Her father Henry Grey was the son of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset and Margaret Wotton, her grandfather Thomas Grey was the grandson of Queen Elizabeth Woodville, by her first marriage to Sir John Grey of Groby. As the illegitimate daughter of Henrys annulled marriage to Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth had no claim under the tradition of primogeniture. Her life was short but lovely, and I wish she could have lived so much longer, but it does seem like she truly made the most of what life threw at her and never stopped striving for something better. The Iron Lady 30 years on by Carol Thatcher 'Sometimes, when we had a full house of guests, I was persuaded to move to a room under the eaves called the Prison Room. 1689-1762. The fate of Lady Mary Grey, Queen Elizabeth's prisoner and a potential heir to the throne, has never been resolved. Mary Grey left her last gaoler with little more than her books and rubbish (as he reported). Lady Mary Grey : biography 1545 - 20 April 1578 Mary and her husband never saw each other again. She, therefore, continued to reside as an unwelcome guest with the Greshams until Sir Thomas suggested that she be sent to live at Beaumanor in Leicestershire with her late mother's second husband, Adrian Stokes, who had recently married Anne Carew, the widow of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton. [24], In spite of the intrigues involving her sisters, it does not appear that Mary Grey ever made a serious claim to the throne. Lady Mary Grey, clever as she was, could be somewhat comfortable that she herself wouldnt become Queen anytime soon becauseobviouslyElizabeth would start having children soon. Catherine was the younger sister of the ill fated Lady Jane Grey 'the nine days Queen of England'. Youre too eloquent a writer not to always put your best foot forward. [17], On 27 January 1568, at the age of twenty-seven, after suffering years of imprisonment, house arrest, and separation from her husband and two young sons, Katherine Grey died at Cockfield Hall, the house of Sir Owen Hopton in Yoxford, Suffolk. Contents 1 Early life 2 Throne claims 3 Marriage 4 House arrest 5 Later life 6 Death 7 Notes 8 References Early life Lady Mary Grey (c. 1545 - 20 April 1578) was the youngest daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and Frances . As such, she was not allowed to marry without Queen Elizabeth's consent - despite her never being a real contender for the throne. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. [2] The attempt to secure a Protestant succession failed, and although King Edward was briefly succeeded by Jane Grey, the Privy Council of England changed sides and proclaimed his half sister, Mary. Grey-207. As the ceremony had been performed by a priest who was never subsequently identified, and the only witness was Seymour's sister, Lady Jane Seymour, who died shortly after the marriage, the Queen was able to treat the marriage as though it had never taken place and on 12 March 1563 she obtained a declaration that the marriage was invalid and that Edward Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp, Katherine's eldest son by Seymour, was illegitimate. There are faded vestiges of drawings and inscriptions she made on the walls of the room. Gender: Female. Today in 1565 Mary Grey married Thomas Keyes. 29 August 1959: As preparations are made for President Eisenhowers visit, journalists are shown around the Elizabethan mansion for the first time in its history. Mary, Queen of Scots is the cousin we recall as Elizabeths heir. The too frequent usage of like is unnecessary and diminishes the texts integrity and substance, as do the vulgar slang terms. retrieved. She fell for him. She is principally remembered as a prolific letter writer in almost every epistolary style; she was also a distinguished minor poet, always . But eventually she set up her own small household in Aldersgate. The line of Margaret Tudor, Queen Consort of Scotland and the elder sister of Henry VIII, was after 1542 represented by Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. After the death of King Edward VI, her sister, Jane became Queen of England for nine days, during a plot to exclude . dewiki Mary Grey; enwiki Lady Mary Grey; eswiki Mara Grey; fiwiki Mary Grey; The illustration credits indicate that the portrait now hangs at Chequers, where Mary Grey Keyes was imprisoned for two years and which is now the Buckinghamshire country residence of the UK's Prime Minister. Mary remained in the Duchess's household for almost two years, and is said to have been close to the Duchess's two children, Peregrine and Susan Bertie. In August 1567 Mary, still under house arrest, was sent to live with her step-grandmother Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk, whom Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, had married after the death of Mary's grandmother Mary Tudor. Its my understanding that Mary Grey had three cousins and a friend bear witness to her wedding with Keyes, as she didn`t want to make the same mistake as her sister, Katherine Grey, whose marriage, due to a lack of a live or an identifiable witness was declared invalid. [1], As great-grandchildren of Henry VII, Mary and her sisters were potential heirs to the crown. She became close with Keyess surviving children, and was named godmother to one of their daughters. Best known of these three were the oldest sister, Lady Jane Grey. There is Sir Owen Hopton, Katherines last gaoler, with whom she left her dying pleas to Elizabeth to be merciful to her children. Audi A3. This location is only accessible after either completing the Mayor's Invitation or Investigating the Mayor quest. Lady Jane Grey was born sometime in the autumn of 1537, the eldest daughter of Lady Frances and Henry Grey, 3rd Marquess of Dorset. Mary Grey was buried in the tomb of her mother Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, at Chequers, without her own name inscribed on it. Paul Delaroche, National Gallery, Public Domain. Lady Mary Grey (1545-1578) British (English) School Chequers Court Next artwork Back to image. But in 1565 she was in love with Thomas Keyes, the gigantic sergeant porter in charge of palace security. Lady Mary Grey, the third and youngest surviving daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk and Lady Frances Brandon, was born around 1545 at Bradgate Park near Leicester. Will do some further research on the topic. She had the misfortune of being the eldest, which meant that she was forced basically against her will to become the new Queen of England after Edwards death. When Frances died on 20 May 1559, she left a life estate in most of her property to Stokes, while Mary received only a small inheritance yielding a modest