Richard Gray, 1st Baron Gray of Codnor

Coat of arms of Richard Gray, 1st Baron Gray of Codnor

Richard Gray, 1st Baron Gray of Codnor KG (also Richard Gray, 4th Baron Gray of Codnor ) (* around 1371, † August 1, 1418 ) was an English nobleman, military and diplomat. He played a major role in the suppression of the Owain Glyndŵr rebellion and was one of King Henry IV's foremost confidants .

Origin and heritage

Richard Gray came from the Anglo-Norman family Gray . He was the eldest son of Sir Henry Gray and his wife Joan Cobham, daughter of Reginald de Cobham, 1st Baron Cobham . His father was the eldest son of John Gray , Lord of Codnor, but died in 1379, so that after the death of his grandfather in 1392 Richard inherited Codnor Castle with other estates in Derbyshire and scattered estates in Kent and Essex .

Advancement as a military and diplomat

From 1394 to 1395 Gray took part in King Richard II's first campaign to Ireland, for which the king granted him a lifelong pension of 80 marks . In 1397 he was called to parliament , giving him the title of Baron Gray of Codnor . In parliament he served as petition examiner until 1398. His grandfather Richard de Gray had already served under John of Gaunt . When his son overthrew the king in 1399 and Henry IV became the new king, Grey's services as a military and diplomat were appreciated. Before September 1400, Gray was appointed in command of Roxburgh Castle , making him responsible for the defense of a section of the border with Scotland. In April 1401 the king appointed him Admiral of the coast of east England between the Thames estuary and the Scottish border. For this he increased the annual pension Grays to 100 marks. From 1401 to 1402 Gray was part of a legation negotiating with France during the Hundred Years War , and in October 1402 he was part of a commission negotiating with the Welsh rebel Owain Glyndŵr the release of Reginald Gray, 3rd Baron Gray de Ruthin . Three weeks earlier he had been appointed King's Deputy in South Wales to quell the Welsh rebellion and in 1403 he was appointed Justiciar of South Wales.

Battle against Owain Glyndŵr in Wales

During the next five years, Gray was mostly busy putting down the Welsh uprising. Brecon served as his headquarters . In May 1405 he was able to defeat the rebels in the Battle of Pwll Melyn near Usk . Around 1404 he was accepted into the Order of the Garter. Until 1407 he remained Justiciar of South Wales, from 1404 he served as advisor and Chamberlain of the King's Household and from 1405 to 1407 as Deputy Earl Marshal . In 1405 he was able to assert the primacy of his title over Beaumont in a dispute with Henry de Beaumont, 5th Baron Beaumont . This dispute is considered to be the first documented dispute of this kind between two barons. In November 1407 he was appointed for life administrator of Sherwood Forest and constable of Nottingham Castle , where King James I of Scotland and Gruffudd, the son of Owain Glyndŵr who had been captured by him at Pwll Melyn, were imprisoned.

Further service for Heinrich IV. And Heinrich V.

Grey's close relationship with Henry IV is evidenced by the fact that he testified to the king's will in 1409, in which the king also considered Gray. The king increased his annual pension to 400 marks, the lifelong payment of which was decided by parliament in 1410. In August 1412, Gray was appointed governor of Fronsac in Aquitaine . As a result, he often served the kings as a diplomat. In 1412 he negotiated as ambassador about a possible marriage of the heir to the throne Heinrich to Anna , a daughter of Duke John of Burgundy . When Henry IV died in 1413, Gray was replaced as Chamberlain of the Household. From 1414 to 1415 he was a member of the legation that negotiated with France about an extension of the armistice and about the marriage of the king to Catherine of Valois . Then Gray served again on the border with Scotland. In May 1415 the King appointed him defender of the Eastern Scottish Marches , and in August he negotiated an armistice between England and Scotland with Robert Stewart, 1st Duke of Albany , the Scottish regent. Because of these obligations, he did not take part in the king's campaign in France and in the battle of Azincourt . In 1417, however, he took part in the king's campaign in Normandy . There he was appointed commander of Argentan Castle in October . Presumably he was still in France when he died on August 1, 1418. He was buried in the Aylesford Priory Carmelite Priory in Kent , owned by the Grays Family Foundation.

Family and offspring

Before 1378 Gray was married to Elizabeth Basset († after 1446), a daughter and partial heir of Ralph Basset, 1st Baron Basset de Sapcote from Leicestershire . When Ralph Basset died in 1378, Gray inherited extensive estates in the Eastern Midlands through his wife. Gray had several children with his wife, including:

• John Gray, 2nd Baron Gray of Codnor (around 1396-1430)
• Henry Gray, 3rd Baron Gray of Codnor (around 1405–1443)
• Elizabeth de Gray († 1460) ⚭ John la Zouche
• Eleanor de Gray ⚭ Sir Thomas Newport
• Lucy de Gray ⚭ Sir Rowland Lenthall

His heir became his eldest son John, after he died without male offspring, the younger son Henry inherited the title in 1430.

Web links

• CL Kingsford, RA Griffiths: Gray, Richard, fourth Baron Gray of Codnor (c.1371-1418). 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 Richard de Gray, 1st Lord Gray (of Codnor) on thepeerage.com , accessed June 16, 2016.
• Cracroft's Peerage: Gray (of Codnor), Baron (E, 1397)

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Baron Gray of Codnor 1397-1418	John Gray