Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk ( – 22 August 1545) was an English military leader and courtier. Through his third wife, Mary Tudor, he was the brother-in-law of King Henry VIII.
Biography Born in 1484, Charles Brandon was the second but only surviving son of Sir William Brandon, Henry Tudor's standard-bearer at the Battle of Bosworth Field. William Brandon was killed during the battle. Charles Brandon's mother, Elizabeth Bruyn (d. March 1494), was the daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry Bruyn (died 1461).
Charles Brandon was brought up at the court of Henry VII, and became Henry VIII's closest friend. He was about seven years older than Henry and was a role model for the young prince, especially after the death of his brother, Prince Arthur. Brandon was becoming an excellent jouster and a ladies' man and as such was an object of admiration for Henry. Brandon is described by Dugdale as "a person comely of stature, high of courage and conformity of disposition to King Henry VIII, with whom he became a great favourite." Brandon held a succession of offices in the royal household, becoming Master of the Horse in 1513, and received many valuable grants of land. On 15 May, he was created Viscount Lisle, having entered into a marriage contract with his eight-year-old ward, Elizabeth Grey, suo jure Viscountess Lisle. The contract was ended and the title was forfeited as a result of Brandon's marriage to Mary Tudor in 1515.
He distinguished himself at the sieges of Thérouanne and Tournai in the French campaign of 1513. One of the agents of Margaret of Savoy, governor of the Netherlands, reminded her that Brandon was a "second king" and advised her to write him a pleasant letter. At this time, Henry VIII was secretly urging Margaret to marry Lisle, whom he created Duke of Suffolk on 4 March 1514, although he was careful to disclaim any complicity in the project to her father, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. When Brandon was made Duke of Suffolk, there were only two other dukes in the kingdom (Buckingham and Norfolk). After being made Duke of Suffolk, he continued to travel around that county so as to get to know the towns and villages and the local dignitaries. He mainly stayed at his family's homes, including Wingfield Castle and the now demolished Henham Hall.
After his marriage to Mary, Suffolk lived at Westhorpe Hall for some years in semi-retirement, but he was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, an event organised in part by his cousins Sir Richard Wingfield, who was English ambassador to France, and Thomas Wolsey, who was Cardinal and Lord Chancellor.
In 1523 he was sent to Calais to command the English troops there. He invaded France in company with Floris d'Egmont, Count of Buren, who was at the head of the Flemish troops, and laid waste the north of France, but disbanded his troops at the approach of winter.
Brandon was appointed Earl Marshal of England in 1524, a position previously held by Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. However, in 1533 he relinquished the office to Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, "whose auncesto[ur]s of longe tyme hadde the same until nowe of late."
After Wolsey's disgrace, Suffolk's influence increased. He was sent with Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, to demand the Great Seal from Wolsey (it is possible Henry sent Brandon to Wolsey as they were related); and Suffolk acted as High Steward at the new Queen's coronation. He was one of the commissioners appointed by Henry to dismiss Catherine's household, a task he found distasteful.
His family had a residence on the west side of Borough High Street, London, for at least half a century prior to his building of Suffolk Place at the site.
Charles supported Henry's ecclesiastical policy, receiving a large share of the lands after the dissolution of the monasteries. In 1544, he was for the second time in command of an English army for the invasion of France. He died at Guildford, Surrey, on 22 August in the following year. At Henry VIII's expense he was buried at Windsor in St George's Chapel. Brandon was perhaps the only person in England who successfully retained Henry VIII's affection for most of a period of forty years.
Marriage to Mary Tudor Charles Brandon took part in the jousts which celebrated the marriage of Mary Tudor, King Henry VIII's sister, with King Louis XII of France. On Louis XII's death in 1515, Brandon was sent to congratulate the new king, Francis I, and was accredited to negotiate various matters with him, including Dowager Queen Mary's return to England. Love had existed between Mary and Brandon before her marriage to Louis. Francis, perhaps in the hope of his wife Queen Claude's death, had been one of Mary's suitors in the first week of her widowhood, in which Mary had asserted that she had given him her confidence in order to avoid his overtures.
Francis I and Henry VIII both professed a friendly attitude towards the marriage of the lovers, but Brandon had many political enemies, and Mary feared that she might again be sacrificed for political considerations. The King's Council, not wishing to see Brandon gain further power at court, were opposed to the match. The truth was that Henry was anxious to obtain from Francis the gold plate and jewels that had been given or promised to Mary by Louis XII, as well as reimbursement of the expenses of her marriage with him; and Henry practically made his acceptance of Brandon's suit dependent on Brandon obtaining them. However, when Brandon was sent to bring Mary back to England, the King made him promise that he would not propose to her. Once in France though, Brandon was persuaded by Mary to abandon this pledge. The couple wed in secret at the Hotel de Clugny on 3 March 1515 in the presence of just 10 people, among whom was Francis I.Weir, Alison. Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy p. 152 London: Random House, 2011 Brandon announced their marriage to Thomas Wolsey, who was a kinsman and friend.
