Charles Brandon

Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk

Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, 1st Viscount Lisle, KG (c.1484 – 22 August 1545) was the son of Sir William Brandon and Elizabeth Bruyn. Through his third wife Mary Tudor he was brother-in-law to Henry VIII. His father was the standard-bearer of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (later King Henry VII). Suffolk died of unknown causes at Guildford.

Charles Brandon was the second but only surviving son[1] of Sir William Brandon, Henry Tudor's standard-bearer at the Battle of Bosworth Field, where he was slain by Richard III. His mother, Elizabeth Bruyn (d. March 1494), was daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry Bruyn (died 1461).[2][a]

Charles Brandon was brought up at the court of Henry VII. He is described by Dugdale as "a person comely of stature, high of courage and conformity of disposition to King Henry VIII, with whom he became a great favourite". Brandon held a succession of offices in the royal household, becoming Master of the Horse in 1513, and received many valuable grants of land. On 15 May 1513, he was created Viscount Lisle, having entered into a marriage contract with his ward, Elizabeth Grey, suo jure Viscountess Lisle. The contract was ended and the title was forfeited as a result of Brandon's marriage to Mary Tudor in 1515.

He distinguished himself at the sieges of Thérouanne and Tournai in the French campaign of 1513. One of the agents of Margaret of Savoy, governor of the Netherlands, writing from before Thérouanne, reminded her that Lord Lisle was a "second king" and advised her to write him a kind letter.

At this time, Henry VIII was secretly urging Margaret to marry Lisle, whom he created Duke of Suffolk, although he was careful to disclaim (on 4 March 1514) any complicity in the project to her father, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.

After his marriage to Mary, Suffolk lived for some years in retirement, but he was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. In 1523 he was sent to Calais to command the English troops there. He invaded France in company with Floris d'Egmont, Count of Buren, who was at the head of the Flemish troops, and laid waste the north of France, but disbanded his troops at the approach of winter.[9]

After Wolsey's disgrace, Suffolk's influence increased daily. He was sent with Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, to demand the Great Seal from Wolsey; the same noblemen conveyed the news of Anne Boleyn's marriage to King Henry, after the divorce from Queen Catherine; and Suffolk acted as High Steward at the new queen's coronation. He was one of the commissioners appointed by Henry to dismiss Catherine's household, a task he found distasteful. [9]

His family had a residence on the west side of Borough High Street, London, for at least half a century prior to his building of Suffolk Place at the site.[10]

Suffolk supported Henry's ecclesiastical policy, receiving a large share of the lands after the dissolution of the monasteries. In 1544, he was for the second time in command of an English army for the invasion of France. He died at Guildford, Surrey, on 24 August in the following year. At Henry VIII's expense he was buried at Windsor in St George's Chapel.

Suffolk took part in the jousts which celebrated the marriage of Mary Tudor, Henry's sister, with Louis XII of France. He was accredited to negotiate various matters with Louis, and on Louis' death was sent to congratulate the new King, Francis I, and to negotiate Mary's return to England.

Love between Suffolk and the young Dowager Queen Mary had existed before her marriage, and Francis roundly charged him with an intention to marry her. Francis, perhaps in the hope of Queen Claude's death, had himself been one of her suitors in the first week of her widowhood, and Mary asserted that she had given him her confidence to avoid his importunities.

Francis and Henry both professed a friendly attitude towards the marriage of the lovers, but Suffolk had many political enemies, and Mary feared that she might again be sacrificed to political considerations. The truth was that Henry was anxious to obtain from Francis the gold plate and jewels which had been given or promised to the Queen by Louis in addition to the reimbursement of the expenses of her marriage with the King; and he practically made his acquiescence in Suffolk's suit dependent on his obtaining them. The pair cut short the difficulties by a private marriage on 5 March 1515. Suffolk announced this to Thomas Wolsey, who had been their fast friend.

Suffolk was saved from Henry's anger only by Wolsey, and the pair eventually agreed to pay to Henry £24,000 in yearly instalments of £1000, and the whole of Mary's dowry from Louis of £200,000, together with her plate and jewels. They were openly married at Greenwich Hall on 13 May. The Duke had been twice married already, to Margaret Neville (the widow of John Mortimer) and to Anne Browne, to whom he had been betrothed before his marriage with Margaret Mortimer. Anne Browne died in 1511, but Margaret Mortimer, from whom he had obtained a declaration of nullity on the ground of consanguinity, was still living. He secured in 1528 a bull from Pope Clement VII assuring the legitimacy of his marriage with Mary Tudor and of the daughters of Anne Browne, one of whom, Anne, was sent to the court of Margaret of Savoy.

