John Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Grey,_1st_Earl_of_Tankerville

John Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville, 6th Lord of Powys jure uxoris, KG (aft. 1384 – 22 March 1421) was an English peer and eminent soldier in the Hundred Years' War between England and France under Henry V of England.

Family

John Grey was a son of Sir Thomas Grey of Heton, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, of Chillingham, Northumberland, and of Berwick, Hertfordshire (Heton, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, 1359 - 26 November 1400), by wife (married circa 1381) Joan de Mowbray (Axholme, Lincolnshire, circa 1363 - after 30 November 1402), daughter of John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray and Elizabeth de Segrave, 5th Baroness Segrave. He was born at Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1384 and had three brothers and one sister: William Grey, who was Dean of York, Bishop of London in 1426 and Bishop of Lincoln in 1431; Sir Henry Grey of Ketteringham, Norfolk; Matilda or Maud Grey (1382–1451), wife of Sir Robert Ogle (Ogle Castle, Ogle, Northumberland, 1379 - 12 August 1435), by whom she had one daughter; and Sir Thomas Grey, ringleader of the Southampton Plot. His paternal grandparents were Sir Thomas Grey and Margaret de Pressene.

Life

In 1415 he fought in the Battle of Agincourt. In 1417 he was with Henry V at the siege of Caen and behaved himself so valiantly that in October of that year he was made Captain of Mortagne and in November of the same year he had a grant of the castle and lordship or seigneurie of Tilye or Tilly in Normandy, then forfeited by Sir William Harcourt, a supporter of the king's enemies, by King Henry V.

He was subsequently sent with a guard to Powys where Sir John Oldcastle the chief of the Lollards had been caught by Ieuan ap Gruffudd and Sir Gruffudd Vychan to bring him before Parliament.

In 1418 he was again in the French wars as Captain of Haunt and granted the Earldom of Tankerville or Comté de Tancarville, in Normandy (not in the Peerage of England) n 31 January 1418/1419, to hold by homage to King Henry, and by delivery of a Bascinet or helmet at the castle of Roan on the Feast of Saint George each year. Continuing in those wars Grey was awarded several further grants and was made governor of the castle of Tournay. In 1418 or on 31 January 1419 he was created a Knight of the Order of the Garter.

On 22 March 1421 while fording a river near the castle of Beaufort at the Battle of Baugé in Baugé, Anjou, in which he was fighting, both he and Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence as well as many others of the English nobility were killed in battle slain by a Franco-Scottish force because they had engaged the enemy without proper preparation and with no archers to support them.

Marriage and issue

In 1418 he married Joan Charleton, 6th Lady of Powys (circa 1400 - 17 September 1425), daughter and co-heiress of Edward Charleton, 5th Baron Cherleton in whose right he succeeded to the title of Lord Powis with its estates including Powis Castle.

Their only child was a son Henry, born about 1419 in Normandy, France, who succeeded his father to become 2nd Earl of Tankerville.

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• Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs. New York, NY : Lewis Historical Pub. Co., 1911.  Page 40 "Lloyd Family"