Sir Ralph Grey (d. 17 March 1442), who married Elizabeth FitzHugh, daughter of Henry FitzHugh, 3rd Baron FitzHugh, and Elizabeth Grey, and left children.[5]
How far these various and accumulated preferments imply a residence in England may be doubtful, but that Grey lived for some time in Oxford, possibly with the object of completing the acts required for the degree of Doctor of Divinity, is shown by the facts that he was elected Chancellor of the University, and held that office in 1440-1 and also during a part of 1442, and that later in this year he acted for a time as commissary. Probably his long sojourn abroad may be placed partly before 1440 and mostly after 1442.
Studies abroad
Grey's travels led him first to
Cardinal Bessarion
.
Bishop of Ely
Grey's devotion to humanism and his patronage of learned men naturally found favour in the eyes of
Bishop Bourchier to the see of Canterbury, nominated him to the vacant bishopric of Ely. In the bull of provision Grey is described as apostolic notary and referendary. The temporalities were restored to him on 6 September, and he was consecrated by the new archbishop at Mortlake two days later. But he was not installed in his cathedral until St Cuthbert's Day
, 20 March 1457–8, when there was a great frost.
Contributions to Balliol College Library
Grey devoted much care to the collection of manuscripts, and wherever he resided constantly employed scribes to make copies of such books as he could not otherwise obtain. Many of these he had adorned with costly miniatures and initial letters by the skill of an artist who worked for him at Florence. It was his desire to make his collection the nucleus of a library for
Master
's dining room.
Mediator during the Wars of the Roses
During the troubled years of his episcopate Grey never took a leading part in public affairs. He devoted himself rather to the charge of his diocese, and still more probably to his learned interests, which were reputed to extend not only to
Greek but also to Hebrew, while in his palace on Holborn
he maintained the same stately establishment as that for which he had been famous on the continent. Yet there is ample evidence also of his political activity.
In the beginning of 1455, he was appointed to serve on a commission to arbitrate between the
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
on 25 April, and again on 16 May he was entrusted with a similar negotiation.
In February 1477–8, Grey's health showed signs of breaking down. After Easter, he quit his London palace for Ely, and then, as his weakness increased, he removed to his neighbouring manor of
Downham. Here he died on Tuesday, 4 August 1478. On the next day his body was borne to Ely with great pomp, attended by almost all the priests of the Isle, and on that Thursday the bishop was buried between two marble pillars on the north side of Ely Cathedral
, the fabric of which owes not a little to his munificence.
Footnotes
^Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 245
Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. II (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