Mary Tudor died on 25 June 1533, and in September of the same year Suffolk married his ward, 14-year-old Catherine Willoughby (1519–1580), suo jure Baroness Willoughby de Eresby. She had been betrothed to his son Henry Brandon, Earl of Lincoln, but the boy was too young to marry; Suffolk did not wish to risk losing Catherine's lands, so he married her himself.[11][12] By Catherine Willoughby he had two sons who showed great promise, Henry (1535–1551) and Charles (c. 1537–1551), Dukes of Suffolk. They died of the sweating sickness within an hour of each other.

Before 7 February 1507 he married Margaret Neville (born 1466), widow of Sir John Mortimer (d. before 12 November 1504),[13][14][15] and daughter of John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu, slain at the Battle of Barnet, by Isabel Ingaldesthorpe, daughter and heiress of Sir Edmund Ingaldsthorpe, by whom he had no issue. The marriage was declared void about 1507 by the Archdeaconry Court of London, and later by papal bull dated 12 May 1528.[13] Margaret (née Neville) subsequently married Robert Downes, gentleman.[5][16]

In early 1508 in a secret ceremony at Stepney, and later publicly at St Michael's, Cornhill,[5] he married Margaret Neville's niece, Anne Browne (d. 1511), daughter of Sir Anthony Browne, Standard Bearer of England 1485, by his first wife, Eleanor Ughtred,[17] the daughter of Sir Robert Ughtred (c. 1428 – c. 1487) of Kexby, North Yorkshire[18] and Katherine Eure, daughter of Sir William Eure of Stokesley, Yorkshire, by whom he had two daughters:[19]

• Anne Brandon (1507–1557), who married firstly Edward Grey, 4th Baron Grey of Powis,[20] and after the dissolution of this union, Randal Harworth.
• Mary Brandon (1510 – c. 1542), who married Thomas Stanley, 2nd Baron Monteagle.[20]

He contracted to marry Elizabeth Grey, 5th Baroness Lisle (1505–1519). He was thus created 1st Viscount Lisle of the third creation in 1513, but the contract was annulled, and he surrendered the title before 1519 or in 1523.

In May 1515 he married Mary Tudor, Queen Dowager of France (18 March 1496 – 25 June 1533), by whom he had two sons who died young, and two daughters:

• Lord Henry Brandon (11 March 1516 – 1522).[20]
• Lady Frances Brandon (16 July 1517 – 20 November 1559), who married Henry Grey, Marquess of Dorset, by whom she was the mother of Lady Jane Grey.[20]
• Lady Eleanor Brandon (1519 – 27 September 1547), who married Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland.[20]
• Henry Brandon, 1st Earl of Lincoln (c. 1523 – 1 March 1534).[20]

On 7 September 1533 he married Catherine Willoughby, 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby (1 April 1520 – 19 September 1580), by whom he had two sons, both of whom died young of the sweating sickness:

• Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk (18 September 1535 – 14 July 1551).[20]
• Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk (1537 – 14 July 1551).[20]

After Brandon's death his widow married Richard Bertie.

He had a number of illegitimate children

• Sir Charles Brandon; married Elizabeth Pigot, widow of Sir James Strangways.[20]
• Frances Brandon; married firstly William Sandon, and secondly Andrew Bilsby.[20]
• Mary Brandon; married Robert Ball of Scottow, Norfolk.[20]

Fictional portrayals

• The romance between Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon is fictionalised in When Knighthood Was in Flower, by American author Charles Major writing under the pseudonym Edwin Caskoden. It was first published by The Bobbs-Merrill Company in 1898 and proved an enormous success.
• At least three movies have been based on this novel. A 1908 motion picture of the same name or under the title When Knights Were Bold was directed by Wallace McCutcheon. This is considered a lost film. He is portrayed by Forrest Stanley in the 1922 film adaptation When Knighthood Was in Flower, directed by Robert G. Vignola, and by Richard Todd in The Sword and the Rose, an account of his romance with Mary Tudor in 1515.
• The Reluctant Queen by Molly Costain Haycraft presents another fictionalised version of the relationship between Brandon and Mary Tudor.
• Brandon is briefly fictionalised in the historical novel The Last Boleyn by author Karen Harper.
• Brandon is portrayed by actor Henry Cavill in the Showtime series The Tudors. He serves as a confidant to best friend Henry VIII and therefore a number of Brandon’s storylines are fictionalised for dramatic purposes. For example, he is married twice and is estranged from second wife Catherine Willoughby Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk (Rebekah Wainwright). He takes on an official mistress, a French expatriate (played by Selma Brook), who cares for him up until his death. Also, he only has one son here, Henry (Michael Winder), presumably a representation of Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk.
• He is a character in the novel Mary, Queen of France by author Jean Plaidy.
• He appears as a character in the novel The Lady in the Tower by author Jean Plaidy.
• He is also a character in the novel "The Shadow of the Pomegranate " by Jean Plaidy
• He appears as a character in the Man Booker Prize winning novel Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, and in its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies.
• He is portrayed by actor Richard Dillane in the BBC drama Wolf Hall, based on Mantel's book.[21]
• He is portrayed as an attempted rapist in the novel Dear Heart, How Like You This? based on the life of Sir Thomas Wyatt
• In the novel The Serpent Garden by Judith Merkle Riley, Brandon is portrayed as an immensely strong but rather dimwitted noble with a poor sense of spelling.
• Brian Blessed portrayed Suffolk in the movie Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972).

