Thomas Gray, 15th Baron Gray de Wilton

Thomas Gray, 15th Baron Gray de Wilton (* 1575 , † 1614 in London ) was an English nobleman and military man. He was conspiring against James I condemned.

Life

He was the son of Arthur Gray, 14th Baron Gray de Wilton (1536–1593) and grandson of William Gray, 13th Baron Gray de Wilton (1508 / 09–1562), both soldiers. Gray fought against the Spanish Armada in 1588 and inherited his father's title of baron after his father's death in 1593.

In 1597 Thomas Gray took part in the unsuccessful expedition against the Spaniards and Portuguese in the Azores (Iceland's Expedition) of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex , and in 1599 in the Devereux campaigns in Ireland, but fell out with him (he was of choleric temperament) and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton , because he did not want to break away from Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury . In 1600 he fought against the Spaniards in Flanders and was wounded in the Battle of Nieuwpoort , which was victorious for Moritz of Orange . In 1601 he was back in London and, despite Queen Elizabeth's ban, got into an argument with Southampton, whereupon he temporarily found himself in prison. In the same year he was involved in the suppression of the Essex uprising and in the subsequent condemnation of Essex and Southampton. In 1602 he was briefly in the Netherlands again, but soon returned disappointed with his reception. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603 he was involved in the so-called bye plot of Catholic conspirators and the associated main plot of Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham , to remove James I from the throne and replace him with Arabella Stuart . Walter Raleigh was also involved . Gray was not a sympathizer of the Catholics, but was against James I, who pursued a policy that was friendly to Spain. Gray was arrested like the others involved in July 1603 and he was sentenced to death with Cobham in Winchester in November 1603 for high treason . His title of nobility was stripped from him, but shortly afterwards pardoned to imprisonment in the Tower of London . He died in the Tower in 1614. Raleigh was released in 1616 and Cobham in 1618.

With his death, the title of Baron Gray de Wilton expired . His property had been confiscated and his property at Whaddon went to royal favorite George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham . The Wilton Castle family estate on the River Wye had previously been sold to Gray Brydges, 5th Baron Chandos , in 1603 .

literature

• Sidney Lee : Gray, Thomas (d.1614) . In: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 23, Smith, Elder & Co., London 1890, pp. 204-206.

Web links

• Thomas Gray, 15th Lord Gray (of Wilton) on thepeerage.com

predecessor	Office	successor
Arthur Gray	Baron Gray de Wilton 1593-1614	Title forfeited