John Gray (nobleman, † 1392)

Sir John Gray (also John de Gray or John Gray, 3rd Baron Gray of Codnor ) (* between 1305 and 1311; † December 14, 1392 ) was an English nobleman and military man.

origin

John Gray was the eldest son of Richard de Gray and his wife Joan FitzPayne. After the death of his father in 1335 he inherited his scattered land holdings, the center of which was Codnor Castle in Derbyshire . He also owned other estates in Essex and Kent . Although he was called to Parliament several times between 1335 and 1392, like his father and grandfather Henry de Gray , his position as Baron Gray of Codnor was controversial. Since it could not be proven whether John Gray actually took part in the parliamentary assemblies, the House of Lords decided in 1989 that his grandson Richard was first Baron Gray of Codnor from 1397 onwards.

Military career

In order to increase his social status, Gray, like his father, served the king as a military man. In 1334, 1336 and 1338 he took part in the campaigns of King Edward III. to Scotland. During the Hundred Years War , from 1338 to 1340, he was part of the army with which the king had moved to the Netherlands. Around this time he was knighted. In 1341 he took part in another campaign to Scotland. As Knight Banneret he was part of the army of Henry of Lancaster from 1345 to 1346 , with whom he moved to Aquitaine . Gray became one of Lancaster's closest associates. He followed him in 1347 in the siege of Calais , in 1348 in Flanders and in 1355 in Normandy and Brittany. From 1359 to 1360 he served under Lancaster's son-in-law John of Gaunt, Earl of Richmond, during the Reims campaign . In 1359, in return for his military service, Gray was appointed lifelong steward of Rochester including Rochester Castle , which was near his estates at Hoo and Aylesford in Kent. Gray gained further honor when he took part in the crusade against Alexandria under King Peter of Cyprus in 1365 . He served as the standard bearer of the papal legate Peter Thomas .

Gray served regularly as a Justice of the Peace in Derbyshire and held numerous offices in the Eastern Midlands . Because of his age, he was exempt from participating in parliaments and council meetings from 1371. Gray sponsored the Carmelite Priory in Aylesford, founded by his ancestors , where he also wanted to be buried.

Marriage and offspring

Edward II probably thanked Grey's father by allowing John to marry Eleanor de Moreby , the daughter and heiress of Robert de Moreby , before 1325 , with which he came into possession of their lands. However, she died before 1330. In his second marriage, Gray married on October 20, 1330 Alice, a daughter of Sir Warin de Lisle . From this marriage he had several children, including his son Henry Gray . He also had an illegitimate son, Nicholas, who became a clergyman.

His son Henry died in 1379, so that his son Richard Gray became his heir.

Web links

• Simon Walker: Gray, John, third Baron Gray of Codnor (1305x11? –1392). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
• Sir John de Gray on thepeerage.com , accessed June 16, 2016.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cracroft's Peerage: Gray (of Codnor), Baron (E, 1397). Retrieved June 15, 2016 . 
2. ↑ Magnus Alexander, Jonathan Millward: Codnor Castle. Earthwork Analysis, Suryey Report. English Heritage, 2008, p. 8. (pdf file, 3.76 MB) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 28, 2011 ; accessed on June 22, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.