No record of Rychard Gregorye’s birth has survived, so I have estimated his birth year to be 25 years before his recorded marriage in 1559. This calculation would make the birth year about 1534, which puts Rychard’s birthdate broadly in line with the future Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), the last of the five Tudor monarchs.
Rychard was born and lived at a time of significant changes in England. His early years coincided with King Henry VIII’s decision to split from Rome, the dissolution of the monasteries and the growing acceptance of Protestantism in England. When Henry VIII died in 1547, his nine-year-old son Edward VI succeeded him.
Edward VI was England’s first Protestant King. His support for the Protestant cause eventually led to him signing a ‘Device for the Succession’ to prevent his Catholic older sister Mary from inheriting the throne and returning Catholicism as the state religion in England.
This ‘Device’ led to Lady Jane Grey, Edward’s first cousin, once removed and a Protestant, becoming ‘the nine days queen’. Lady Jane was born in Bradgate Park in Leicestershire, about 7 miles from Desford. The ruins of her home are in a beautiful deer park, which today welcomes visitors throughout the year.
Lady Jane’s reign ended just nine days after it began when overwhelming support for Henry VIII’s eldest daughter resulted in the Council proclaiming Mary as queen. During the five years of Mary’s reign, she made a very determined attempt to reverse the English Reformation and return England to Catholicism.
Mary died without giving birth to a successor, and her death resulted in her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth becoming Queen in November 1558 at the age of twenty-five. Three months later, on 2nd February 1559, Rychard Gregorye married Margaret Stringer in Desford Church.
*The Crown of Ireland Act 1542 established a personal union between the English and Irish crowns, providing that whoever was King of England was also to be King of Ireland. So, its first holder was King Henry VIII of England. (Wikipedia)
Interested in the book – just click on the picture below
