Sir Anthony Browne, MP

http://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00114026&tree=LEO

BROWNE, Sir ANTHONY (d. 1548), politician, only son of Sir Anthony Browne, standard-bearer of England and constable of Calais, and of his wife Lady Lucy Nevill, daughter and coheiress of John Nevill, marquis Montacute, and niece of Richard, earl of Warwick, was knighted in 1623 after the successful siege of Morlaix. In 1624 he was made esquire of the body to King Henry VIII, and from that time until the death of Henry he became more and more the friend of his sovereign. In 1626 he was created lieutenant of the Isle of Man during the minority of Edward, earl of Derby. In 1628, and again in 1533, Browne was sent into France; on the first occasion to invest Francis I with the order of the Garter, and on the second to attend that king to Nice for the conference with the pope respecting the divorce of Henry VIII and Catherine of Arragon. In 1539 Browne was made master of the horse, and in 1540 he was created a knight of the Garter.

Battle Abbey was granted to Browne in 1538 ; he occupied the abbot's lodging, and razed to the ground the church, the cloisters, and the chapter-house. At the same time he received tne priory of St. Mary Overy in Southwark, and the house which he built there was for generations the London residence of his descendants the Viscounts Montague. The manors of Godstow, of Send m Sussex, and of Brede, which included a considerable part of the town of Hastings, were also granted to Browne; and in 1543, on the death of his half-brother, Sir William Fitzwilliam, K.G., earl of Southampton, he inherited the Cistercian abbey of Waverley, the monasteries of Bayham near Lamberhurst and of Calceto near Arundel, the priory of Easeboume, and the estate of Cowdray, both close to Midhurst. Part of the magnificent mansion of Cowdray had already been built by the Earl of Southampton, but much was added to it by Browne.

In 1540 Browne was sent to the court of John of Cleves to act as proxy at the marriage of Henry VIII with Anne of Cleves. In 1543 he accompanied the Duke of Norfolk in an expedition against the Scots, and in the following vear, as master of the horse, he attended Henry VIII at the siege of Boulogne. In 1545 he was made justice in eyre of all the king's forests north of the Trent, and in the same year he was constituted standard-bearer to Henry VIII as his father had been to Henry VII. During the last illness of Henry VIII Browne, with 'good courage and conscience,' undertook to tell the king of his approaching end. Henry appointed him guardian to Prince Edward and to Princess Elizabeth, made him one of his executors, and left him a legacy of 300l. On the king's death Browne went to Hertford in order to tell the news to the young prince; and when Edward VI made his public entry into London, Browne, as master of the horse, rode next to him. But Browne survived Henry VIII only one year. On 6 May 1548 he died at a house which he had built at Byfleet in Surrey. He was buried with great pomp at Battle, under a splendid altar-tomb which he had himself prepared.

Browne was twice married. His first wife, whose effigy lies on the tomb at Battle beside his own, was Alys, daughter of Sir John Gage, K.G., constable of the Tower. By her he had seven sons and three daughters; the eldest son, Anthony, succeeded to his father's estates, and was created in 1554 Viscount Montague. Browne's second wife was Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, daughter of Gerald, ninth earl of Kildare, and better known as 'the fair Geraldine.' At the time of this marriage Browne was sixty, and the bride only fifteen years of age. Her two sons died in infancy. After the death of Browne his young widow married Sir Edward Clinton, first earl of Lincoln, and was buried with him in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

[Collins's Peerage; Baronagium Genealogicum, 1732; Sussex Archeological Collections; Dallaway's History of Sussex.]