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Brandon,_1st_Duke_of_Suffolk

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• Sir Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Viscount Lisle, Governor of Tournai, Ambassador to France, Earl Marshal1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14
• M, #55102, b. 1484, d. 22 August 1545
• Father Sir William Brandon2,15,7,14 d. 22 Aug 1485
• Mother Elizabeth Bruyn16,15,7,14 b. c 1445, d. 7 Mar 1494
• Sir Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Viscount Lisle, Governor of Tournai, Ambassador to France, Earl Marshal was born in 1484.1 He and Margaret Neville obtained a marriage license on 7 February 1507; No issue.17,15,5,7,10,12,14 The marriage of Sir Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Viscount Lisle, Governor of Tournai, Ambassador to France, Earl Marshal and Margaret Neville was annulled circa 1508 at Archdeaconry Court, London, Middlesex, England; Annulment granted because of his previous marriage contract with Anne Browne (and carnal knowledge with her) and due to affinity in the 2nd and 3rd degrees of kindred which existed between Margaret Neville's 1st husband (Thomas Tyrrell, Esq.) and Charles.17,15,7,10,14 Sir Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Viscount Lisle, Governor of Tournai, Ambassador to France, Earl Marshal married Anne Browne, daughter of Sir Anthony Browne, Governor of Queenborough, Lieutenant of Calais and Eleanor Ughtred, circa 23 April 1508 at Stepney, London, Middlesex, England; Secretly married. They had 2 daughter (Anne, wife of Sir Edward, 4th Lord Grey, & of Randall Hayword, Esq; & Mary, wife of Sir Thomas Stanley, 2nd Lord Monteagle).18,3,6,7,10,13,14 Sir Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Viscount Lisle, Governor of Tournai, Ambassador to France, Earl Marshal married Anne Browne, daughter of Sir Anthony Browne, Governor of Queenborough, Lieutenant of Calais and Eleanor Ughtred, circa 31 March 1510.10 A contract for the marriage of Sir Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Viscount Lisle, Governor of Tournai, Ambassador to France, Earl Marshal and Elizabeth Grey was signed in 1513; This contract wasn't fulfilled. No issue.19 Sir Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Viscount Lisle, Governor of Tournai, Ambassador to France, Earl Marshal married Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VII Tudor, King of England, 2nd Earl of Richmond and Elizabeth Plantagenet, circa 4 February 1515 at Hotel de Cluny, Paris, Ile-de-France, France; Secretly married.3,7,10,11,14 Sir Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Viscount Lisle, Governor of Tournai, Ambassador to France, Earl Marshal married Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VII Tudor, King of England, 2nd Earl of Richmond and Elizabeth Plantagenet, on 13 May 1515 at Greenwich, Kent, England; They had 1 son (Henry, Earl of Lincoln) and 2 daughters (Frances, wife of Sir Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, 3rd Marquess of Dorset & of Adrian Stokes, Esq; & Eleanor, wife of Sir Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland, 12th Lord Clifford).18,3,4,7,9,10 Sir Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Viscount Lisle, Governor of Tournai, Ambassador to France, Earl Marshal married Katherine Willoughby, daughter of Sir William Willoughby, 11th Lord Willoughby and Maria de Salinas, circa 7 September 1533; They had 2 sons (Sir Henry, Duke of Suffolk, & Sir Charles, Duke of Suffolk).20,3,7,10,14 Sir Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Viscount Lisle, Governor of Tournai, Ambassador to France, Earl Marshal left a will on 20 June 1544.3,7,10,14 He died on 22 August 1545 at Guildford Palace, Guilford, Surrey, England; Buried at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Berkshire. He also had an illegitimate son (Charles) and an illegitimate daughter (Frances, wife of Andrew Billesby).1,21,3,7,10,14 His estate was probated on 1 April 1547.3,7,10,14
• Family 1 Margaret Neville b. 1466, d. 31 Jan 1528
• Family 2 Anne Browne b. bt 1488 - 1497, d. c 1512
• Children
  • Mary Brandon+22,23,10 b. c 1510, d. bt 1540 - 1544
  • Anne Brandon3,10 b. c 1512
• Family 3 Elizabeth Grey b. c 25 Mar 1505, d. c 12 May 1519
• Family 4 Mary Tudor b. 18 Mar 1495, d. 25 Jun 1533
• Children
  • Henry Brandon, Earl of Lincoln24,25,10,14 b. 11 Mar 1516, d. 1 Mar 1534
  • Frances Brandon+26,3,4,9,10,11,14 b. 16 Jul 1517, d. 21 Nov 1559
  • Eleanor Brandon+3,10,14 b. bt 1518 - 1521, d. 27 Sep 1547
• Family 5 Katherine Willoughby b. 22 Mar 1519, d. 19 Sep 1580
• Children
  • Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk27,3,10 b. 1537 or 1538, d. 14 Jul 1551
  • Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk28,25,10 b. 18 Sep 1537, d. 14 Jul 1551
• Citations
• [S11572] The Lineage and Ancestry of H.R.H. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, by Gerald Paget, Vol. II, p. 187.
• [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. XII/1, p. 454-460.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. I, p. 298-299.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 308.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 455.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. III, p. 226.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. IV, p. 227-228.
• [S6] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: 2nd Edition, Vol. I, p. 180.
