Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby

The 4th Earl of Derby.
Quartered arms of Sir Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, KG

Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby KG (September 1531 – 25 September 1593) was a prominent English nobleman, diplomat, and politician. He was an ambassador, Privy Councillor, and participated in the trials of Mary, Queen of Scots and the Earl of Arundel.

Life

Born in Lathom, Henry was the eldest son of Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby and his second wife, Lady Dorothy Howard. His maternal grandparents were Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and his wife Agnes Tilney (1478–1545), daughter of Hugh Tilney of Boston and Eleanor Tailboys.[1]

He was married on 7 February 1554 to Lady Margaret Clifford. She was the only surviving child of Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland and Lady Eleanor Brandon. The marriage took place in a chapel of the Palace of Whitehall and was attended by Queen Mary I of England and her consort Philip of Spain. They were relatives of the bride through her maternal grandmother Mary Tudor, former queen consort of France.

Henry and Margaret had four children in the next eight years, but then quarrelled and generally lived apart thereafter. From about 1570 he lived with Jane Halsall of Knowsley, with whom he had a further four children.[2]

His father died on 24 October 1572. Lord Derby inherited his peerages, the title Lord of Mann and the offices of Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire and Cheshire.

Elizabeth I of England created Derby a Knight of the Garter in 1574. He was created alongside Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke.

He was appointed ambassador to the court of Henry III of France in 1580. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1585. He was among the chief officials of the trial of deposed Scottish monarch Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1586.

In 1588, he was part of a mission which tried to negotiate an end to the Anglo-Spanish War following the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

In 1589, Elizabeth appointed him Lord High Steward for the trial of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel and Surrey. He returned to Lathom in retirement in 1592 and died there one or two years later.

Family

Henry and Margaret were parents to four children:[3]

Henry was also father to at least four illegitimate children by Jane Halsall of Knowsley:[4]

Ancestry

References

  1. John Burke and John Bernard Burke. http://www.burkes-peerage.net
  2. "Henry Stanley (1531-1593)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26272. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. 1 2 3 4 5  "Stanley, Henry". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. p. 70.
  4. 1 2 3 Barry Coward. The Stanleys: Lords Stanley and Earls of Derby 1385-1672, Manchester University Press, 1983, p.31. Google eBook
  5. Sir John Bernard Burke and John Burke. A genealogical and heraldic history of the extinct and dormant baronetcies of England, Scott, Webster, and Geary, 1838. pg 471. Google eBook
  6. John Klause, "The Phoenix and the Turtle in its Time", in Gwynne Blakemore Evans (ed), In the Company of Shakespeare: Essays on English Renaissance Literature, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 2002, p.207.
  7. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/halsall-sir-cuthbert-1573-1632

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
The 3rd Earl of Derby
Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire and Lancashire
15721593
Vacant
Title next held by
The 6th Earl of Derby
Vice-Admiral of Cheshire and Lancashire
15731593
Succeeded by
The 5th Earl of Derby
Head of State of the Isle of Man
Preceded by
Edward Stanley
Lord of Mann
15721593
Succeeded by
Ferdinando Stanley
Peerage of England
Preceded by
Edward Stanley
Earl of Derby
15721593
Succeeded by
Ferdinando Stanley
Baron Strange
(writ in acceleration)
(descended by acceleration)

15591589
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/28/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.