21]
- Margaret Grey, who married Gerard Widdrington.[citation needed]
Grey's widow, Alice, married Sir Gilbert Lancaster, by whom she had one son, Sir Gilbert Lancaster. Alice was still living on 22 August 1453.[21]
Footnotes
- ^ Pugh 1988, p. 1.
- ^ King 2005, p. 69; Richardson II 2011, p. 254; Pugh 1988, p. 108.
- ^ Pugh 1988, p. 102.
- ^ King 2005, p. 69.
- ^ Richardson II 2011, p. 254; Richardson III 2011, p. 206; Pugh 1988, pp. 103, 187, 196.
- ^ Richardson II 2011, p. 254; Pugh 1988, p. 187.
- ^ Richardson I 2011, p. 428; Pugh 1988, pp. 104, 187.
- ^ Richardson II 2011, pp. 254–6.
- ^ Pugh 1988, p. 187.
- ^ Richardson II 2011, pp. 257, 390.
- ^ a b c Pugh 1988, p. 103.
- ^ Pugh 1988, p. 104
- ^ The historian Pugh contends that "there was no plot in 1415 to assassinate Henry V and his three brothers and that heinous charge, by far the most sensational in the indictment, was fabricated to ensure that Cambridge, Gray and Scrope did not escape the death penalty as a well-deserved punishment for the various other offences that they undoubtedly had committed". Pugh 1988, p. xii.
- ^ Pugh 1988, p. 116.
- ^ Pugh 1988, p. 122; Richardson II 2011, p. 257.
- ^ Pugh 1988, pp. 103, 161
- ^ Richardson II 2011, p. 257; Pugh 1988, p. 103.
- ^ Pugh 1988, pp. 104, 187.
- ^ Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th ed., Charles Mosley Editor-in-Chief, 1999, pp. 15, 1222
- ^ Richardson II 2011, pp. 257–258; Pugh 1988, p. 187.
- ^ a b c d e Richardson II 2011, p. 257.
- ^ Richardson II 2011, p. 257; Pugh 1988, p. 187
- ^ The Visitations of the County of Cornwall, 'Arundell of Lanherne,' with additions by Lieutenant-Colonel J. L. Vivian, Exeter: William Pollard & Co. 1887 pp. 2–5
References
- Haines, Roy Martin (2009). Gray, William (c. 1388–1436). Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 14 October 2012. (subscription required)
- Haines, Roy Martin (2004). Grey , William (c. 1414–1478). Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
- King, Andy (2005). "Scaling the Ladder: The Rise and Rise of the Grays of Heaton, c. 1296–c. 1415". In Christian D. Liddy & ISBN 1-84383-127-9.
- Pugh, T.B. (1988). Henry V and the Southampton Plot of 1415. Stroud: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-86299-549-3.
- ISBN 978-1-4499-6637-9.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. II (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.
{{ISBN 1449966381 - Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. III (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.
{{ISBN 144996639X - Tout, Thomas Frederick (1885–1890). Mortimer, Edmund de (1391–1425). Vol. 39. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1890. pp. 123–125. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-349-11918-2.
- ISBN 978-0-7524-2828-4.
- Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Andrew Reid & Co.
- ISBN 978-0-224-07992-1.
- Mosley, Charles (ed.), (1999). Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999), volume 1, p. 15.
- Mosley, Charles (ed.), (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 2, pp. 1660–1661.
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