• [S6] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 168-169.
• [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. I, p. 506-507.
• [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. III, p. 164-165.
• [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. III, p. 395.
• [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. V, p. 133.
• [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. V, p. 206-207.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. I, p. 298.
• [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. XII/1, p. 454, notes.
• [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. XII/1, p. 458.
• [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. XII/1, p. 459.
• [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. II, p. 335-336.
• [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. XII/2, p. 673-675.
• [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. XII/1, p. 460.
• [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. IX, p. 116.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. I, p. 300.
• [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. XII/1, p. 460-461.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. I, p. 301.
• [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. XII/1, p. 462.
• [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. XII/2, p. 676.
• [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. XII/2, p. 675.
• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p1834.htm#... ______________________
• Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk1
• M, #1013, b. 1484, d. 22 August 1545
• Last Edited=25 Nov 2013
• Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk was born in 1484.3 He was the son of Sir William Brandon and Elizabeth Bruyn. He married, firstly, Anne Browne, daughter of Sir Anthony Browne and Lady Lucy Neville.4 He married, secondly, Lady Margaret Neville, daughter of Sir John Neville, 1st and last Marquess of Montagu and Isabel Ingaldesthorpe, before February 1506/7.5 He married, thirdly, Mary Rose Tudor, daughter of Henry VII Tudor, King of England and Elizabeth Plantagenet, circa 31 March 1515 at Palace of Cluny, Chapel, Paris, France.3 He married, fourthly, Katherine Willoughby, Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, daughter of William Willoughby, 11th Lord Willoughby de Eresby and Maria de Salinas, on 7 September 1534. He died on 22 August 1545.
• He was created 1st Duke of Suffolk in 1504. His marriage to Lady Margaret Neville was annulled circa 1507 by London Archdiaconal Court.6 His marriage to Lady Margaret Neville was annulled on 12 May 1528 by Papal Bull.6 He has an extensive biographical entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.7
• Child of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and Anne Browne
  • Lady Mary Brandon+4 b. 1510, d. bt 1540 - 1544
• Children of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and Mary Rose Tudor
  • Henry Brandon, 1st Earl of Lincoln b. 11 Mar 1515/16, d. 1 Mar 1533/34
  • Lady Frances Brandon+ b. 16 Jul 1517, d. 20 Nov 1559
  • Lady Eleanor Brandon+8 b. 1519/20, d. 27 Sep 1547
• Children of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and Katherine Willoughby, Baroness Willoughby de Eresby
  • Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk9 b. 18 Sep 1535, d. 14 Jul 1551
  • Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk9 b. 1537/38, d. 14 Jul 1551
• Citations
• [S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 157. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Families.
• [S3409] Caroline Maubois, "re: Penancoet Family," e-mail message to Darryl Roger Lundy, 2 December 2008. Hereinafter cited as "re: Penancoet Family."
• [S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Families, page 150.
• [S37] BP2003 volume 1, page 1103. See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S37]
• [S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/1, page 460. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
• [S8] BP1999 volume 1, page 16. See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S8]
• [S18] Matthew H.C.G., editor, Dictionary of National Biography on CD-ROM (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1995), reference "Charles Brandon". Hereinafter cited as Dictionary of National Biography.
• [S37] BP2003. [S37]
• [S6] Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume XII/1, page 461.
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p102.htm#i1013 ______________
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 06
• Brandon, Charles by James Gairdner
• BRANDON, CHARLES, Duke of Suffolk (d. 1545), was the son and heir of William Brandon, who was Henry VII's standard-bearer at Bosworth Field, and was on that account singled out by Richard III, and killed by him in personal encounter. This William, who with his brother Thomas had come with Henry out of Brittany, does not appear to have been a knight, though called Sir William by Hall the chronicler, and thus some confusion has arisen between him and his father, Sir William Brandon, who survived him.