From: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 07

• Browne, Anthony (d.1548) by Julia Anne Elizabeth Roundell
• http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Browne,_Anthony_(d.1548)_(DNB00)
• https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati07stepuoft#page/39/mode/1up to https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati07stepuoft#page/40/mode/1up ______________________
• Sir Anthony Browne, Master of the Horse1,2,3,4,5
• M, b. 29 June 1500, d. 6 May 1548
• Father Sir Anthony Browne, Governor of Queenborough, Lieutenant of Calais6,7 b. c 1459, d. b 17 Nov 1506
• Mother Lucy Neville6,7 b. c 1468, d. 25 Mar 1534
• Sir Anthony Browne, Master of the Horse was born on 29 June 1500 at of Pirbright in Woking, Great Bychney, East Clandon, & Worplesden, Surrey, England.1,5 He married Alice Gage, daughter of Sir John Gage, Escheater of Surrey & Sussex, Comptroller of the Household, Constable of the Tower, Lord Chamberlain and Philippa Guilford, circa 1525 at of Firle, Sussex, England; They had 6 sons (Anthony, 1st Viscount Montague; Thomas; William; Francis; Henry; & William) and 3 daughters (Mary, wife of Sir John Grey, & of Henry Capell, Esq; Mabel, wife of Gerald FizGerald, 11th Earl of Kildare; & Lucy, wife of Thomas Roper, Esq.).1,2,4,5 Sir Anthony Browne, Master of the Horse married Elizabeth FitzGerald, daughter of Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare and Elizabeth Grey, in 1542; They had 2 sons (Edward & Thomas).1,5 Sir Anthony Browne, Master of the Horse died on 6 May 1548 at Byfleet, Surrey, England, at age 47; Buried at Battle, Sussex with his 1st wife.1,5 His estate was probated on 31 March 1550.5
• Family 1 Alice Gage b. c 1506, d. 31 Mar 1540
• Children
  • Mary Browne+8,9,3,4,5 b. c 1527, d. 4 Feb 1617
  • Sir Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, Sheriff of Surrey & Sussex+10,5 b. c 1528, d. 19 Oct 1592
• Family 2 Elizabeth FitzGerald b. c 1528, d. Mar 1590
• Citations
• 1.[S5] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 63.
• 2.[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 238.
• 3.[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 271.
• 4.[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 311-312.
• 5.[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. III, p. 226-227.
• 6.[S5] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 62-63.
• 7.[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. III, p. 225-226.
• 8.[S5] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 133.
• 9.[S5] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 361.
• 10.[S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. IX, p. 97-99.
• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p2691.htm#... __________________________________
• Sir Anthony Browne
• M, #28843, b. 1500, d. 1548
• Last Edited=20 Jun 2011
• Sir Anthony Browne was born in 1500.1 He was the son of Sir Anthony Browne and Lady Lucy Neville. He married Alice Gage, daughter of Rt. Hon. Sir John Gage and Philippa Guilford. He married Lady Elizabeth FitzGerald, daughter of Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare and Lady Elizabeth Grey, in 1543.2 He died in 1548 at Byfleet, Surrey, England.3
• He held the office of Joint Keeper of Windsor Great Park on 29 January 1528/29, with his brother 1st Earl of Southampton.4 He was invested as a Knight, Order of the Garter (K.G.).2
• Children of Sir Anthony Browne and Alice Gage
  • 1.William Browne5
  • 2.Francis Browne6
  • 3.Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu+ b. c 1527, d. 1592
  • 4.Mabel Browne+7 b. 1528, d. 25 Aug 1610
• Citations
• 1.[S3409] Caroline Maubois, "re: Penancoet Family," e-mail message to Darryl Roger Lundy, 2 December 2008. Hereinafter cited as "re: Penancoet Family."
• 2.[S37] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 2, page 2299. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition.
• 3.[S140] National Portrait Gallery, London, online http://www.npg.org.uk. Hereinafter cited as National Portrait Gallery.
• 4.[S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/1, page 120. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
• 5.[S37] Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, volume 2, page 1817.
• 6.[S37] Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, volume 2, page 1598.
• 7.[S37] Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, volume 2, page 2298.
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p2885.htm#i28843 ________________
• BROWNE, Sir Anthony (c.1500-48), of Battle Abbey and Cowdray Park, Suss.
