User:Vulgarurbanism/Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley

Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley (circa 1515 – 9 July 1586). The oldest son and heir of John Sutton, 3rd Baron Dudley. He was an English nobleman and soldier, active during the turbulent period of the English Reformation who significantly restored his family's landholdings. Contemporary sources also refer to him as Sir Edward Dudley.

Early life
Sir Edward was born around 1515 and was the eldest child and heir of John Sutton, 3rd Baron Dudley and Lady Cicely Grey, daughter of Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset. His paternal grandfather was Edmund Sutton, second Baron Dudley, Knight of Dudley Castle and Baron Tibertot and Cherleton, who had enjoyed some favour under Henry VIII and was chamberlain to the young Princess Mary from 1525-28. Sir Edward's maternal great-grandmother was Elizabeth Woodville, former Queen consort of England.

He had four younger brothers, including Henry Dudley and George Dudley, and four younger sisters.

Career
As part of the Tudor conquest of Ireland, the future Sir Edward, commonly known as Dudley, served in Ireland from 1533, and from 1536 under his uncle Leonard Grey, 1st Viscount Grane. In 1538, Grey wrote to King Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell: "I beseech your lordship to be good lord unto my poor nephew Dudley." The young Dudley was referred to as very poor by himself and his uncle, Dudley's father having lost his estate and Dudley Castle in 1537.

Cromwell was well known to the Grey family, having been employed by, Leonard Grey's father and Dudley's grandfather, Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, as an advisor. Dudley's mother, Lady Cecily, had also written to Cromwell in 1538 asking for help for herself and her children: "The cause of my writing unto you is, desiring you to be good lord unto me; it is so, as you know very well, that by the means of my lord, my husband, I and all mine are utterly undone, unless it be the better provided by the Grace of God, and likewise that it may please the King's highness to take pity of me and mine. . . The truth is, I have little above twenty pound a year, (which I have by my lady my mother)..."

Dudley was nominated by Henry VIII as the captain of a company of 100 archers, under Sir William Brereton and on recommendation from Cromwell. He served in Ireland until December 1539.

In 1541, Dudley was granted by the king a lease on the manor of Keyingham, in Holderess, Yorkshire. The Sutton family of Dudley claimed descent from the Sutton lords of Holderness. In 1544, a new lease of Keyingham was made for life in return for Dudley's "...promptness to serve against the king's enemies"

By 1545, Dudley was in France with his brother, where they were both prominent members of the English garrison laying siege to Boulogne. In June 1546, Dudley was appointed captain of the new outlying fort and a member of the council of Boulogne.

In 1547, Dudley was part of a large contingent from the garrison at Boulougne that left France and took part in the Battle of Pinkie as part of the invasion of Scotland, commanded by his third cousin, William Grey, 13th Baron Grey de Wilton. Grey commanded the infantry and placed them and himself at the head of the army when the battle took place on 10 September 1547. Dudley wrote to the Earl of Shrewsbury from Scotland on 11 September 1547 about the capture of the English Berwick Pursuivant, Henry Ray:

Aftre my most humble recommendaciones. Beyng informyt be Hary Ray, harrold, presoner, that his taker, the lard Gyrulay, hath noght onelye  wsed him gentlye, bot where he was takyne frome hyme to the Gwnerour  and lordes of Scotlande he hath maid suche procurement that he had recwured hyme againe, and of his awin will haith browght hyme with his hors and all that he had of hym to Howme Castell, dissiyryng your lordshipp to wb the said lard accordynlyie. This most humblye I taik my lewe. Wretten at Howme Castell the xi. day of Septembre,

Youre lordeshypes to commande,

E. DUDDELEY.

Dudley was appointed governor of Hume Castle after it surrendered to the English forces, led by Somerset, on 21 September 1547. Hume was retaken by the Scots in December 1548, and Dudley captured. He was held at Spynie Palace. When the war ended with the Treaty of Boulogne, on 24 March 1550, the Earl of Shrewsbury was asked by the Privy Council on 28 March 1550 to organise his release by the exchange of French hostages to the value of £200.

In 1551, Dudley was nominated to escort Mary of Guise on her return to Scotland from France.

Succession to the barony and Knighting by Mary I
On the 17 September 1553, after the death of his father (known as the "Lord Quondam" that is 'Lord Formerly'), Dudley succeeded him as Baron Dudley. On 18 September, he buried his father with Catholic rites at St Margaret's Westminster. 1553 was the first year of the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I.



On the 2nd of October 1553, Dudley was knighted by Queen Mary I, the day after her coronation as Queen of England, and became styled as Sir Edward. In early 1554, he was rewarded for service against the rebel leader, and fellow Boulogne veteran, Sir Thomas Wyatt the younger. Soon after this, Sir Edward went to Spain as a member of an English contingent led by Thomas Radclyffe, Baron Fitzwalter, to receive Philip II of Spain's ratification of the articles of marriage to Queen Mary. For this service to the Queen, Sir Edward received a life annuity of ₤66 13s. 4d.

On 4 November 1554, by letters patent, Queen Mary granted Sir Edward the manors of Horborne, the Priory of Dudley, and titles of Northfield and Sedgley, with lands and rights in Dudley, Tressel and Cradley. By other letters patent, he was also restored to ownership of his ancestral seat, Dudley Castle, which had been mortgaged to his cousin, the Duke of Northumberland by his father, but been forfeited to the Crown by the attainder of Northumberland.

