Elizabeth Grey, Viscountess Lisle Explained

Elizabeth Grey, 5th Baroness Lisle, 3rd Viscountess Lisle (25 March 1505  - 1519) was an English noblewoman and heiress.

Life

Elizabeth was the daughter of John Grey, 2nd Viscount Lisle and Lady Muriel Howard.[1] The death of her father in 1504 meant that she was born a considerable heiress and ward of the Crown. In 1509 her uncle, Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, obtained a lease of her lands from the king.[2] After the death of her stepfather Sir Thomas Knyvet in August 1512 and of her mother a few months later, Elizabeth's wardship was purchased by Sir Charles Brandon, a favourite of Henry VIII. Betrothal to his eight-year-old ward facilitated Brandon's elevation to the peerage as Viscount Lisle in May 1513.[3]

In 1515, Brandon married Mary Tudor, the queen dowager of France and Henry VIII's younger sister (without having obtained the consent of the King). Having no need of Elizabeth as a potential bride himself, Brandon sold her wardship to Catherine, Countess of Devon, for £4,000.[4] The countess married Elizabeth to her son Henry Courtenay, a cousin of the King and grandson of Edward IV of England, but as she died aged fourteen it is unlikely the marriage was consummated. After her death the Lisle title passed to Arthur Plantagenet, the husband of Elizabeth's aunt.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Dugdale, William. The Baronage of England. 1675. 1. 723.
  2. Book: Head, David M.. The Ebbs and Flows of Fortune. 2009. 26.
  3. Brandon, Charles, first duke of Suffolk. 10.1093/ref:odnb/3260.
  4. Courtenay, Henry, marquess of Exeter. 10.1093/ref:odnb/6451.