Hugh Denys (c. 14401511) of Osterley in Middlesex, was a courtier of Kings Henry VII and of the young Henry VIII. As Groom of the Stool to Henry VII, he was one of the King's closest courtiers, his role developing into one of administering the Privy Chamber, a department in control of the royal finances which during Denys's tenure of office also gained control over national fiscal policy. Denys was thus a vital player in facilitating the first Tudor king's controversial fiscal policies.
Early life
Denys was probably born at Olveston Court, Gloucestershire, c. 1440, the second son of Maurice Denys (d. 1466), Lord of the Manor of Alveston and Earthcott Green, Gloucestershire. His mother was Maurice's second wife, Alice Poyntz, daughter of Nicholas Poyntz of Iron Acton, Gloucestershire. The Denys family, formerly of Waterton, Bridgend in Coity Lordship, Glamorgan, had become established in Gloucestershire in 1380, on the marriage of Hugh's grandfather Sir Gilbert Denys (d. 1422) to Margaret Corbet, heiress of her brother William (d. 1377) to the Gloucestershire manors of Siston, Alveston, and Earthcott Green, together with the Hundred Court of Langley, as well as to Hope-juxta-Caus, Salop, and Lawrenny, Pembroke.Visitation of Gloucestershire, p. 51, Dennis That Hugh was a second son is suggested by his use of a crescent as a mark of difference in his armorials.As shown in Sir Thomas Wriothesley's drawing of 1509, BL Add. MS 45131, f.54; John Gibbon in his Introductio ad Latinam Blasoniam, 1682, comments on the significance of marks of cadency distinguishing brothers: "At nota semper erit accrescens Luna secundi". (Moreover the waxing moon will always be the mark of the second). The Heraldic Visitation of the Co. of Glos. of 1623, on the other hand, shows him as the third son.The Visitation of the Co. of Glos. taken in the Year 1623 by Henry Chitty and John Phillipot as Deputies to William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms. Ed. Sir J. Maclean, London, 1885. Denys ("Dennis") pedigree pp. 49–53.
Marriage to Mary Ros Denys married very advantageously to Mary Ros (or Roos), the daughter and only child of Richard Ros (1429–1492), younger son of Thomas de Ros, 8th Baron de Ros (1406–1430), of Hamlake Castle, Helmsley in North Yorkshire.The Visitation of Gloucestershire, 1623. Dennis pedigree pp. 49–53, in which Hugh Denys is described as "servant to K H 8, Harl.1041" the latter ms. containing the 1583 Visitation. The latter had drowned in the River Seine while on campaign in France. Richard's mother was Eleanor Beauchamp (1407–1466), daughter of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick and Elizabeth Berkeley, daughter of Thomas, 5th Baron Berkeley. Mary's uncle Thomas de Ros, 9th Baron de Ros (1427–1464) of Hamlake married Philippa de Tiptoft, sister of John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester and Constable of England to King Edward IV. Thomas de Ros, Denys's uncle-in-law was an ardent Lancastrian and was attainted in 1461, and beheaded at Newcastle in 1464.
Mary's aunt was Margaret de Ros who married firstly (c. 1452) William Lord Bottreux (d. 1462) of North Cadbury, Somerset. They had no children, in part because he was over 40 years her senior. She married secondly in 1463 Sir Thomas Borough of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, and was buried beside him at Gainsborough. Because Margaret's mother Eleanor Beauchamp had married secondly Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, Margaret's stepbrother became Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, Captain of the King's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard in about 1463. In 1464 he changed sides, again, back to the Lancastrians, and was beheaded at the Battle of Hexham in 1464. Margaret's second husband Sir Thomas Borough was on the victorious Yorkist side at Hexham so possibly witnessed the beheading of his wife's stepbrother.
Mary's cousin Eleanor Ros (1449–1487) married in 1469 Sir Robert Manners, Admiral of England who fought for Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, from which marriage descended the Dukes of Rutland who inherited Belvoir Castle in Rutland from the De Ros family via Eleanor. Mary's cousin Edmund de Ros, heir of her beheaded uncle Thomas, was restored in his barony by Henry VII on his accession in 1485, and resided possibly quite close to the Denys's at Elsinges (also known as Elsyng Hall or Elsynge Palace), in Enfield, Middlesex.Collins's Peerage of England, vol.6
At Denys's death Mary had borne him no children, and Mary went on to marry her second husband Sir Giles Capel. One of Mary's books, a gift from Elizabeth of York and Lady Margaret Beaufort survives, The Scale of Perfection by Walter Hilton, and she signed in it as "Mary Denys" and "Dame Capill".Barbara J. Harris, English Aristocratic Women, 1450–1550: Marriage and Family, Property and Careers (Oxford, 2002), p. 216.Book inscribed by Mary, Dame Capel: YCBA Henry VII had given her a pension or annuity allocated from the manors of Cookham and Bray. In October 1535, Dame Mary Capel wrote to Thomas Cromwell, offering him £20 for a horse if he would secure her overdue payments from the annuity.Joseph S. Block, "Political Corruption in Henrician England", Charles Carlton, State, Sovereigns & Society in Early Modern England (Stroud: Sutton, 1998), p. 50: James Gairdner, Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, 9 (London, 1886), p. 227 no. 671: The Statutes of the Realm, 3 (London, 1817), p. 15.
