Groby Old Hall is partly a 15th-century brick-built manor house and grade II* listed building located very near the site of Groby Castle in the village of Groby in Leicestershire. [1]
Groby Old Hall is partly a 15th-century brick-built manor house and grade II* listed building located very near the site of Groby Castle in the village of Groby in Leicestershire. [1]
The grand hall which preceded the current building was probably built by the Ferrers family, Barons of Groby, the 1st Baron Ferrers of Groby having been ennobled for services to Edward I and Edward II. [2] The Hall and Barony passed to the Greys by marriage after Sir Edward Grey married Elizabeth Ferrers, granddaughter and heir to the 5th Baron Ferrers, around 1432. [3] The Grey family's most celebrated members were the two Queens of England: Elizabeth Woodville and Lady Jane Grey.
Elizabeth Woodville married Sir Edward Grey's son John, joining him at Groby, where they had two sons. After John's death in battle at the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461, she petitioned King Edward IV for return of her confiscated lands, and won not just her case but his heart and hand in marriage. [4] As Queen she set about promoting the causes of her Woodville relatives, her sons by John Grey, and her children by Edward IV, with mixed results. Of the royal children, the two boys became the ill-fated Princes in the Tower, whereas her daughter, also Elizabeth, married the victor of Bosworth Field, Henry VII, uniting the houses of Lancaster and York to end the Wars of the Roses. Elizabeth Woodville lived to see the birth of three royal grandchildren: Prince Arthur, Margaret, Queen of Scotland, and the future Henry VIII. [3]
She also saw her son Thomas Grey promoted through court, first as Earl of Huntingdon, and then in 1475, Marquess of Dorset. Following Edward IV's death, and the rise of Richard III he found himself in exile in France, where he joined Henry Tudor, as a valued but untrustworthy supporter of the Lancastrian cause. [5] When Henry Tudor defeated Richard III in 1485, Thomas Grey maintained a precarious position within the new court, but found the means to upgrade his ancestral manor at Groby. It appears he started work on a new brick gatehouse on the same site as the manor, which later became part of what is now the 'Old Hall'. However, he rapidly expanded his plans by beginning an entirely new, red brick, great house in his hunting park at Bradgate, several miles away, which was completed by his son some time after his death in 1501. [6] Bradgate House became the Greys' home for the next 240 years, with some disruptions around 1554, and it was at Bradgate that Thomas Grey's great-granddaughter, Lady Jane Grey was born and brought up. [3]
Groby Old Hall, which may incorporate much earlier remains, remained a key part of the Groby estate, and shared in the changing fortunes of the Grey family. The point at which the former grand hall was demolished is unknown, and was the subject of an inconclusive Time Team dig broadcast in 2011. The red-brick gatehouse became what is now known as the 'Old Hall', and is one of England's earliest brick buildings.
The ancestral seat associated with the protagonist Christopher Tietjens in Ford Madox Ford's tetralogy set in the First World War, Parade's End , published in 1925 (and dramatized for television by the BBC/HBO in 2012), is named Groby Hall. The stately home, with an ancient Great Tree growing in the grounds, is, however, fictionally located in the North Riding of Yorkshire. [7]
It is likely that Ford based his Groby Hall, including the Great Tree, not on Groby Old Hall in Leicestershire but on the Marwood family seat of Busby Hall, near Stokesley. [9]
Elizabeth Woodville was Queen of England from her marriage to King Edward IV on 1 May 1464 until Edward was deposed on 3 October 1470, and again from Edward's resumption of the throne on 11 April 1471 until his death on 9 April 1483.
Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, also Wydeville, was the father of Elizabeth Woodville and father-in-law of Edward IV.
Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, 1st Earl of Huntingdon, 7th Baron Ferrers of Groby, was an English nobleman, courtier and the eldest son of Elizabeth Woodville and her first husband Sir John Grey of Groby. Her second marriage to King Edward IV made her Queen of England, thus elevating Grey's status at court and in the realm as the stepson of the King. Through his mother's assiduous endeavours, he made two materially advantageous marriages to wealthy heiresses, the King's niece Anne Holland and Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington. By the latter he had 14 children.
