Henry Lee of Ditchley
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For other people named Henry Lee, see Henry Lee (disambiguation).
Sir Henry Lee
Sir Henry Lee by Antonis Mor, 1568
Born March 1533
Died 12 February 1611
Spouse(s) Anne Paget
Children John Lee
Henry Lee
Mary Lee
Parent(s) Sir Anthony Lee, Margaret Wyatt
Coat of Arms of Sir Henry Lee, KG
Sir Henry Lee KG (March 1533 – 12 February 1611), of Ditchley, was Queen's
Champion and Master of the Armouries under Queen Elizabeth I of England.
Contents
1Family
2Career
3Marriage and children
4Notes
5References
6External links
Family[edit]
Margaret Wyatt, by Hans Holbein
Henry Lee, born in Kent in March 1533, was the grandson of Sir Robert Lee (d.1539),
and the eldest son of Sir Anthony Lee (d.1549) of Quarrendon, Buckinghamshire, by his
first wife, Margaret Wyatt, daughter of Sir Henry Wyatt of Allington Castle, Kent by Anne
Skinner, the daughter of John Skinner of Reigate, Surrey. Margaret Wyatt was a sister
of the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt. Lee had three younger brothers, Robert Lee (died
c.1598), Thomas Lee, and Cromwell Lee (d.1601), who compiled an Italian-English
dictionary.[1][2][3][4][5] Lee also had an illegitimate half-brother, Sir Richard Lee (d.1608).[6]
Career[edit]
Lee became Queen Elizabeth I's champion in 1570 and was appointed Master of the
Armoury in 1580, an office which he held until his death. As Queen's Champion, Lee
devised the Accession Day tilts held annually on 17 November, the most
important Elizabethan court festival from the 1580s. He retired as Queen's Champion in
1590, and the poems "His Golden Locks" by George Peele and "Time's Eldest Son"
were set to music by John Dowland and performed at the lavish retirement pageant.
[7]
He was made a Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1597 and founded Aylesbury
Grammar School in 1598.
He was a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Buckinghamshire in 1558,
1559, 1571 and 1572.[8]
Ditchley Portrait of Elizabeth I
Sir Henry, like most courtiers of the day, had a portrait painted by a leading artist. In
Lee's picture, his sleeves are decorated with armillary spheres, a symbol of wisdom and
also his device as queen's champion. His sleeves are also decorated with lovers knots
which, combined with the armillary spheres can be seen to represent his love for
learning (the wisdom of the armillary spheres) and for the Queen (his symbol as her
champion). Lee also wears several rings tied to his arm, and has his finger through a
third ring around his neck. This may represent his marriages, and the third ring, which is
not quite on his finger, may represent his relationship with Anne Vavasour.
Suit of armour belonging to Sir Henry Lee
Lee built up an estate at Ditchley in Oxfordshire, from 1583.[9] He commissioned the
Ditchley Portrait of Queen Elizabeth, which shows her standing on a map of the British
Isles, surveying her dominions; one foot rests near Ditchley in Oxfordshire, to
commemorate her visit to Sir Henry Lee there. He was later noted for refusing to receive
his monarch a second time, because of the expense.
King James VI and I and Anne of Denmark visited Ditchley on 15 September 1603 with
the French ambassador and a duke, who Arbella Stuart called the "Dutchkin."[10]
Three suits of armour were made for Sir Henry Lee by the renowned Greenwich
armoury, and are depicted in the album of drawings left behind by that workshop.
Portions of the armour survive to the present day. One of the armours currently stands
in the hall of the Armourers and Brasiers company in London.
He died on 12 February 1611.
Marriage and children[edit]
Lee married, on 21 May 1554, Anne Paget (d.1590), the daughter of William Paget, 1st
Baron Paget, and his wife Anne Preston, by whom he had two sons, John Lee and
Henry Lee, both of whom died young, and a daughter, Mary Lee, who is said to have
eloped with one John Worsley in February 1579, but died without issue, likely in 1583.
[11] [12][4]
Lee's wife, Anne, was buried at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, on 31 December 1590.
There is a monument to her in St. Mary the Virgin, Aylesbury.[13] After her death, Lee
lived openly with his mistress, Anne Vavasour, formerly one of the Queen's Ladies in
Waiting.
He was the cousin of Captain Thomas Lee, a troublesome soldier on whose behalf he
allowed himself to be bound over and who was put to death in 1601 for an involvement
in the treason of the 2nd Earl of Essex.
His heir and cousin, also Sir Henry Lee, became 1st Baronet Lee of Quarendon.
Notes[edit]
1. ^ Richardson IV 2011, p. 382.
2. ^ Burrow 2004.
3. ^ Chambers 1936, pp. 19, 247–8.
4. ^ Jump up to:a b Fernie 2004.
5. ^ Lee, Sir Anthony (1510/11-49), of Quarrendon, Buckinghamshire, History of Parliament.
Retrieved 9 May 2013.
6. ^ Lee, Richard (bef.1548–1608), of Hook Norton, Oxfordshire; Dane John, Canterbury and the
Savoy, London, History of Parliament. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
7. ^ Butler, Katherine (2015). Music in Elizabethan Court Politics. Woodbridge: Boydell and
Brewer. pp. 129–42. ISBN 9781843839811.
8. ^ [1].
9. ^ Dr Sue Simpson (28 December 2014). Sir Henry Lee (1533–1611): Elizabethan Courtier.
Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 119–. ISBN 978-1-4724-3741-9.
10. ^ Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 3 (London, 1838), p. 26: Sara Jayne
Steen, Letters of Lady Arbella Stuart (Oxford, 1994), p. 182.
11. ^ Banks 1808, p. 414.
12. ^ Chambers 1936, pp. 78–9, 248.
13. ^ Chambers 1936, p. 77.
References[edit]
Archbold, William Arthur Jobson (1892). "Lee, Henry (1530-1610)" . In Lee,
Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 32. London: Smith, Elder &
Co.
Banks, T.C. (1808). The Dormant and Extinct Baronage of England. II.
London: T. Bensley. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
Burrow, Colin (2004). "Wyatt, Sir Thomas (c.1503–1542)". Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University
Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30111. (Subscription or UK public library
membership required.)
Buler, Katherine (2015). Music in Elizabethan Court Politics. Woodrbidge:
Boydell and Brewer. pp. 129–42. ISBN 9781843839811.
Chambers, E.K. (1936). Sir Henry Lee; An Elizabethan Portrait. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Fernie, Ewan (2004). "Lee, Sir Henry (1533–1611)". Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University
Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16288. (Subscription or UK public library
membership required.)
Jack, Sybil M. (2004). "Paget, William, first Baron Paget (1505/6–
1563)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford
University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21121. (Subscription or UK public library
membership required.)
Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta
Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. IV (2nd ed.). Salt Lake
City. ISBN 978-1460992708.
