Thomas Grey (chronicler)
Encyclopedia
Sir Thomas Grey of Heton (near Norham), Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed or simply Berwick is a town in the county of Northumberland and is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Tweed. It is situated 2.5 miles south of the Scottish border....

, Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

, (c.1328—1369) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 chronicler.

Family

He was a son of the Sir Thomas de Grey of Heaton (circa 1297 - bef. 12 March 1343/1344), who was taken prisoner by the Scots at Bannockburn
Bannockburn
Bannockburn is a village immediately south of the city of Stirling in Scotland. It is named after the Bannock Burn, a burn running through the village before flowing into the River Forth.-History:...

, and his wife Agnes (possibly Agnes de Beyle, born Heton, Northumberland, c. 1301), married circa 1327.

Grey was paternal grandson of Thomas de Grey of Heton (Heton, Northumberland, circa 1266 - Angus
Angus
Angus is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross and Dundee City...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, 1310), in turn son of John de Grey, born in Scotland, grandson of Hugh de Grey (born Chillingham
Chillingham, Northumberland
Chillingham is a village in Northumberland, in England. It is situated approximately to the east of Wooler, south of Chatton.Chillingham is famous for its castle , which is said to be haunted, and the Chillingham Cattle , a wild herd of roughly 50 individuals that are kept in an enclosure since...

, Northumberland, c. 1203), and great-grandson of Henry de Grey
Henry de Grey
Sir Henry de Grey of Grays Thurrock, Essex , was a favourite courtier of King John of England.-Family:Sir Henry was the son of Richard de Grey and probably a great-grandson of Anchetil de Greye of Rotherfield Greys in Oxfordshire...

 and Isolda Bardolf.

Life

Thomas is known to have been present at the Battle of Neville's Cross
Battle of Neville's Cross
The Battle of Neville's Cross took place to the west of Durham, England on 17 October 1346.-Background:In 1346, England was embroiled in the Hundred Years' War with France. In order to divert his enemy Philip VI of France appealed to David II of Scotland to attack the English from the north in...

 in 1346. In 1355, whilst acting as Warden of Norham Castle
Norham Castle
Norham Castle is a partly ruined castle in Northumberland, England, overlooking the River Tweed, on the border between England and Scotland. It is a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument...

, he was made a prisoner following the Battle of Nesbit Muir
Battle of Nesbit Moor (1355)
The Battle of Nesbit Moor was an engagement fought in August ,1355 between forces of the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England.-Background:...

, and during his captivity in Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...

 he devoted his time to studying the English chroniclers, Gildas
Gildas
Gildas was a 6th-century British cleric. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during this period. His renowned learning and literary style earned him the designation Gildas Sapiens...

, Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...

, Ranulf Higdon
Ranulf Higdon
Ranulf Higden was an English chronicler and a Benedictine monk of the monastery of St. Werburgh in Chester....

 and others. He was released from Scotland in 1357, and was appointed Warden of the East March
Lord Warden of the Marches
The Lord Warden of the Marches was an office in the governments of Scotland and England. The holders were responsible for the security of the border between the two nations, and often took part in military action....

 in 1367. He died some time before 22 October 1369. His work is called the Scalacronica
Scalacronica
Scalacronica is a Scottish chronicle written in Anglo-Norman by the knight Sir Thomas Gray of Heaton in Northumberland, while he was imprisoned by the Scots at Edinburgh after an ambush in 1355...

, and was possibly so called from the scaling-ladder in the crest of the Greys. It is a chronicle of English history from the earliest times to about the year 1362, however its main value is for the reigns of Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...

 and Edward II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...

 and part of that of Edward III
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...

 when Grey was alive. It is especially noted for the account of the wars between England and Scotland, in which he and his father took part. The book was written in Anglo-Norman
Anglo-Norman language
Anglo-Norman is the name traditionally given to the kind of Old Norman used in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles during the Anglo-Norman period....

. Among the notable events and people covered, Grey includes William Wallace
William Wallace
Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence....

, Robert the Bruce, Bannockburn
Bannockburn
Bannockburn is a village immediately south of the city of Stirling in Scotland. It is named after the Bannock Burn, a burn running through the village before flowing into the River Forth.-History:...

, Byland
Battle of Old Byland
The Battle of Old Byland was a significant encounter between Scots and English troops in Yorkshire in October 1322, forming part of the Wars of Scottish Independence...

 and Dupplin. He also makes some mentions of the troubles in England during the reign of Edward II. It is possible that Grey was present during some of these campaigns in the Hundred Years War with France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, which his narration covers between 1355 and 1361.

Editions of The Scalacronica

Summarized by John Leland in the 16th century
1066 to the end, together with the prologue - edited for the Maitland Club by J. Stevenson (1836)
1274 to 1362 - translated into English by Sir Herbert Maxwell (Glasgow, 1907)

The only extant manuscript is in Corpus Christi College
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Corpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is notable as the only college founded by Cambridge townspeople: it was established in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary...

, Cambridge, and has a gap extending from about 1340 to 1355. Grey's account of this period is only known from Leland's summary.

Marriage and issue

About 1353 he married Margaret de Pressene (born Middleton
Middleton, Northumberland
Middleton is a civil parish in Northumberland, England. The parish is situated on the North Sea coast, south of the island of Lindisfarne, and contains the villages of Middleton, Ross, Detchant and Elwick; all are shrunken medieval villages. Both the A1 London to Edinburgh road and East Coast...

, Northumberland, c. 1334), daughter of William de Pressene of Presson, Northumberland. They had one son:
  • Sir Thomas Grey of Heton, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, of Chillingham
    Chillingham, Northumberland
    Chillingham is a village in Northumberland, in England. It is situated approximately to the east of Wooler, south of Chatton.Chillingham is famous for its castle , which is said to be haunted, and the Chillingham Cattle , a wild herd of roughly 50 individuals that are kept in an enclosure since...

    , Northumberland, and of Berwick
    Berwick-upon-Tweed
    Berwick-upon-Tweed or simply Berwick is a town in the county of Northumberland and is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Tweed. It is situated 2.5 miles south of the Scottish border....

    , Hertfordshire
    Hertfordshire
    Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

     (Heton, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, 1359 - 26 November 1400), who married circa 1381 Joan de Mowbray (Axholme, Lincolnshire
    Lincolnshire
    Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

    , circa 1363 - after 30 November 1402), daughter of John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray
    John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray
    John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray was the son of John de Mowbray, 3rd Baron Mowbray and Joan of Lancaster, daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster.He was born on 25 June 1340 at Epworth....

     and Elizabeth de Segrave, 5th Baroness Segrave, and had four sons and one daughter:
    • William Grey, who was Dean of York
      York
      York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

      , Bishop of London
      Bishop of London
      The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...

       in 1426 and Bishop of Lincoln
      Bishop of Lincoln
      The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...

       in 1431
    • Sir Henry Grey of Ketteringham
      Ketteringham
      Ketteringham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.It covers an area of and had a population of 169 in 70 households as of the 2001 census.For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of South Norfolk....

      , Norfolk
      Norfolk
      Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

    • Matilda or Maud Grey (1382–1451), wife of Sir Robert Ogle (Ogle Castle
      Ogle Castle
      Ogle Castle is a former fortified manor house at Ogle, near Whalton, Northumberland. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade I listed building....

      , Ogle
      Ogle, Northumberland
       Ogle is a village in Northumberland, England, in the parish of Whalton, north-west of Ponteland and south-west of Morpeth. The surname Ogle comes from here, where the Ogle family built Ogle Castle and owned Kirkley Hall.- Landmarks :...

      , Northumberland, 1379 - 12 August 1435), by whom she had one daughter
    • John Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville
      John Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville
      John Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville, 6th Lord of Powys jure uxoris, KG was an English peer and eminent soldier in the Hundred Years' War between England and France under Henry V of England.-Family:...

    • Sir Thomas Grey, ringleader of the Southampton Plot.

Sources

  • Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage
    Burke's Peerage
    Burke's Peerage publishes authoritative, in-depth historical guides to the royal and titled families of the United Kingdom, such as Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, and of many other countries. Founded in 1826 by British genealogist John Burke Esq., and continued by his son, Sir John...

    , Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 2, p. 1660.
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