• b. c.1500, 1st s. of Sir Anthony Browne by Lucy, da. and coh. of John Neville, Marquess of Montagu; half-bro. of William Fitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton. m. (1) by 1528, Alice, da. of Sir John Gage of Firle, Suss., 7s. inc. Anthony I 3da.; (2) 1542, Elizabeth, da. of Gerald Fitzgerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, 2s.; 1s. 1da. illegit. suc. fa. 1506. Kntd. 1 July 1522; KG nom. 23 Apr., inst. 19 May 1540.3
• Offices Held
  • Surveyor and master of hunt, castles and lordship of Hatfield, Thorne and Conisbrough, Yorks 1518; knight of the body 1522; lt. I.o.M. 1525; gent. privy chamber 1526, ambassador, France 1527, jt. (with Sir Edward Guildford) standard bearer 1528-34, sole 1534-46, jt. (with s. Anthony) 1546-d.; j.p. Surr. 1532-d., Suss. 1544-d.; master of the horse 1539-d.; PC by 1539-d.; capt. of gent. pens. 1540-d.; commr. subsidy, Household 1540, benevolence, Surr. 1544/45, musters, Berks., Hants, Oxon., Surr., Suss. and Wilts. 1545; other commissions 1535-46; master of the King’s harriers 1543-d.; numerous minor offices.4
• Biography
• Anthony Browne’s career resembled in many ways that of his elder half-brother William Fitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton. From the age of ten Fitzwilliam had been brought up in the royal household with the future Henry VIII, and it is likely that Browne joined him there at an early age; both may have owed this privilege to their mother, a niece of Richard, Earl of Warwick, or to her second husband Sir Anthony Browne, a cadet of the Browne family of Betchworth, Surrey, who became standard bearer of England and lieutenant of Calais castle. In 1518, at the age of about 18, Browne accompanied an embassy to France for the delivery of Tournai to Francis I, and by 1520 he held office in the royal household.5
• Browne gave early evidence of a wayward personality when, in March 1519, he struck a colleague in Sir Thomas Boleyn’s embassy to France. The King demanded the recall of both, but Browne’s career was not to suffer: Boleyn gave him a good report and Francis I on leavetaking made him a gentleman of his household with a pension of 200 crowns a year. Jousting provided an outlet for his youthful energy and at the Field of Cloth of Gold, where he acted as a server to the King, he distinguished himself at the tournament. The subsequent war gave him a chance to try out his military skills, and he was knighted after the raid on Morlaix by the admiral ‘for hardiness and noble courage’.6
• When Browne was himself appointed ambassador to France in 1527 he revealed an antipathy to that court and country which was to grow with the years. His despatches strike a slightly petulant note, he found fault with everything, the French manner of hunting, the King’s latest mistress, the Order of St. Michael which he considered a poor copy of the Garter, and the fact that he could find nothing worth purchasing. Later in the year the two Kings enrolled each other in their premier orders of chivalry, and Browne was commissioned with Lord Lisle and others to invest Francis I with the collar, mantle, garter and statutes of the English order. In spite of Browne’s personal bias against the French the King must have found his service useful for in 1533 he was with Norfolk’s embassy in France. A certain thoroughness of application is revealed in his ‘book of ordinary charges’ for this mission: his signature on several pages suggests that he himself checked the weekly bills.7
• In 1538 Edmund Bonner, bishop of Hereford and resident ambassador in France, spoke highly of Browne to Cromwell, praising his ‘dexterity and discretion’ and saying that he would need him greatly if there was much to do. Yet Browne’s special visit to France in that year was to cause considerable embarrassment to the English government. He and Bonner complained bitterly to the King and Cromwell of the bad lodging and cool treatment afforded them by the French. The King bridled at the implied disrespect to his person and ordered Browne to make a pointed withdrawal. Through their own ambassador the French took an injured attitude but the King supported Browne’s behaviour, saying that Browne had done nothing he had not been charged to do; the most the King would admit was that perhaps Francis did not know personally how Browne had been used. A few weeks