• It is quite uncertain when Charles Brandon was born, except that (unless he was a posthumous child) it must of course have been before the battle of Bosworth. It is not likely, however, to have been many years earlier. No mention of him has been found before the accession of Henry VIII, with whom he appears to have been a favourite from the first. In personal qualities, indeed, he was not unlike his sovereign; tall, sturdy, and valiant, with rather a tendency to corpulence, and also with a strong animal nature, not very much restrained at any time by considerations of morality, delicacy, or gratitude. In 1509, the first year of Henry's reign, he was squire of the royal body, and was appointed chamberlain of the principality of North Wales (Calendar of Henry VIII, i. 695). On 6 Feb. 1510 he was made marshal of the king's bench, in the room of his uncle, Sir Thomas Brandon [q. v.], recently deceased (ib. 859). On 23 Nov. 1511 the office of marshal of the royal household was granted to him and Sir John Carewe in survivorship (ib. 1989). On 29 March 1512 he was appointed keeper of the royal manor and park of Wanstead, and on 2 May following ranger of the New Forest (ib. 3103, 3176). By this time he was no longer esquire, but knight of the royal body. On 3 Dec. the same year he received a grant of the wardship of Elizabeth, daughter and sole heiress of John Grey, viscount Lisle (ib. 3561), of which he very soon took advantage in a rather questionable way, by making a contract of marriage with her; and next year, on 15 May, he was created Viscount Lisle, with succession to the heirs male of himself and Elizabeth Grey, viscountess Lisle, his wife, as she is called in the patent (ib. 4072). But in point of fact she was not his wife, for when she came of age she refused to marry him, and the patent was cancelled.
• Other grants he continued to receive in abundance; stewardships of various lands in Warwickshire or in Wales, either temporarily or permanently in the hands of the crown (ib. 3841, 3880, 3920-1). But his first conspicuous actions were in the year 1513, when, under the title of Lord Lisle, he was appointed marshal of the army that went over to invade France. He took a prominent part in the operations against Terouenne, and at the siege of Tournay he first of all obtained possession of one of the city gates (ib. 4459). While before Terouenne he sent a message to Margaret of Savoy, the regent of the Netherlands, through her agent in the camp Philippe de Brégilles, who, in communicating it, said he was aware that Brandon was a second king, and he advised her to write to him a kind letter, 'for it is he,' wrote Brégilles, 'who does and undoes' (ib. 4405). Early in the following year (1514) the king determined to send him to Margaret to arrange about a new campaign (ib. 4736, 4831). On 1 Feb. he was created Duke of Suffolk, and, adorned with that new title, he went over to the Low Countries. On 4 March Henry VIII wrote to Margaret's father, the emperor Maximilian, that a report had reached England that Suffolk was to marry his daughter, at which the king affected to be extremely displeased. Henry pretended that the rumour had been got up to create differences between them. In point of fact Henry was not only fully cognisant of Suffolk's aspirations, but had already pleaded his favourite's cause with Margaret personally at Tournay; and this notwithstanding the engagement he was still under to Lady Lisle. Some curious flirtation scenes had actually taken place between them at Lille, of which Margaret seems afterwards to have drawn up a report in her own hand (ib. 4850-1).
• In October following, immediately after the marriage of Louis XII to Henry VIII's sister Mary, Suffolk was sent over to France to witness the new queen's coronation at St. Denis, and to take part in the jousts to be held at Paris in honour of the event. This at least seemed to be the principal object of his mission, and as regards the tourney he certainly acquitted himself well, overthrowing his opponent, horse and man. But another object was to make some arrangements for a personal interview between the English and French kings in the following spring (ib. 5560), and also to convey a still more secret proposal for expelling Ferdinand of Arragon from Navarre (ib. 5637); both which projects were nipped in the bud by the death of Louis XII on 1 Jan. following.
• When the news of this event reached England, it was determined at once to send an embassy to the young king, Francis I, who had just succeeded to the throne; and Suffolk, who had not long returned from France, was appointed the principal ambassador. They had a formal audience of the king at Noyon on 2 Feb., after which Francis sent for the duke to see him in private, and to his consternation said to him, 'My lord of Suffolk, there is a bruit in this my realm that you are come to marry with the queen, your master's sister.' Suffolk in vain attempted to deny the charge, for Francis had extracted the confession from Mary herself by what dishonourable overtures we need not inquire and Francis, to put him at his ease, promised to write to Henry in his favour. The truth was that Henry himself secretly favoured the project, and only wished for some such letter from Francis to make it more acceptable to the old nobility, who regarded Suffolk as an upstart. Wolsey, too, then at the commencement of his career as a statesman, was doing his best to smooth down all obstacles. But the precipitancy of the two lovers nearly forfeited all their advantages. Mary was by no means satisfied that, although Henry favoured her wishes to some extent, he might not be induced by his council to break faith with her and sacrifice her to political considerations again. Suffolk's discretion was not able to subdue his own ardour and hers as well, and they were secretly married at Paris.