Groom of the Stool to King Henry VII This office made its holder the King's closest courtier. The duties in the earliest days of this ancient post involved assisting the king in the performance in a decorous manner of his bodily function of excretion. Arrangements would have to be made for the custody of the stool itself (the word derives from Old English & Norse stul, signifying "chair", or piece of furniture for sitting on), provision of a suitable room for the use thereof, with curtains, hangings being provided. Washing equipment would also have been required: water, bowls, towel etc. The royal accounts mention that Denys provided a perfumed "musk ball" in January 1496.Samuel Bentley, Excerpta Historica (London, 1831), p. 110.
Clearly the office was one where the king would want to select a person in whose company he felt relaxed and comfortable. Hugh Denys accompanied the king as he played tennis. He also played the lute at court and bought books for Henry VII.Samuel Bentley, Excerpta Historica (London, 1831), pp. 98, 101–102, 105, 108. From this relationship grew the role of the Groom as a close adviser of the king. He had the king's ear, and this is likely to have given him power over the other courtiers, from their fear of his influence, and their desire to keep in his favour.
By the reign of Henry VII, as exemplified in the person of Hugh Denys, the Groom of the Stool was a substantial man, from the gentry, married to an aristocratic wife, who died owning at least four manors (although possibly not all beneficially as will be discussed below). It is possible the role changed during Henry's reign, as Denys seems to have come into a lot of money late in life, as evidenced by the dates of purchase of his manors, and the funds may have come from perquisites or commissions retained from his various offices concerned with revenue collection, such as Gabler, Gauger and Ulnager. These latter are evidence as to how the role of Groom of the Stool changed into one of a financial function. Alternatively the manors may have been purchased in his name as investments beneficially owned by the royal privy purse.
The "Chamber System" of Royal Finance The Tudor historian David Starkey describes this system, and Denys's role in it, as follows:In 1493 Henry VII had broken with tradition and set up a new department of the Royal Household. Historically there were 2 of these, the Lord Steward's dept. which provided food and drink, and the Lord Chamberlain's which dealt with both ceremony and the King's personal service. To these Henry added a third: the secret or Privy Chamber. This took over responsibility for the King's body service. It was also used, as its name indicates, to enforce a much more rigorous separation between the King's public and private lives.
The establishment of the secret chamber greatly expanded the Groom's importance and his portfolio. Denys became the head officer of the new department. He controlled access to the King and assumed responsibility for the King's everyday necessities. Denys became the King's personal treasurer, running an account that later became known as the Privy Purse.
In the last few years of Henry's reign, avarice was made a policy and the result was a reign of terror. The means employed were through two financial instruments known as bonds and recognisances, which are agreements with penalty clauses for non-compliance. An individual was fined for offences real or imaginary, forced to pay part immediately, and to enter into bonds to pay the balance. He was therefore at the King's mercy. The arrangements were assessed and enforced by a sub-committee of the King's Council called the Council Learned in the Law, headed by Edmund Dudley, with Sir Richard Empson as a powerful member.
In the Autumn of 1508, Denys moved centre stage as the King recovered from a serious illness and decided on a wholesale extension of his policy of fiscal terrorism. Henry cast his net wider than just the elite, and created the post of Surveyor of the King's Prerogative, charged with the rigorous and universal enforcement of the King's rights as head of the feudal system. Local commissioners were appointed under Edward Belknap to enforce the policy on a county by county basis.
All the elements of an alternative system of taxation were in place - permanent, nation-wide and exempt from either parliamentary authority or scrutiny. The terms of Belknap's appointment are silent on what became of his profits, but it soon became clear they were to be paid over directly to Denys as a kind of private royal "slush fund". Where they were paid is interesting: some at Greenwich Palace, but some at the private royal residences of Wanstead (of which Denys was the official keeper) and Hanworth. The last recording of such a paying-over of "fines assessed by the King's highness" was that paid by Belknap to Denys at Hanworth in February 1509, at which date the account book breaks off, incompleteThis paragraph follows the text of Starkey, D. Henry: Virtuous Prince, London, 2008. Chapter 16, pp. 241–247.
It is clear that Denys re-invested these funds in real-estate as a bare trustee for the King, using a group of feoffees (persons to whom grants of freehold property are made), many of whom were close to the King. That is to say the King must have had absolute confidence in him that he would not misappropriate the funds, for as a bare trustee, no written agreement would have existed.
The existence of such a system, where the courtiers of the Privy Chamber started to control the national finances, was instrumental in the creation of the Tudor depotism.
Hugh Denys a Citizen of London Hugh Denys was a citizen of the City of London.Cokkburn, J.S. pp. 204–212 As a member of the Grocer's guild, he may possibly have been in commerce prior to his royal service. Denys was also keeper of the palace at Wanstead Hall.Thomas Penn, Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England (Penguin, 2012), p. 307.
Appointment as Verger of Windsor Castle