Sir Griffin Markham

Griffin was the eldest son, but lost the right to succession after finding himself in serious trouble with the law. Set for excution, at the last possible moment as his head lay on the block he was granted life and sent to the Tower instead following the King's missive.

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Sir Griffin Markham (d. aft. 1644) was an English soldier, the son of Thomas Markham and Mary Griffin.

On 29 May 1592, he married Anne Roos. He was knighted in 1594 after serving under the Earl of Essex at the siege of Rouen.

During the Nine Years War he commanded the cavalry under Sir Conyers Clifford, and his opportune arrival and counter-charge after the defeat of the infantry at the Battle of Curlew Pass (1599) saved the army from complete disaster. His right arm was broken during the affray.

Markham was banished from court for unknown reasons around 1593. He later took part in the Bye Plot and subsequently the Main Plot, for which he was convicted (1603) and sentenced to death. However, he was reprieved from execution and exiled (1605). His properties were given to his cousin, Sir John Harington.

He spent the rest of his life in exile in Europe, acting as a spy for Robert Cecil. He joined the English regiment in the Low Countries; there he fell out with Sir Edmund Baynham, a conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot, and fought a bloody duel with him.