Cecily Bonville-Grey: The queen’s great grandmother

A guest post by Sarah J. Hodder

Cecily Bonville-Grey was one of the richest women of her time and perhaps one of the most connected, which is what makes her story so fascinating. She was a daughter of a Neville and stepdaughter of the King’s Chamberlain, daughter-in-law to the King and Queen of England, wife of a Marquis and the great grandmother of a Tudor queen. But more than just all of those things to all of those people, she was a woman of substance herself who lived and thrived during one of history’s most turbulent times, as the rule of the Plantagenets ended and the Tudor era began.

Born in or around 1459/60, Cecily was a Wars of the Roses child; at the time of her birth Henry VI was still on the throne of England but the wars had begun several years before, pitting Henry and the House of Lancaster against the House of York.  She was born at Shute manor, in a quiet little backwater in Devon, in a house that she would remain attached to her whole life. Her parents, William Bonville and Katherine Neville, were still young themselves and were it not for the ever-growing tensions between the houses of York and Lancaster, Cecily may have lived a comfortable but fairly obscure life in the beautiful Devonshire countryside. Instead, her father, grandfather and great-grandfather would all become caught up in the wars and before she was of an age to even commit the males of her family to memory, William was killed on the battlefield at Wakefield in 1460 alongside his father, also named William. Her great grandfather would also lose his life shortly after, wiping out the male Bonville line and leaving the infant Cecily a recipient of the vast Harrington and Bonville fortunes. A few months later Henry VI would lose his throne and England would gain a new King, Edward IV, a son of the House of York.  

Cecily’s mother, Katherine, was a younger daughter of the great Neville family and a second marriage was soon arranged for her with William Hastings, a close friend and Lord Chamberlain to Edward IV. The union was almost certainly organised for her by her elder brother, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick – the ‘Kingmaker’ who had been so instrumental in Edward’s journey to the throne. The wedding took place in 1462 when she and the two-year old Cecily said goodbye to Devon and moved to Lincolnshire, where Cecily would spend her childhood.

As Cecily grew up, her vast inheritance made her an attractive marriage prospect. Her stepfather’s connection to the royal court brought her to the attention of the royal family and in 1474, when she was around fifteen years old, Cecily was married to the nineteen year-old-Thomas Grey, the King’s stepson. Thomas was the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth Woodville from her first marriage to Sir John Grey. Less than a year after their marriage he was awarded the title Marquis of Dorset by the King and Cecily, as his wife, became Marchioness.

Together Cecily and Thomas were a wealthy couple. A survey of Cecily’s properties alone undertaken by her surveyor Richard Phelps in 1525, recorded properties in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire. The survey lists 79 manors totalling 30,000 acres and with a rent roll of £1000. A Bank of England conversion tool today equates this to well over a million pounds. As well as her West Country manors, she also owned property in at least ten other English counties.

Although they had a wealth of manors at their disposal, it was to Cecily’s early home at Shute that the couple would choose to return to and make their main residence in which they could raise their family. Cecily and Thomas were married for twenty-seven years until the Marquis’ death in 1501. It is impossible to tell from this distance of time whether they had a happy union but Cecily would give birth to at least fourteen children over a period of around eighteen years (with her last child born around 1495) which gives an indication they remained close throughout their marriage. Cecily also stood by the Marquis when his supposed infidelity was proclaimed by Richard III, who publicly accused him of being in an illicit relationship with Jane Shore, one time mistress of Edward IV.

After Thomas’ death in 1501, Cecily did not choose the path of widowhood, announcing her intention to take a second husband in 1504 much to the chagrin of her eldest son. Cecily’s chosen spouse was Lord Henry Stafford, a younger son of the 2^nd Duke of Buckingham, and someone who was without great monetary means. Her son challenged her decision, arguing it would dilute his inheritance and worrying that Stafford’s reasons for marrying his mother may have been purely financial. There was a considerable age gap between Stafford and Cecily, he was around twenty-five years of age to Cecily’s forty-five. And as Cecily had no need to marry for financial security, it is probably safe to assume that at least on her part, this union was born of an attraction. Five years after their wedding, Henry VIII took the throne and Stafford became part of his close circle of friends, with Henry awarding him the title Earl of Wiltshire. Although Cecily and Stafford were married for nineteen years, they had no children together. And when the Earl died on 6^th April 1523, aged forty-four, Cecily was left to pay off his many debts, including money that he owed to the King. Her son had obviously been not far off the mark when judging his stepfather’s financial credibility.

Cecily lived much of her life within the sphere of the royal court and her children and grandchildren also mixed in royal circles, but two decades after Cecily’s death a great granddaughter of hers would make the ultimate leap to power. This great granddaughter was named Jane Grey and in the 1550s she became Queen of England for nine days.

Lady Jane Grey was the daughter of Henry Grey, Cecily’s grandson. Henry had become the third Marquis of Dorset in 1530 when his father Thomas (Cecily’s eldest son) died.  A year later he was created Duke of Suffolk by King Henry VIII and in 1533 he made a highly advantageous marriage to Frances Brandon, the daughter of the king’s sister Mary Tudor and her husband Charles Brandon. 