• So daring and presumptuous an act on the part of an upstart nobleman was not easily forgiven. Many of the king's council would have put Suffolk to death; the king himself was extremely displeased. But there was a way of mitigating the king's displeasure to some extent, and the king was satisfied in the end with the gift of Mary's plate and jewels and a bond of 24,000l. to repay by yearly instalments the expenses the king had incurred for her marriage with Louis. Suffolk and his wife the French queen as she was continually called lived for a time in comparative retirement as persons under a cloud; but after a while they were seen more frequently at court, and Suffolk rose again into favour. But the most marvellous thing is that he should have escaped so easily when other circumstances are taken into account, to which little or no allusion seems to have been made at the time, even by his enemies. Either the facts were unknown, or, what is more probable, they were not severely censured by the spirit of the times. Whatever be the explanation, it is certain that Suffolk when he married Mary had already had two wives, and that the first was still alive. Some years later he applied to Clement VII for a bull to remove all objections to the validity of his marriage with Mary, and from the statements in this document it appears that his early history was as follows: As a young man during the reign of Henry VII he had made a contract of marriage with a certain Ann Brown; but before marrying her he obtained a dispensation and married a widow named Margaret Mortymer, alias Brandon, who lived in the diocese of London. Some time afterwards he separated from her, and obtained from a church court a declaration of the invalidity of the marriage, on the grounds, first, that he and his wife were in the second and third degrees of affinity; secondly, that his wife and his first betrothed were within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity; and thirdly, that he was first cousin once removed of his wife's former husband. These grounds being held sufficient to annul the marriage, he actually married the lady to whom he had been betrothed, Ann Brown, and had by her a daughter, whom, after his marriage with Mary, he for some time placed under the care of his other love, Margaret of Savoy. Years afterwards the bull of Clement was required to defeat any attempt on the part of Margaret Mortymer to call in question either of his succeeding marriages. When all this is considered, together with the fact that he had the same entanglements even at the time he proposed to make Lady Lisle his wife, we can understand pretty well what a feeble bond matrimony was then considered to be. Suffolk's father had been a grossly licentious man (Paston Letters, iii. 235). So were most of Henry VIII's courtiers, and so, we need not say, was Henry himself. The laxity of Suffolk's morality was certainly no bar to his progress in the king's favour. He went with Henry in 1520 to the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He was one of the peers who sat in the year following as judges upon the Duke of Buckingham. In 1522, when Charles V visited England, he received both the king and the emperor at his house in Southwark, and they dined and hunted with him. In 1523 he commanded the army which invaded France. From Calais he passed through Picardy, took Ancre and Bray, and crossed the Somme, meeting with little resistance. His progress created serious alarm at Paris; but the end of the campaign was disgraceful. As winter came on, the troops suffered severely. Suffolk, though brave and valiant, was no general, and he actually, without waiting for orders, allowed them to disband and return home.
• On the arrival of Cardinal Campeggio in England in 1528, Suffolk's house in the suburbs (probably the house in Southwark already mentioned) was assigned him as a temporary lodging. Suffolk undoubtedly was heartily devoted to the object for which Campeggio came, or was supposed to come the king's divorce from Catherine of Arragon. Nor did he scruple to insinuate that it was another cardinal, his old benefactor Wolsey, who was the real obstacle to the gratification of the king's wishes. With an ingratitude which shrank from no degree of baseness he had been carefully nourishing the suspicions entertained by the king of his old minister upon this subject, and being sent to France in embassy while the divorce cause was before the legates, he actually inquired of the French king whether he could not give evidence to the same effect. So also, being present when Campeggio adjourned the legatine court in England from July to October, and probably when everyone was convinced even at that date that it would not sit again, Suffolk, according to the graphic account in Hall, 'gave a great clap on the table with his hand, and said: " By the mass, now I see that the old said saw is true, that there was never legate nor cardinal that did good in England!"' But Hall does not give us the conclusion of the story, which is supplied by Cavendish. 'Sir,' said Wolsey to the duke in answer, 'of all men in this realm ye have least cause to dispraise or be offended with cardinals; for if I, simple cardinal, had not been, you should have had at this present no head upon your shoulders wherein you should have had a tongue to make any such report in despite of us, who intend you no manner of displeasure.' And after some allusions, of which Suffolk well understood the meaning, he concluded: 'Wherefore, my lord, hold your peace and frame your tongue like a man of honour and wisdom, and speak not so quickly and so reproachfully by your friends; for ye know best what friendship ye have received at my hands, the which I yet never revealed to no person alive before now, neither to my glory ne to your dishonour.'
• But Suffolk rose upon Wolsey's fall. The old nobility, which had once been jealous both of him and Wolsey as upstarts promoted by the king, had now freer access to the council board, at which Suffolk took a position second only to that of Norfolk. The readers of Shakespeare know how he and Norfolk went together from the king to demand the great seal from Wolsey without any commission in writing. The fact is derived from Cavendish, who tells us that they endeavoured to extort its surrender to them by threats ; but Wolsey's refusal compelled them to go back to the king at Windsor and procure the written warrant that he required. Soon after this (1 Dec. 1529) we find Suffolk signing, along with the other lords, the bill of articles drawn up against Wolsey in parliament, and a few months later he signed with the other lords a letter to the pope, to warn him of the dangers of delaying to accede to Henry VIII's wishes for a divorce.
• In 1532 Suffolk was one of the noblemen who accompanied Henry VIII to Calais to the new meeting between him and Francis I. This was designed to show the world the entire cordiality of the two kings, who became in turn each other's guests at Calais and Boulogne, and at the latter place, on 25 Oct., the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk were elected and received into the order of St. Michael at a chapter called by Francis for the purpose. In the beginning of April 1533 he was sent with the Duke of Norfolk to Queen Catherine, to tell her that the king had now married Anne Boleyn, and that she must not pretend to the name of queen any longer. Not long afterwards he was appointed high steward for the day at the coronation of Anne Boleyn. On 24 June, little more than three weeks later, his wife, 'the French queen,' died ; and after the fashion of the times he immediately repaired his loss by marrying, early in September, Katharine, daughter of the widowed Lady Willoughby, an heiress, whose wardship had been granted to him four years before (Calendar of Henry VIII, iv. 5336 (12), vi. 1069). That same month he was present at the christening of the Princess Elizabeth at Greenwich. At the close of the year he was sent, along with the Earl of Sussex and some others, to Buckden, where the divorced Queen Catherine was staying, to execute a commission which, it is somewhat to his credit to say, he himself regarded with dislike. They were to dismiss the greater part of Catherine's household, imprison those of her servants who refused to be sworn to her anew as 'Princess of Wales' and no longer queen, and make her remove to a less healthy situation Somersham, in the Isle of Ely. He and the others did their best, or rather their worst, to fulfil their instructions ; but they did not give the king satisfaction. They deprived Catherine of almost all her servants, but though they remained six days they did not succeed in removing her. Suffolk himself, as he declared to his mother-in-law, devoutly wished before setting out that some accident might happen to him to excuse him from carrying out the king's instructions (ib. vi. 1541-3, 1508,1571).
• In 1534 he was one of the commissioners appointed to take the oaths of the people in accordance with the new Act of Succession, binding them to accept the issue of Anne Boleyn as their future sovereigns (ib. vii. 392). Later in the year he was appointed warden and chief justice of all the royal forests on the south side of the Trent (ib. 1498 (37) ). But his next conspicuous employment was in the latter part of the year 1536, when he was sent against the rebels of Lincolnshire and afterwards of Yorkshire, whom, however, he did not subdue by force of arms, but rather by a message of pardon from the king, who promised at that time to hear their grievances, though he shamefully broke faith with them afterwards. Within the next two or three years took place the suppression of the greater monasteries, and Suffolk got a large share of the abbey lands. It is curious that he obtained livery of his wife's inheritance only in the thirty-second year of Henry VIII, seven years after he had married her ; but the grant seems to apply mainly to reversionary interests on her mother's death.
• For some years after the rebellion he took no important part in public affairs. He was present at the christening of the young prince, afterwards Edward VI, and at the burning of the Welsh image called Darvell Gadarn, in Smithfield. He was a spectator of the great muster in London in 1539, and was one of the judges who tried the accomplices of Catherine Howard in 1541. On 10 Feb. 1542 he and others conveyed that unhappy queen by water from Sion House to the Tower of London prior to her execution. That same year he was appointed warden of the marches against Scotland (Undated Commission on the Patent Rolls, 34 Hen. VIII). In 1544, the king being then in alliance with the emperor against France, Suffolk was again put in command of an invading army. He made his will on 20 June before crossing the sea. He was then great master or steward of the king's household, an office he had filled for some years previously. He crossed, and on 19 July sat down before Boulogne, on the east side of the town. After several skirmishes he obtained possession of a fortress called the Old Man, and afterwards of the lower town, called Basse Boulogne. The king afterwards came in person and encamped on the north side of the town, which, being terribly battered, after a time surrendered, and the Duke of Suffolk rode into it in triumph.