income of 20 a year. There is Mistress Tilney Elizabeth Tilney had escorted the teenage Jane Grey to the scaffold. She was buried in her mother's tomb in the Abbey, where her grave is still unmarked. She now posed the principle danger to Elizabeth. Jane was quickly overthrown by Mary Tudor, and later executed. It will be in the library, the long gallery, which runs along most of the north side of the house, where the principal talks between the President and the Prime Minister will take place. When searching the bed, the . Northumberland was executed on 22 August 1553. Mary suffered from scoliosis and was unusually short, but was still Maid of Honour to her cousin, Queen Elizabeth. Keyes was from a minor gentry family in Kent, was more than twice Mary's age, and was a widower with six or seven children. was less than zero. [20], After enduring years in the Fleet, Mary's husband Thomas Keyes was released in 1569,[21] and permitted to return to Kent. But, as ever, Queen Elizabeth found out about the ceremony pretty much right away likely helped by the fact that Mary Grey and Thomas had invited like dozens of people for a post-ceremony dinner banquet like, way to keep it on the down low, you two. Mary was therefore sent, in June 1569, to live with Sir Thomas Gresham at his house in Bishopsgate and later at his country house at Osterley. Lady Mary's dress has some massive French sleeves decorated with English blackwork in this 1571 Eworth portrait. The Queen granted her an imposing funeral in Westminster Abbey,[23] with the Duchess of Suffolk's daughter Susan Bertie, now Countess of Kent, as chief mourner. In 1578, plague broke out because it was the 16th century and nobody washed their hands and thats the sort of thing that happened back then. her health'.3 For nearly two years she was 'confined in a 12-foot-square room at Chequers, known still as the "prison room"', before being transferred into the custody of Sir William But until Elizabeth had a child, her official heirs were Katherine, and then Mary Grey. Lady Mary Grey was still in contention, but there were other women who others were supporting, most notable Mary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic descendant of Henry VIIIs estranged sister Margaret. Lady Mary Josephine Talbot (ne Crawley; b. Next to her desk is the secret doorway let into the panelling which leads up to the room where Lady Mary Grey (sister of Lady Jane) was imprisoned for two years on the orders of Queen Elizabeth herself. In December 1560, however, Katherine Grey secretly married Edward Seymour, the eldest son of the Protector Somerset, incurring the Queen's unrelenting displeasure. In particular, she feared that if Katherine or Mary Grey married and had sons while she did not, her own Protestant supporters would overthrow her in their favour. Sir William Cecil wrote to Sir Thomas Smith that 'The Sergeant Porter, being the biggest gentleman of this court, has married secretly the Lady Mary Grey, the least of all the court . Both women were potential heirs to Queen Elizabeth I. Learn how and when to remove this template message, Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington and 2nd Baroness Bonville, https://www.amazon.com/Sisters-Who-Would-Queen-Katherine/dp/0345491351, "The Descent of the Manor and Advowson of Hampton-Poyle", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lady_Mary_Grey&oldid=1132497848, 16th-century deaths from plague (disease), Articles needing additional references from March 2014, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 9 January 2023, at 04:22. Until! And my discovery of lost manuscripts has helped me lay to rest a Tudor mystery that may interest the next prime minister, whoever that is, as he gazes at Marys portrait later this year. If Henrys will, backed by statute, had not existed, Mary, Queen of Scots would have had the superior right to Elizabeth. When Jane's accession failed due to a lack of popular support, she, her young husband Guildford Dudley and her father, the Duke of Suffolk were executed by Edward's elder sister and successor Mary I, in February 1554. In 1553, at the same time as the weddings of her sisters Lady Jane and Lady Katherine, Lady Mary, still very young, had been betrothed to her distant cousin Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton. Photo credit: The Chequers Trust . According to the letters patent issued on 21 June 1553, Mary was declared third in the line of succession behind her elder sisters and their heirs male. On 16 July 1565,[8] while the Queen was absent attending the marriage of her kinsman, Sir Henry Knollys[9] (d. 21 December 1582), and Margaret Cave, the daughter of Sir Ambrose Cave,[10] Mary secretly married the Queen's serjeant porter, Thomas Keyes, son of Richard Keyes, esquire, of East Greenwich, Kent, by Agnes Saunders, the daughter of Henry Saunders of Ewell, Surrey. [4] After Queen Mary's accession Mary Grey's betrothal to Arthur Grey was dissolved. [2] Grey; Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England (disputed) and Lady Katherine Grey, Countess of Hertford In August 1567, Mary, still under house arrest, was sent to live with her step-grandmother Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk, whom Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, had married after the death of Mary's grandmother Mary Tudor. It was not clear enough, he complained so, bringing out his own oils, he had the painting taken down and he himself touched up the mouse. WeRelate person ID. The only witness they brought to the ceremony itself was a servant girl named Frances Goldwell because, Mary figured, when the Queen found out shed punish the witness, and Mary didnt want any of her higher-ranking friends to get in trouble. In 1571, six years after the wedding, Thomas Keyes died from imprisonment-related health problems. Lady Mary Grey Mary Grey, born about 1545, was the third and youngest daughter of the Grey family. Mary Greys life was upended when she was just eight years old, and she spent much of the rest of her life striving to improve things for herself. A 16th-century manor housein origin, it is located near the village of Ellesborough, halfway between Princes Risboroughand Wendoverin Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom, at the foot of the Chiltern Hills. Over the next decade, Mary Greys life remained mostly unchanged, even as things at royal court were bonkers. The Duchess wrote to Cecil expressing shock at the few pitiful household effects with which Mary arrived at her house in the Minories. She also likely had scoliosis, giving her a crooked or hunched back. Mother of Isabelle Hoyt But while Katherine had died in despair in 1568, Mary survived to be freed in 1573. 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