later, however, after the pope had ordered the execution of a bull of excommunication against the King, the English were put on the defensive. Cromwell told the French ambassador that if Browne had not mixed his private grudges and complaints about his meagre reception with the affairs of his mission he would have received promotion; to this the imperial envoy Chapuys added that Cromwell had called Browne a ‘glorieux coquart’ and blamed him for obstructing friendship with France. Although Browne was forthwith promoted master of the horse in place of the attainted Sir Nicholas Carew, there was probably substance to Cromwell’s view. When there was talk of Browne’s visiting France in 1542 Marillac expected trouble, describing him to Francis I as ‘the worst of those hostile to France’, and in the same year Chapuys expressed the opinion that if the Emperor wished to exploit the English he should give pensions to those who already supported him, Browne among them.8
• Browne took an active part in suppressing the northern rebellion of 1536. He was one of the Surrey notables required to attend on the King with a retinue of 50 men. On 15 Oct. he was sent forward from the base at Ampthill to join the Duke of Suffolk with reinforcements of cavalry and ammunition. He arrived as the rebellion in Lincolnshire was dying down and in November was sent to quell the movement in Yorkshire. In the first week of December he was one of the commissioners who met the rebels’ representatives at Doncaster. He followed up the military operation by administrative work designed to restore order, and he was later among those consulted when the affairs of the north came before the Council.9
• Browne saw military service again in 1542, by which time he had been appointed captain of the gentlemen pensioners. On 10 Sept. he left London with Fitzwilliam, now Earl of Southampton, to join Norfolk and Tunstall as the English commissioners at York. Fitzwilliam died at Newcastle, and Norfolk wrote to Gardiner and Wriothesley saying that he now had only Browne left of his experienced subordinates; the duke had great faith in Browne, who lacked ‘neither wit, diligence or soberness’, and he ventured the hope that the King would make Browne his half-brother’s heir ‘in the name and lands of Southampton’. Browne lived up to his military reputation by devastating the area around Hawtell. In the campaign of 1544 against France he again served under Norfolk and won further distinction. During the defensive war of 1545 and 1546 he was busy securing the coastal defences and advising the Earl of Hertford on troops, fortifications, food and forage.10
• In 1539 Fitzwilliam had ridden round Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire in preparation for the coming Parliament: he rallied his friends, among them Sir Richard Weston, to secure Browne’s return as knight of the shire for Surrey, a place Browne was to retain in the three succeeding Parliaments. His activity in the Commons has left several traces. In the Parliament of 1539 he was twice joined with Sir Thomas Cheyne and Sir William Kingston in bringing up bills, eight in all, from the Commons and with Kingston in bringing up a further three; in 1545 he was concerned in taking up seven bills to the Lords. At the beginning of the Parliament of 1542 he witnessed a proxy entered for Thomas, Lord Sandys by Southampton and Sir John Russell, Baron Russell. He was doubtless responsible for the return of his eldest son Anthony, when still a minor, for Guildford in 1545 and again in 1547.11
• When not employed on diplomatic or military missions Browne was usually close to the King. In 1526 he gave the King a bonnet as a New Year gift and in 1532 he was present at Whitehall when the great seal was delivered to Audley. At the christening of Prince Edward in 1537 he was one of four gentlemen of the privy chamber who, in aprons and towels, had charge of the font until relieved by the lord steward; in the following month he followed the young Queen’s funeral chariot to St. George’s Chapel at Windsor castle. On New Year’s day 1540 the Cleves party were met at Rochester by Browne on the King’s behalf, and it was to him that the King made a disparaging remark about the bride-to-be which made him fear for his half-brother who had written in her praise. In the divorce proceedings Browne testified that the King had entered the marriage reluctantly. The statement that Browne had married Anne as the King’s proxy appears to rest on a description made in 1777 of a portrait at Cowdray, and lacks confirmation.12
• When the King visited Lincoln in 1541 Browne, as master of the horse, led the sovereign’s horse in the procession into the city. On his return to London the King was told of Catherine Howard’s infidelity. Browne took part in the questioning of the culprits, taking evidence in his own handwriting from one of the Queen’s attendants and examining the Duchess of Norfolk about the relations between the Queen and Francis Dereham; he was one of the special commission which tried Dereham and Culpeper at Guildhall. In 1543 Browne attended the King’s marriage to Catherine Parr. In the same year he was one of the Councillors who questioned witnesses on charges against the Earl of Surrey, and in 1547 he took part in the earl’s trial: he also examined Surrey’s father, his old patron Norfolk, and witnessed his confession.13
• In religious matters, ‘as it is commonly known’ according to his servant William Wightman, Browne ‘did much dissent from the proceedings’, that is, from the breach with Rome. In his will, made on 22 Apr. 1547, he directed the saying of masses and dirges by the priests of Battle church. Only once had his sympathies brought him under suspicion and that was in 1536 when the King believed that nearly all his Councillors, Cromwell included, were secretly supporting Princess Mary in her refusal to submit. On that occasion Browne was closely examined on his ideas about the succession, his words, his actions and his evident affection for the Princess: his answers must have satisfied the King since there was no aftermath. Foxe has a story that in 1539 the keeper of Princess Elizabeth’s bears, a keen Catholic, went to the Council chamber to give Browne and Gardiner what he considered was damning evidence of heresy against Cranmer, and in 1543 Browne’s chaplain was examined during the prebendaries’ plot against the archbishop. A rumour circulated in 1539 that Fitzwilliam, Kingston and Browne wanted Bishop Tunstall to replace Cromwell and had suggested as much to the King. Russell, one of the reforming members of the Council and an enemy of Browne’s, wrote of him to Paget as ‘a man most unreasonable and one whose words and deeds do not agree together ... one that will blame every man for that fault and yet will do worse himself’.14
• Himself one of the conservatives appointed by the King as his son’s Councillors, Browne tried to persuade the King to include Gardiner among them. Gardiner’s exclusion left the conservatives without a leader and on the King’s death Browne was the first to accept the ascendancy of the Earl of Hertford. According to an account given by Browne’s servant Wightman to William Cecil in 1549, Browne agreed while walking with Hertford in the garden at Enfield, as they were bringing Edward VI from Hertford castle to London, that Hertford should be Protector, ‘thinking it ... both the surest kind of government, and most fit for that commonwealth’. His adhesion was significant since he stood eighth of the late King’s executors in order of precedence, and also because as a Catholic he was one of those on whom Henry VIII is said to have relied to check Hertford and the reformers. Browne was one of the seven Councillors who signed the letters patent of 12 Mar. 1547 confirming Hertford’s appointment. In the same month Browne, Hertford and (Sir) Edward North received the great seal from the outgoing chancellor, Wriothesley.15
• Browne’s inheritance was relatively modest, although on his mother’s death in 1534 he received the manor of Wickhambreaux, Kent, worth £111 a year. The bulk of his estate he acquired for himself, starting in 1528 with a grant of the manors of Stewton in Lincolnshire, Newhall and Coppenhall in Cheshire, and Egleton in Rutland. By 1537 he had exchanged these for the Cheshire lordship of Nantwich and for various Sussex manors which had belonged to Henry, 5th Earl of Northumberland. In the following year, while the court was at Fitzwilliam’s house at Cowdray, Browne was granted the site and demesne lands of Battle abbey and in 1539 he paid £850 for several of the abbey’s manors. He obtained further monastic lands in Sussex and his last acquisition there formed