• Early next year (1545) he sat at Baynard's Castle in London on a commission for a 'benevolence' to meet the expenses of the king's wars in France and Scotland. On St. George's day he stood as second godfather to the infant Henry Wriothesley, afterwards Earl of Southampton, the father of Shakespeare's friend; but he was now near his end. On 24 Aug. he died at Guildford. In his will he had desired to be buried at Tattershall in Lincolnshire; but the king caused him to be buried at Windsor at his own charge.
• [Besides the Calendar above mentioned the original authorities are Hall and Wriothesley's Chronicles, Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, and Dugdale's Peerage and the documentary authorities there referred to.]
• From: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Brandon,_Charles_(DNB00) _________________
• Charles Brandon
• Birth: 1484
• Death: Aug. 22, 1545
• English Aristocracy. Born the son of Sir William Brandon and Elizabeth Bruyn. His father died at Bosworth Field in the service of Henry Tudor. At the beginning of his career, he had neither prospects nor property, only the favor of the Tudors. In his youth, he was betrothed per verba de praesenti, a binding contract under canon law, to Anne Browne, daughter of Sir Anthony Browne, and with her had one daughter. A marriage did not take place however, as he married instead the wealthy widow Margaret Neville, daughter of Sir John Neville, Marquess of Montagu in 1506. The marriage was annulled the following year, however, due to the previous contract, and the marriage with Anne took place. She died some two years later. In February 1514, he was created Duke of Suffolk by Henry VIII. Princess Mary Rose Tudor, widow of Louis XII of France, had been promised a love match by her brother, the king, following her diplomatic marriage to the elderly French King. After Louis died in December 1514, and with the collusion of the new French king, she and Suffolk married secretly at the Cluny chapel in February 1515. The couple weathered the disfavor of the English king and they were wed again at Greenwich Palace in May with the king in attendance. The couple had three children. Suffolk maintained his position in the king's good graces, and was eventually put in charge of Anne Boleyn's coronation and was therefore not with his wife when she died at home in June 1533 at 38. He married again, to his son's betrothed, 14 year old Catherine Willoughby, Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, in September 1534. Suffolk remained Henry's man and was given the task of persuading Catherine of Aragon to accept the break with Rome and the new title Princess Dowager. In this he failed. Suffolk was also one the men who arrested and extracted a confession from Queen Catherine Howard, leading to her execution. He died suddenly at age 60 and the king ordered a lavish funeral for him at St George's Chapel in Windsor.
• (bio by: Iola)
• Family links:
• Spouses:
• Mary Rose Tudor (1496 - 1533)*
• Catherine, 12th Baroness Willoughby (1519 - 1580)*
• Children:
  • Frances Brandon (1517 - 1559)*
  • Eleanor Brandon Clifford (1519 - 1547)*
• Burial: St George's Chapel, Windsor, Windsor and Maidenhead Royal Borough, Berkshire, England
• Find A Grave Memorial# 10333360
• From: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10333360 _______________
• BRANDON, Sir Charles (by 1521-51), of Sigston, Yorks.
• b. by 1521, illegit. s. of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. m. by 1545, Elizabeth, da. and coh. of Thomas Pigot of Clotherholme, wid. of Sir James Strangways of Harlsey and Whorlton, d.s.p. Kntd. 30 Sept 1544.2
• .... etc.
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/br... ____________
• STANLEY, Sir William (1528-81), of Hornby Castle, Lancs.
• b. 1528, 1st s. of Thomas Stanley, 2nd Lord Monteagle, by 1st w. Mary, da. of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. m. (1) Anne, da. of Sir James Leyburn of Cunswick, Westmld., 2da.; (2) by 15 Sept. 1575, Anne, da. of Sir John Spencer of Althorp, Northants. Kntd. 22 Feb. 1547; suc. fa. as 3rd Lord Monteagle 25 Aug. 1560.1
• .... etc.
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/st... _______________
• GREY, Reginald or Reynold (d.1573), of Wrest, Beds.
• 1st s. of Henry Grey by Margaret, da. of John St. John of Bletsoe. educ. St. John’s, Camb., matric. 1551; G. Inn 1555. m. Susan, da. of Richard Bertie by Katherine, da. and h. of William, 11th Lord Willoughby, wid. of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. suc. fa. 1545; gd.-fa. as de jure 5th Earl of Kent 1562 or 1572.
• .... etc.
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/gr... _____________
• Links
• http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/CharlesBrandon.htm
• http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/suffolk.htm
• http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I66672&tree=...
• http://www.geneall.net/U/per_page.php?id=11435

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Brandon,_1st_Duke_of_Suffolk