Technically, this was treason as Brandon had married a royal princess without the King's consent.Yonge, Charlotte Mary. The War of the Roses, p. 335 London: Macmillan and Company, 1877 Henry was outraged, and the privy council urged that Brandon should be imprisoned or executed. He was only saved from the King's anger by Wolsey smoothing things over and from the affection that the King had for both his sister and for him. The couple got off relatively lightly and were charged only with a heavy fine of £24,000 to be paid to the King in yearly instalments of £1000, as well as the whole of Mary's dowry from Louis XII of £200,000, together with her plate and jewels. Nonetheless, Henry later reduced the fine. The couple were then openly married at Greenwich Hall on 13 May 1515 in the presence of the King and his courtiers. The Duke of Suffolk already had been twice married, to Margaret Neville (the widow of John Mortimer) and to Anne Browne, to whom he had been betrothed before his marriage with Neville. Browne died in 1511, but Neville, from whom he had obtained a declaration of nullity on the ground of consanguinity, was still living. Brandon secured in 1528 a bull from Pope Clement VII that assured the legitimacy of his marriage with Mary Tudor.
Mary died on 25 June 1533, and in September of the same year, Brandon married his ward, the 14-year-old Katherine Willoughby (1519–1580), suo jure Baroness Willoughby de Eresby. Katherine had been betrothed to his eldest surviving son, Henry, Earl of Lincoln, but the boy was too young to marry. In a letter to Emperor Charles V, the Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys wrote: 'On Sunday next the duke of Suffolk will be married to the daughter of a Spanish lady named lady Willoughby. She was promised to his son, but he is only ten years old...'"...Lincoln was sickly [...] and Charles did not wish to gamble on his son's survival and risk losing Katherine's lands. So he married her himself." In: "Starkey, David (Hg): Rivals in Power: Lives and Letters of the Great Tudor Dynasties. Macmillan, London 1990, p. 178 The Earl of Lincoln died in 1534.
With Willoughby, Brandon had his two youngest sons, who showed great promise: another Henry (1535–1551) and Charles (c. 1537–1551), who later became Dukes of Suffolk. However, they eventually died of the sweating sickness within an hour of each other.
Between 1536–1543, Brandon gave his London residence Suffolk Place, rebuilt by him in fine Renaissance style in 1522, to Henry VIII in exchange for Norwich Place on the Strand, London. He also leased Hoxne Hall at this time.
Marriages and children Before 7 February 1507, Charles Brandon firstly married Margaret Neville (born 1466), widow of Sir John Mortimer (d. before 12 November 1504),The Picards or Pychards of Stradewy (now Tretower) Castle, and Scethrog, Brecknockshire, (London: Golding and Lawrence, 1878), p. 62 Retrieved 16 September 2013.'Parishes: Martley with Hillhampton', A History of the County of Worcester: volume 4 (1924), pp. 289-297 Retrieved 16 September 2013. and daughter of John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu (slain at the Battle of Barnet) and Isabel Ingaldesthorpe (or Ingoldesthorpe), daughter and heiress of Sir Edmund Ingaldesthorpe (or Ingoldesthorpe) and Joanna Tiptoft. Charles and Margaret had no children. The marriage was declared void about 1527 by the Archdeaconry Court of London, and later by papal bull dated 12 May 1528. Margaret subsequently married Robert Downes, gentleman.
In early 1508, in a secret ceremony at Stepney, and later publicly at St Michael's, Cornhill, Charles secondly married Anne Browne, daughter of Sir Anthony Browne (Standard Bearer of England in 1485) and Eleanor Ughtred, and thus the stepdaughter of Margaret Neville's sister Lucy Neville.Cokayne states that Anne Browne was the daughter of Sir Anthony Browne and Lucy Neville; . Eleanor Ughtred was the daughter of Sir Robert Ughtred (c. 1428c. 1487) of Kexby, North Yorkshire and Katherine Eure, daughter of Sir William Eure of Stokesley, Yorkshire. By Anne Browne, Charles had two daughters:
Lady Anne Brandon (1507–1557), who married firstly Edward Grey, 3rd Baron Grey of Powis, and after the dissolution of this union, Randal Harworth. Lady Mary Brandon (1510–c. 1542), who married Thomas Stanley, 2nd Baron Monteagle.
Anne Browne died in 1511. The papal bull of 1528 also declared his two daughters by Anne Browne legitimate.
Charles was then contracted to marry Elizabeth Grey, 5th Baroness Lisle (1505–1519), and was thus created 1st Viscount Lisle of the third creation in 1513, but the contract was annulled, and he surrendered the title either before 1519 or in 1523.
In May 1515, Charles thirdly married Mary Tudor, Queen Dowager of France (18 March 149625 June 1533). After their marriage, Charles and Mary resided at Westhorpe Hall, where they raised their four children: Lord Henry Brandon (11 March 1516 – 1522) Lady Frances Brandon (16 July 1517 – 20 November 1559), who married Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, 3rd Marquess of Dorset, by whom she was the mother of Lady Jane Grey. Lady Eleanor Brandon (1519 – 27 September 1547), who married Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland. Henry Brandon, 1st Earl of Lincoln (c. 1523 – 1 March 1534)
On 7 September 1533, little more than two months after Mary's death, Brandon married for the fourth time. His bride was Katherine Willoughby, 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby (22 March 1519 – 19 September 1580), the daughter and heiress of William Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby and María de Salinas. They had two sons, both still children when Brandon died in 1545, and both of whom died of the sweating sickness on the same day in 1551:
Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk (18 September 153514 July 1551) Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk (153714 July 1551)
Katherine married Richard Bertie in 1553, and had a son and a daughter by him.
Charles also had several illegitimate children: