Note 139c — Chapter VII · THE FIELD OF THE BATTLE OF TEWKESBURY. [131a]

Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset, was the eldest son of Sir John Grey, of Groby (eldest son of Edward Lord Ferrers of Groby), slain at the first battle of St. Alban’s, in 1455, and of Elizabeth Wideville, or Wodeville, afterwards the Queen of Edward IV. He married Cecily, daughter and heir of William Bonvile, Lord Harrington, slain at the battle of Wakefield in 1460, and great-grand-daughter of William Lord Bonvile, who was put to death after the second battle of St. Alban’s, in 1460–1. He was created Lord Harrington and Bonvile, by Edward IV., in the fifteenth year of his reign, and in the same year was also created Marquis of Dorset. After Richard III. had obtained the crown, Dorset was attainted of high treason; but took sanctuary, and got privately away, and fled into Brittany, with a view to taking part with Henry Earl of Richmond. At the instigation of his mother, the Queen Dowager, he appeared for a time to waver, and inclined to leave the party of the Earl of Richmond in despair of his success, and to return to England, and make his peace with Richard III.; but eventually remained abroad, until after the fall of Richard, at the battle of Bosworth, and the accession to the throne of Henry VII.; who then soon sent to Paris for Dorset, who, together with Sir John Bourchier (the brother of the Bishop of Exeter), had been left there by Henry, in pledge for money borrowed there. He returned to England, was restored to his honours, and made one of the Privy Council of Henry VII. He died in the tenth year of Henry VII., 1494, and Cecily his widow afterwards married Henry Stafford, Earl of Wiltshire, second son of Henry, second Duke of Buckingham, who was beheaded in the first year of Richard III.