Bradgate Park is a public park in Charnwood Forest, in Leicestershire, England, northwest of Leicester. It covers 850 acres. The park lies between the villages of Newtown Linford, Anstey, Cropston, Woodhouse Eaves and Swithland. The River Lin runs through the park, flowing into Cropston Reservoir which was constructed on part of the park. To the north-east lies Swithland Wood. The park's two well known landmarks, Old John and the war memorial, both lie just above the 210 m (690 ft) contour. The park is part of the 399.3 hectare Bradgate Park and Cropston Reservoir Site of Special Scientific Interest, which has been designated under both biological and geological criteria.
Grobylisten (help·info) is a large English village in the county of Leicestershire, to the north west of the city of Leicester. The population at the time of the 2011 census was 6,796.
Earl of Stamford was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1628 for Henry Grey, 2nd Baron Grey of Groby. This Grey family descended through Lord John Grey, of Pirgo, Essex, younger son of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, and younger brother of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk ; Suffolk was executed for treason in 1554 forfeiting his titles.
Baron Ferrers of Groby was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by writ on 29 December 1299 when William Ferrers, 1st Baron Ferrers of Groby was summoned to parliament. He was the son of Sir William de Ferrers, Knt., of Groby, Leicestershire, (d.1287) by his first wife Anne Durward, 2nd daughter of Alan Durward and his wife Margery of Scotland, and grandson of William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby. The first Baron was married to Ellen de Menteith, daughter of Alexander, Earl of Menteith. In 1475 the eighth baron was created the Marquess of Dorset, and the barony in effect merged with the marquessate. It was forfeited along with the marquessate when the third marquess was attainted in 1554.
Isabel of Cambridge, Countess of Essex was the only daughter of Richard, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, and Anne Mortimer. She was the sister of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and like him a great-grandchild of Edward III of England.
Groby Castle is situated in the large village of Groby to the north-west of the city of Leicester.
Sir John Grey, of Groby, Leicestershire was a Lancastrian knight, the first husband of Elizabeth Woodville who later married King Edward IV of England, and great-great-grandfather of Lady Jane Grey.
George Harry Booth-Grey, 7th Earl of Stamford and 3rd Earl of Warrington was an English cricketer, landowner and peer, who sat on the Whig benches in the House of Lords.
Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset was an English peer, courtier, soldier, and landowner of the House of Grey.
Anne Woodville, Viscountess Bourchier was an English noblewoman. She was a younger sister of Queen Consort Elizabeth Woodville to whom she served as a lady-in-waiting. Anne was married twice; first to William Bourchier, Viscount Bourchier, and secondly to George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent. Anne was the grandmother of the disinherited adulteress Anne Bourchier, 7th Baroness Bourchier, and an ancestress of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.
Henry Grey, 1st Lord Grey of Groby was an English landowner, soldier, courtier, magistrate, county administrator, and member of parliament.
Lord John Grey was an English nobleman and courtier of the Tudor period, who after 1559 was seated at Pirgo Place in Essex.
Baron Astley (1295) was created by writ of summons dated 23 June 1295 for a family which had lived at Astley, Warwickshire, England since the time of Henry I. Sir Thomas de Astley who was killed in the Battle of Evesham in 1265 married twice. From Sir Thomas's first marriage to Joan de Blois descended the Barons Astley.
Anne St Leger was a niece of two kings of England, Edward IV and Richard III. Before she was 8, she had inherited a vast fortune and been disinherited of it. Married at 14, she had 11 children, and is a link in the maternal line that was used to identify the remains of Richard III.
Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Lisle was an English nobleman who was created Viscount Lisle in 1483, in recognition of his wife's descent.
Bradgate House is a 16th-century ruin in Bradgate Park, Leicestershire, England.
William Ferrers, 5th Baron Ferrers of Groby (1372–1445) was an English baron in the late middle ages. He was an important figure in Leicestershire society and took part in most of the royal commissions that were held there. He was also active at a national level and earlier in his career he took part in some of the crises in the reigns of both King Richard II and Henry IV. However, he supported the Lancastrian regime under Henry V and acted as a councillor to that King's baby son when the latter inherited the throne at the age of six months. Ferrers was married three times, twice to daughters of the peerage. Because his eldest son died before him, the Ferrers barony descended to his granddaughter's husband. Thus, when William Ferrers died, the Ferrers line, which had begun in England with the Norman conquest, after which they were first granted lands in Leicestershire came to an end.
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