Henry inherited all the Grey family properties and he and Frances chose Bradgate House in Leicestershire as their main residence. Jane Grey was born at Bradgate in 1537, the eldest of three daughters that would be born to the couple.

Henry and his wife Frances were very much involved in court life, with Frances serving as a Lady of the Privy Chamber to Henry’s sixth wife, Queen Katherine Parr. When Henry VIII died in 1547, the dowager queen took her chance at happiness and married a man whom she had reportedly been in love with long before her marriage to the King – Sir Thomas Seymour. In an agreement brokered between Henry Grey and Sir Thomas, Jane’s wardship was bought by the Seymours for £2000 and the ten-year-old Jane Grey joined Thomas and Katherine at Sudeley Castle.

After King Henry’s death, the throne passed to Henry’s only son and heir, Prince Edward, but the new king was still only a youngster himself, having been born in the same month and year as Jane Grey. Due to his age, a regency council was formed to govern the country, headed up by Edward’s Uncle, Edward Seymour (brother to Thomas) and Sir John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. However six years into his reign, in 1553, King Edward became ill. When it became clear he may not recover, attention quickly turned to the line of succession. King Henry’s daughters from his first two wives, the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, had been left out of the succession which stated that if the direct line from Henry was to fail then the crown should go ‘to any male heirs born to his niece Lady Frances Grey’ or if she was no longer living, that of his niece Lady Eleanor, both daughters of his sister Mary.

As Edward’s health failed him, the pressure was on to nominate his successor. As he penned his Will, he decided to continue the exclusion of both his sisters, instead making it clear that the crown was still to go to the heirs of his cousin Frances. Stating his instructions, he decreed that the crown was to be left ‘to the Lady Frances’s heirs male, for lack of such issue (before my death) to the Lady Janes heirs males’. If Frances had a son and he was underage at the time of Edward’s death, Frances was to act as regent until he was old enough to rule. The only problem remained that Frances was the mother of three daughters and as yet no sons. This plan then relied on Lady Jane Grey having sons.

On 25 May 1553, at the age of sixteen, Jane Grey wed Guildford Dudley, Northumberland’s son. With no time for Jane and Guildford to produce a male heir, Northumberland convinced the king to amend his Will. The clause ‘Lady Janes heirs males’ was changed to ‘Lady Jane and her heirs males’. The addition of this one simple word pushed Jane directly in line to succeed Edward upon his death with Guildford Dudley, as her new husband, ruling by her side.

Then, on 6^th July 1553, King Edward VI died and Jane Grey, Cecily’s great granddaughter, suddenly found herself queen of England. On 10th July, she was carried by barge along the Thames to the Tower of London where she was crowned. But there was one small impediment to the plan: Henry VIII’s eldest daughter, Mary, a strong and proud woman who was utterly convinced of her right to be Queen. On the same day that Jane was crowned, Mary wrote to the Privy Council asserting her ‘right and title to the crown and government of this realm’ Unfortunately for Jane, Mary also had popularity on her side; the people had loved her mother, Katherine of Aragon, and loved her too whereas Jane was virtually an unknown figure. As Mary raised her army and set off from her base of Framlingham Castle in Norfolk, heading towards London, many of the nobility who had supported Jane quickly began to retreat. In the end there was no need for battle. On 19^th July, the Earl of Pembroke rode into Cheapside to proclaim Mary as queen of England and met with no resistance. All those who had supported Jane disappeared and Jane herself was moved from her royal apartments in the Tower to free them up for Queen Mary. Jane had ruled England for just nine days.

In the days that followed Jane’s mother met with Queen Mary and begged for her family to be spared. Henry Grey was pardoned but Jane was charged with treason. Queen Mary eventually arrived in London on 3rd August and Jane’s father-in-law, the Duke of Northumberland, was executed for treason just under three weeks later.

Jane herself wrote to Mary from the tower and although she would not free her, Mary demonstrated some compassion and agreed that she would spare her life. But a few months later, in early 1554, Jane’s foolish father, Henry Grey, led another rebellion, this time to remove Mary from the throne and replace her with her protestant sister, Elizabeth. They failed in their task and this time Mary was less willing to forgive. Persuaded by her councillors that allowing Jane to live would prove a continual threat to her queenship, Mary decided that Jane must die. On 12^th February 1554, first Guildford and then Jane were led to the executioner’s block. Carrying her prayer book, Jane gave a brave speech for a young girl who was just seventeen years old and the executioner ended her short life. Henry Grey was executed eleven days later and all his properties, including Cecily’s beloved Shute, were confiscated by the state.

What Cecily would have thought these events we can never know. Almost certainly she would have been sad at the loss of her beloved childhood home but this would surely have been tempered by compassion for her great granddaughter who was treated so badly by those around her. Cecily had lived through the reigns of five kings and managed to remain close to those who occupied the throne and perhaps, had she been living, she would have given better advice to her errant grandson whose reckless grab for power lost him the family fortune and cost him and his daughter their lives.

If you want to read more about Cecily and her fascinating life, you can do so in Cecily Bonville Grey, Marchioness of Dorset by Sarah J. Hodder. Chronos Books, 2022.

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