SUFFOLK, CHARLES BRANDON, 1ST DUKE OF (c. was the son of William Brandon, standard-bearer of Henry VII., who was slain by Richard III. in person on Bos worth Field. He was high in Henry VIII.'s favour, and held a succession of offices in the royal household. On May 15, 1513 he was created Viscount Lisle, having entered into a marriage con tract with his ward, Elizabeth Grey, Viscountess Lisle in her own right, who, however, refused to marry him when she came of age. He distinguished himself at the sieges of Terouenne and Tournai in the French campaign of 1513. At this time Henry VIII. was secretly urging Margaret of Savoy, regent of the Netherlands, to marry Brandon, whom he created duke of. Suffolk. Brandon took part in the jousts which celebrated the marriage of Mary Tudor, Henry's sister, with Louis XII. of France, on whose death he was sent to congratulate the new king Francis I. An affection between Suffolk and the dowager queen Mary had subsisted before her marriage, and Francis charged him with an intention to marry her. Henry was anxious to obtain from Francis the gold plate and jewels which had been given or promised to the queen by Louis and he practically made his acquiescence in Suffolk's suit dependent on his obtaining them. The pair cut short the difficul ties by a private marriage. Suffolk was only saved from Henry's anger by Wolsey, and the pair eventually agreed to pay to Henry £24,000 in yearly instalments of L1,000, and the whole of Mary's dowry from Louis of £200,000, together with her plate and jewels. They were openly married at Greenwich on May 13. The duke
had been twice married already, to Margaret Mortimer and to Anne Browne. Anne Browne died in 1511, but Margaret Morti mer, from whom he had obtained a divorce on the ground of consanguinity, was still living. He secured in 1528 a bull from Pope Clement II. assuring the legitimacy of his marriage with Mary Tudor, and of the daughters of Anne Browne. Suffolk was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, and in 1523 he was sent to command the English troops at Calais. He laid waste the north of France. Suffolk was in favour of Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and after Wolsey's disgrace his influence increased daily. He was sent with the duke of Norfolk to demand the great seal from Wolsey; the same noble men conveyed the news of Anne Boleyn's marriage to Queen Catherine, and Suffolk acted as high steward at the new queen's coronation. He was commissioned by Henry to dismiss Catherine's household. He received a large share of the plunder after the suppression of the monasteries. In 1544 he was for the second time in command of an English army for the invasion of France. He died at Guildford on Aug. 24, There is abundant material for the history of Suffolk's career in the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. (ed. Brewer in the Rolls Series). See also Dugdale, Baronage of England (vol. ii. 1676) ; and G. E. C., Complete Peerage. An account of his matrimonial adventures is in the appendix to a novel by E. S. Holt, The Harvest of Yesterday.