NINETEENTH GENERATION

491722. Sir Edmund Grey 1st Earl of Kent(336) (179)(201) was born on Oct 26 1416. He died on May 22 1490. Sir Edmund Grey, 1st Earl of Kent, served in Aquitaine before 1440 and was knighted there on Oct 9, 1440. A week earlier he had succeeded his grandfather as 4th Lord Grey of Ruthin. He was back in England by November of that year, when he was named chief commissioner for a loan in Bedfordshire. He attended several meetings of the Privy Council in 1443.

In the Wars of the Roses, he sided at first with Henry VI and was summoned to the Great Council in 1454. He was named the following year a commissioner in Bedford to raise money for the defense of Calais. He appears to have fallen under suspicion for disloyalty in 1459, for in the Paston letters he is said to have "declaird himself worshipfuly to the kinges grete plaisir." But at the Battle of Northampton on Jul 10 1460, in command of the vanguard of the royal army, he went over to Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, ("the Kingmaker") and so decided the day in favor of the Yorkists.

He was rewarded by Edward IV with the manor of Ampthill, and on Jun 24 1463 was made High Treasurer of England and a privy councillor. On May 30 1465 he was created Earl of Kent and later that year was named chief justice of the County of Merioneth. In 1470 he was named Commissioner of Array for Kent, and in the following year for Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire as well.

He carried the second sword at the coronation of King Richard III and was confirmed in his titles by Richard the following year. Three years later, having avoided too close an association with Richard, he had his titles confirmed once more, this time by King Henry VII. He was married to Katherine Percy about 1458.

491723. Katherine Percy (179)(201) was born on May 28 1423 in Leconfield, England. She died about 1504. Children were:

child i. Sir Anthony Grey died before Nov 27 1480. Sir Anthony Grey's wife, Joan Wydville, was a sister of Queen Elizabeth Wydville, Queen of King Edward IV.
child ii. George Grey 2nd Earl of Kent died on Dec 16 1503 in Ampthill. Lord Grey's first wife, Anne Wydville, was the sister of his brother's wife and the sister of Quen Elizabeth Wydville, wife of King Edward IV
child iii. John Grey died young.
child iv. Elizabeth Grey died on Jul 18 1472.
child245861 v. Anne Grey.
child vi. ---------- Grey. This sister, whose name is lost, became a nun.
child vii. Edmund Grey died young.

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