part of the bequest of lands worth £100 a year made to him by Henry VIII. The total acreage of his lands in Sussex, including those of which he had the ultimate reversion from Fitzwilliam, has been estimated at 11,000 acres and its annual value at £679 for lands in possession and £147 for those in reversion. His estate in Surrey, although worth less than half that in Sussex, amounted to not less than 8,500 acres and included the priory of St. Mary Overey, granted to him in 1544 ‘for his services’. He also obtained property in Cambridgeshire, Essex and Warwickshire. His half-brother left no legitimate child, and most of his lands, which included, besides such further Sussex property as the manor of Midhurst, some 4,600 acres in Hampshire, were to pass to Browne on the death of the widow. Although Browne died before the countess, he had already come into possession of at least one of these estates, Cowdray, which was to become the family seat.16
• Browne died at Byfleet on 28 Apr. 1548 and was probably replaced as knight of the shire by (Sir) Thomas Cawarden. He appointed as executors of his will (Sir) Richard Rich, Lord Rich; Lord Russell; Sir William Paulet, Baron St. John; (Sir) John Baker I; Sir John Gage, and John Skinner II, leaving them each a gift as token of his goodwill and explaining that ‘these simple legacies come from the father of so many children’. He directed that he should be buried in the same tomb as his first wife and the funeral procession began in London and passed through East Grinstead and Dallington to Battle. Browne’s eldest son was still under age at his father’s death. Of his other children, Mary married the Marquess of Dorset’s younger son John, Mabel married Gerald Fitzgerald, 11th Earl of Kildare, and Lucy married Thomas Roper. Browne’s widow married Edward, 9th Lord Clinton, later 1st Earl of Lincoln.17
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/br... ____________________________
• Anthony BROWNE (Sir Knight)
• Born: 29 Jun 1500
• Died: 6 May 1548, Byfleet, Sussex, England
• Buried: Battle in Susan
• Notes: See his Biography.
• Father: Anthony BROWNE (Sir)
• Mother: Lucy NEVILLE
• Married 1: Alice GAGE ABT 1525, Sussex, England
• Children:
  • 1. Anthony BROWNE (1º V. Montague)
  • 2. William BROWNE of Elsing
  • 3. Mabel BROWNE (C. Kildare)
  • 4. Mary BROWNE
  • 5. Henry BROWNE
  • 6. Francis BROWNE
  • 7. Lucy BROWNE
  • 8. Thomas BROWNE
• Married 2: Elizabeth FITZGERALD (C. Lincoln) ("Fair Geraldine") AFT 1540
• From: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/BROWNE1.htm#Anthony%20BROWNE%20%28Sir%...
• Only son and heir Esquire of the Household, 1524, made Lieu. of the Isle of Man, 1526. Brother of Elizabeth, Countess of Worcester. Ambassador at the Court of France, 1528, and 1533. Appointed Master of the Horse, 1539, and had a Grant of that Office for life, and was elected Knight of the Garter, 1540, made Justice in Eire, North of Trent, 1546, and Standard Bearer of England, 1547. Surveyor and master of hunt, castles and lordship of Hatfield, Thorne and Conisbrough, Yorks 1518; knight of the body 1522; lt. I.o.M. 1525; gent. privy chamber 1526, Ambassador, France 1527, jt. (with Sir Edward Guildford) standard bearer 1528-34, sole 1534-46, jt. (with s. Anthony) 1546-d.; j.p. Surr. 1532-d., Suss. 1544-d.; master of the horse 1539-d.; PC by 1539-d.; capt. of gent. pens. 1540-d.; commr. subsidy, Household 1540, benevolence, Surr. 1544/45, musters, Berks., Hants, Oxon., Surr., Suss. and Wilts. 1545; other commissions 1535-46; master of the King's harriers 1543-d.; numerous minor offices. Executor of King Henry VIII's will.
• Anthony Browne's career resembled in many ways that of his elder half-brother William Fitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton. From the age of ten Fitzwilliam had been brought up in the royal household with the future Henry VIII, and it is likely that Browne joined him there at an early age; both may have owed this privilege to their mother, a niece of Richard, Earl of Warwick, or to her second husband Sir Anthony Browne, a cadet of the Browne family of Betchworth, Surrey, who became standard bearer of England and lieutenant of Calais castle. In 1518, at the age of about 18, Browne accompanied an embassy to France for the delivery of Tournai to Francois I, and by 1520 he held office in the royal household.