Sir Edward was called to Parliament, by a writ dated 12 November 1554, as Baron of Dudley

Queen Mary, in a grant made by letters patent on 31 December 1555, also settled upon Sir Edward and his soon to be wife Katherine Brydges and their heirs the "... lordships of Sedgley, Himley and Swinford, the hays, forests and chases of Ashwood and Chaspell, and the lands called Willingsworth, in Sedgley, with divers lands and tenements in Himley, Wombourne and Swindon." With another grant, Queen Mary gave Sir Edward and Katherine and their male heirs Dudley Castle, Conigre Park and lands in Dudley, Fowley and Sedgley, which had been John Dudley's, Duke of Northumberland, and confiscated by the crown on his conviction, and subsequent execution, in August 1553. Katherine knew the Queen well, she had attended her as one of her gentlewomen in ordinary, and was the daughter of John Brydges, 1st Baron Chandos, Mary's Lieutenant of the Tower of London. The grant was later confirmed by Queen Elizabeth in 1579.

Sir Edward was lieutenant of Hampnes or Hammes Castle, near Calais, in Picardy, from 1556 to 1558, though the appointment had been made in 1555. His third cousin, William Grey, 13th Baron Grey de Wilton, was commander of nearby Guînes Castle. The position was granted for life, but England lost it's last territories in France in 1558 as part of the Italian War of 1551–1559, which culminated in the Siege of Calais in 1558.

Sutton abandoned Hampnes in 1558, fearing the French, and fled to Flanders with his garrison. Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, wrote to Lord Robert Dudley and Sir William Cecil in 1562 about Sir Edward: "'Edward Dudley was the first that entered Tankerville and is there, as I understand, very well liked by the gentlemen of the country, and also those that serve with him.'"

Later career under Elizabeth I
Upon the accession of Queen Elizabeth 1558, he sought to gain her favour, and entertained her at Dudley Castle in 1575.

In 1567, Sir Edward negotiated a prenuptial article of agreement for his daughter Anne, with Sir John Throckmorton for her to marry his eldest son and future conspirator, Francis Throckmorton. As part of this agreement, Anne was sent to be brought up by her future mother-in-law, Margery Throckmorton and the manors of Sedgley, Swinford and Himley and all other lands granted to Edward Sutton, Lord of Dudley by Philip and Mary were part of the dowry. Anne's maternal aunt, Mary Brydges, was married to George Throckmorton, John's brother and Francis' uncle. Anne and Francis had a son, John. After Francis was executed for treason in 1584, Anne married the Oxford educated barrister and member of Lincoln's Inn Thomas Wylmer Esq.

Death
Sir Edward's will was dated 8 July 1585 and mentions his ironworks and a large debt load, so large that he allowed his executors 21 years in which to discharge them using profits from his stock and iron manufacturers.

"'I wyll and bequeathe my hoole yron workes, with all my owre (ore) fytt for to manteyne the same, and alsoe all my woddes and underwoodes for the thoroughe mainteyninge of the same, whiche I doe gyve and bequeathe unto Mary ladie Dudley my wyfe, and to the lorde Charles Howarde, Highe Admirall of Englande, and to the lorde Henry Carye of Hundsedon, Lorde Chamberlayne toe the Queene's Majestie, and Sr John Lyttelton, for the time of twentie one yeares for the payment of my debtes; at the time of my debtes beinge payde, I gyve my wyfe one thousande poundes, and to my seconde sonne John Dudley, al's Sutton, three hundrethe poundes, and to my daughter Anne Throckmorton twoe hundreth poundes: all thys is to be payde oute of the saide lease after my debtes be payde, and then the sayde lease to return to my heyre.'"

Howard and Carey were overseers of the will, along with Sir Edward's second cousin, Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick.

Sir Edward's heir was his eldest son, Edward, who is mentioned separately in the will: "'I charge and comaunde upon my blessinge Edward, my oldeste sonne, that he doe, noe manner of waye, moleste or troble the due performance of this my laste Wyll and Testament'"

According to Dugdale, Sir Edward died on 4 July 1586 in London. On 12 August 1586, he was buried at the same church as both his parents, St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, on the grounds of Westminster Abbey. He was succeeded in the peerage by his son, Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley (1567–1643).

Marriages and children
After an early unsuccessful marriage proposal to a widow, a certain Anne, lady Berkeley, Sir Edward was married three times and had three children:

1. Katherine Brydges (m. 1556, d.1566), a Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber to Queen Mary, and the daughter of John Brydges, 1st Baron Chandos and Elizabeth (née Grey) of Wilton. They had one child:


 * Anne (b. c. 1556, d. 1605), who married first Francis Throckmorton, conspirator against Queen Elizabeth I of England and had a son, John Throckmorton. After Throckmorton's execution, she married Thomas Wylmer or Wilmer Esq. (1554-1628), of Budbrooke and Lincoln's Inn, barrister at law, and had two sons, Thomas and John, and two daughters, Mary and Ursula.

Katherine was buried at St Edmond's in Dudley on 28 April 1566.

2. Jane Stanley, a daughter of Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby (m. 1567) with whom he had the following children:


 * Edward Dudley, who became the 5th Baron Dudley (b. 17 September 1567, d. 23 June 1643).
 * John Dudley (b. 30 November 1569, buried Sedgley, 3 March 1644/45), married and had issue.

Jane was buried at St Edmond's in Dudley on 4 December 1569.

3. Mary Howard, the daughter of William, 1st Baron Howard on 16 December 1571 at Whitehall Palace in a triple wedding with Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford and bride, Anne Cecil, and Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester and bride Elizabeth Hastings. The year after Edward's death, Mary remarried to Richard Mompesson (d. 1627), courtier and briefly Member of Parliament. She died in 1600 and is buried in St Margaret's Church, Westminster.