Edward Denny, 1st Earl of Norwich | |
|---|---|
| Earl of Norwich | |
.svg.png.webp) Arms of Edward Denny, 1st Earl of Norwich: Gules, a saltire argent between twelve crosses pattee or. | |
| Tenure | 17 October 1626 – 24 October 1637 |
| Born | 15 August 1569 |
| Died | 24 October 1637 |
| Nationality | English |
| Residence | Abbey House |
| Spouse(s) | Lady Mary Cecil |
| Issue | Honora Denny, Countess of Carlisle |
| Parents | Henry Denny, Dean of Chester Honora Grey |
Edward Denny, 1st Earl of Norwich (15 August 1569 – 24 October 1637), known as The Lord Denny between 1604 and 1627, was an English courtier, Member of Parliament, and a peer.
Life
The son of Sir Anthony Denny's eldest son, Henry Denny,[1] he matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge in 1585.[2] His mother was Honora Grey, daughter of William Grey, 13th Baron Grey de Wilton and Lady Mary Somerset.[1] He was knighted in 1587, and welcomed the Scottish King James I to England while holding the post of High Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1603. He was M.P. for Essex in 1604, but on 27 October 1604, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Denny of Waltham.
Around 1590–1600, Denny built Abbey House on the site of Waltham Abbey, the lands of which had been in the family for several generations.[3] Most of the old abbey buildings had been demolished, but the church remained as a parish church. The new Abbey House was directly north-east of the church.[4] The whole building was later demolished in 1770.[3]
The appearance of Lady Mary Wroth's The Countess of Montgomery's Urania brought protests from Denny, objecting to portrayals of real people at the work.[5] He particularly was stung by an incident from the work that to him seemed to allude to his own family life.[6]
He was created Earl of Norwich on 17 October 1626.
Family
Edward Denny married Lady Mary Cecil, daughter of Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter by his first wife, Dorothy Neville. They had one child, a daughter, Lady Honora Denny, who married James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle.
Death & burial
He was buried in Waltham Abbey, with the following epitaph placed on his tomb:
Learn, curious reader, ere you pass,
What Sir Edward Denny was:
A courtier in the chamber,
A soldier in the field,
Whose tongue could never flatter,
Whose heart could never yield.[7]
Notes
- 1 2 Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), Volume I, page 1094.
- ↑ "Dennye, Edward (DNY585E)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- 1 2 "Waltham Holy Cross – Introduction and manors | A History of the County of Essex: Volume 5 (pp. 151–162)". British-history.ac.uk. 22 June 2003. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
- ↑ "Waltham Abbey". Seax Archeaology – Unlocking Essex's Past. Archived from the original on 14 October 2011. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
- ↑ Lorna Sage, Germaine Greer, Elaine Showalter, The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English (1999), p. 154.
- ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Wroth [née Sidney], Lady Mary (1587?–1651/1653), author, by Mary Ellen Lamb.
- ↑ Burke,John (1852), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire, Colburn & Co, London
References
- Sil, Narasingha P. (2004). "Denny, Sir Anthony (1501–1549)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7506. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) (A biography on his grandfather but contains a paragraph of Edward Denny, Earl of Norwich)
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cooper, Thomas (1888). "Denny, Anthony". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 14. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 373–374. (A biography on his grandfather but contains a paragraph of Edward Denny, Earl of Norwich)