• Browne gave early evidence of a wayward personality when, in Mar 1519, he struck a colleague in Sir Thomas Boleyn's embassy to France. The King demanded the recall of both, but Browne's career was not to suffer: Boleyn gave him a good report and Francis I on leavetaking made him a gentleman of his household with a pension of 200 crowns a year. Jousting provided an outlet for his youthful energy and at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, where he acted as a server to the King, he distinguished himself at the tournament. The subsequent war gave him a chance to try out his military skills, and he was knighted after the raid on Morlaix by the admiral ‘for hardiness and noble courage’.
• When Browne was himself appointed Ambassador to France in 1527 he revealed an antipathy to that court and country which was to grow with the years. His despatches strike a slightly petulant note, he found fault with everything, the French manner of hunting, the King's latest mistress, the Order of St. Michael which he considered a poor copy of the Garter, and the fact that he could find nothing worth purchasing. Later in the year the two Kings enrolled each other in their premier orders of chivalry, and Browne was commissioned with Lord Lisle, Sir Nicholas Carew, Dr. Taylor, and Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter King of Arms to invest Francois I with the collar, mantle, garter and statutes of the English order. In spite of Browne's personal bias against the French the King must have found his service useful for in 1533 he was with Norfolk's embassy in France. A certain thoroughness of application is revealed in his ‘book of ordinary charges’ for this mission: his signature on several pages suggests that he himself checked the weekly bills.
• In 1538 Edmund Bonner, Bishop of Hereford and resident Ambassador in France, spoke highly of Browne to Cromwell, praising his ‘dexterity and discretion’ and saying that he would need him greatly if there was much to do. Yet Browne's special visit to France in that year was to cause considerable embarrassment to the English government. He and Bonner complained bitterly to the King and Cromwell of the bad lodging and cool treatment afforded them by the French. The King bridled at the implied disrespect to his person and ordered Browne to make a pointed withdrawal. Through their own Ambassador the French took an injured attitude but the King supported Browne's behaviour, saying that Browne had done nothing he had not been charged to do; the most the King would admit was that perhaps Francois did not know personally how Browne had been used. A few weeks later, however, after the Pope had ordered the execution of a bull of excommunication against the King, the English were put on the defensive. Cromwell told the French Ambassador that if Browne had not mixed his private grudges and complaints about his meagre reception with the affairs of his mission he would have received promotion; to this the imperial envoy Chapuys added that Cromwell had called Browne a ‘glorieux coquart’ and blamed him for obstructing friendship with France. Although Browne was forthwith promoted master of the horse in place of the attainted Sir Nicholas Carew, there was probably substance to Cromwell's view. When there was talk of Browne's visiting France in 1542the French Ambassador Marillac expected trouble, describing him to Francois I as ‘the worst of those hostile to France’, and in the same year Chapuys expressed the opinion that if the Emperor wished to exploit the English he should give pensions to those who already supported him, Browne among them.
• Browne took an active part in suppressing the northern rebellion of 1536. He was one of the Surrey notables required to attend on the King with a retinue of 50 men. On 15 Oct he was sent forward from the base at Ampthill to join the Duke of Suffolk with reinforcements of cavalry and ammunition. He arrived as the rebellion in Lincolnshire was dying down and in Nov was sent to quell the movement in Yorkshire. In the first week of Dec he was one of the commissioners who met the rebels’ representatives at Doncaster. He followed up the military operation by administrative work designed to restore order, and he was later among those consulted when the affairs of the north came before the Council.
• Browne saw military service again in 1542, by which time he had been appointed captain of the gentlemen pensioners. On 10 Sep he left London with Fitzwilliam, now Earl of Southampton, to join Norfolk and Tunstall as the English commissioners at York. Fitzwilliam died at Newcastle, and Norfolk wrote to Gardiner and Wriothesley saying that he now had only Browne left of his experienced subordinates; the Duke had great faith in Browne, who lacked ‘neither wit, diligence or soberness’, and he ventured the hope that the King would make Browne his half-brother's heir ‘in the name and lands of Southampton’. Browne lived up to his military reputation by devastating the area around Hawtell. In the campaign of 1544 against France he again served under Norfolk and won further distinction. During the defensive war of 1545 and 1546 he was busy securing the coastal defences and advising the Earl of Hertford on troops, fortifications, food and forage.
