Sir Henry GUILDFORD

Born: ABT 1478 / 1489

Died: 1532

Notes: Knight of the Garter.

Father: Richard GUILDFORD (Sir Knight)

Mother: Jane VAUX

Married 1: Mary BRYAN

Married 2: Mary WOTTON (dau. of Sir Robert Wotton of Boughton Malherbe and Anne Belknap) (m.2 Sir Gawen Carew)

Sir Henry Guildford Hans Holbein the Younger 1527 Royal Collection, Windsor Castle

Sir Henry Guildford Hans Holbein the Younger 1527 Royal Collection, Windsor Castle

Third son of Sir Richard Guildford, only son by his second wife, Joan, dau. of Sir William Vaux of Harrowden, sister of Nicholas Vaux, Lord Vaux; half-bro. of Sir Edward Guildford. Married first, Apr 1512, Margaret, dau. of Sir Thomas Bryan of Ashridge, Herts., s.p.; secondly, by 1525, Mary, dau. of Sir Robert Wotton of Boughton Malherbe and Anne Belknap, s.p. Kntd. 30 Mar. 1512, kt. banneret 1513, KG nom. 24 Apr., inst. 6 May 1526.

Bailiff, manor of Sutton Coldfield, Warws. 1512; constable, Leeds castle 1512-31, jt. (with Sir Edward Guildford) 1531-d.; esquire of the body by 1513, knight by 1515; royal standard bearer 1513-d.; j.p. Kent 1514-d.; commr. subsidy 1514, 1515, 1523, 1524; other commissions 1523-d.; master of the horse 1515-22, of the henchmen in 1517; Councillor 1516-d.; comptroller, the Household 1522-d.; jt. chief steward of abp. of Canterbury’s castles and manors 1524-d.; chamberlain, receipt of the Exchequer 1525-d.

As the youngest son of a father who, before he died considerably in debt, had obtained an Act (11 Hen. VII, c.49) freeing his lands in Kent from gavelkind, Henry Guildford inherited little land and an annuity of only £10. Compelled to make a career for himself he went to court, became a companion of the young Henry VIII and ended as comptroller of the royal household. He and the King were of an age and their friendship probably dated from their early years when Sir Richard Guildford was comptroller to Henry VII.

At the first New Year of the reign Guildford and his elder half-brother Edward formed two of a small company headed by the King who played Robin Hood and his men to amuse the Queen Catalina. Over the next seven or eight years Guildford acted as master of the revels on many such occasions. He was not, however, continuously at court. When in May 1511 the King sent a force to Spain under Thomas, Lord Darcy, Guildford accompanied it as provost marshal. The expedition achieved nothing and soon returned, but Guildford stayed behind and on 15 Sep 1511 was knighted by Fernando of Aragon at Burgos, his arms being augmented by a pale pomegranate on a white shield. He travelled home overland and shortly after his return he was knighted by Henry VIII at Westminster on 30 Mar 1512, the day of the proroguing of Parliament.

In the following month the King attended Guildford’s wedding with Mary Bryan, and in Jun the couple received a royal grant of the manors of Hampton-in-Arden, Warwickshire, and Bicker in Lincolnshire. Guildford took part in the disastrous naval engagement off Brest in Aug 1512 as joint captain with Sir Charles Brandon of 60 yeomen of the guard in the Sovereign, and in the next year he accompanied the King on his invasion of France, commanding 100 men of the King’s ward. He was made a knight banneret after the capture of Tournai, and as master of the revels he celebrated the victory with an interlude in which he played before the King. In May 1514 he returned to Calais in the Lord Abergavenny’s expedition, and five months later, after peace had been concluded, he did so again on his way to the coronation as Queen of France of Henry VIII’s sister Mary.

After four summers largely taken up with campaigning Guildford returned to a more settled life in England. His chief residence was Leeds Castle, Kent, which he held for the King: he was later to own other property in the county, including the manor of Hadlow, granted in 1522, and North Frith park, which he received two years later, and from 1522 he held a 40-year lease of the manor of Eltham and the stewardship of Lee, near Lewisham. But it was still the court which was the centre of Guildford’s life. An infrequent attender at the Council, of which he was sworn in 1516 (in the next ten years he was recorded as present only six times), he was first and foremost a personal servant of the King’s, one of the few men assigned lodgings in the royal house by the Eltham ordinances of 1526. He was appointed to go with the King in 1520 to the Field of Cloth of Gold and to the meeting with Carlos V at Gravelines, and in the autumn of 1521, when he accompanied Cardinal Wolsey to Calais, he was soon recalled because the King found himself short of attendants in his privy chamber. Guildford apparently left England only once more, when he went with Wolsey to Calais in 1527 and travelled with him into France. In this year his portrait was painted by Holbein, then on his first visit to England.

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