• In 1539 Fitzwilliam had ridden round Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire in preparation for the coming Parliament: he rallied his friends, among them Sir Richard Weston, to secure Browne's return as knight of the shire for Surrey, a place Browne was to retain in the three succeeding Parliaments. His activity in the Commons has left several traces. In the Parliament of 1539 he was twice joined with Sir Thomas Cheney and Sir William Kingston in bringing up bills, eight in all, from the Commons and with Kingston in bringing up a further three; in 1545 he was concerned in taking up seven bills to the Lords. At the beginning of the Parliament of 1542 he witnessed a proxy entered for Thomas, Lord Sandys by Southampton and Sir John Russell, Baron Russell. He was doubtless responsible for the return of his eldest son Anthony, when still a minor, for Guildford in 1545 and again in 1547.
• When not employed on diplomatic or military missions Browne was usually close to the King. In 1526 he gave the King a bonnet as a New Year gift and in 1532 he was present at Whitehall when the great seal was delivered to Audley. At the christening of Prince Edward in 1537 he was one of four gentlemen of the privy chamber who, in aprons and towels, had charge of the font until relieved by the lord steward; in the following month he followed the young Queen Jane's funeral chariot to St. George's Chapel at Windsor castle. On New Year's day 1540 the Cleves party were met at Rochester by Browne on the King's behalf, and it was to him that the King made a disparaging remark about the bride-to-be which made him fear for his half-brother who had written in her praise. In the divorce proceedings Browne testified that the King had entered the marriage reluctantly. The statement that Browne had married Anne of Cleves as the King's proxy appears to rest on a description made in 1777 of a portrait at Cowdray, and lacks confirmation.
• When the King visited Lincoln in 1541 Browne, as master of the horse, led the sovereign's horse in the procession into the city. On his return to London the King was told of Catherine Howard's infidelity. Browne took part in the questioning of the culprits, taking evidence in his own handwriting from one of the Queen's attendants and examining the Duchess of Norfolk about the relations between the Queen and Francis Dereham; he was one of the special commission which tried Dereham and Culpeper at Guildhall. In 1543 Browne attended the King's marriage to Catherine Parr. In the same year he was one of the Councillors who questioned witnesses on charges against the Earl of Surrey, and in 1547 he took part in the earl's trial: he also examined Surrey's father, his old patron Norfolk, and witnessed his confession.
• In religious matters, ‘as it is commonly known’ according to his servant William Wightman, Browne ‘did much dissent from the proceedings’, that is, from the breach with Rome. In his will, made on 22 Apr 1547, he directed the saying of masses and dirges by the priests of Battle church. Only once had his sympathies brought him under suspicion and that was in 1536 when the King believed that nearly all his Councillors, Cromwell included, were secretly supporting Princess Mary in her refusal to submit. On that occasion Browne was closely examined on his ideas about the succession, his words, his actions and his evident affection for the Princess: his answers must have satisfied the King since there was no aftermath. Foxe has a story that in 1539 the keeper of Princess Elizabeth's bears, a keen Catholic, went to the Council chamber to give Browne and Gardiner what he considered was damning evidence of heresy against Cranmer, and in 1543 Browne's chaplain was examined during the prebendaries’ plot against the Archbishop. A rumour circulated in 1539 that Fitzwilliam, Kingston and Browne wanted Bishop Tunstall to replace Cromwell and had suggested as much to the King. Russell, one of the reforming members of the Council and an enemy of Browne's, wrote of him to Paget as ‘a man most unreasonable and one whose words and deeds do not agree together ... one that will blame every man for that fault and yet will do worse himself’.
• Himself one of the conservatives appointed by the King as his son's Councillors, Browne tried to persuade the King to include Gardiner among them. Gardiner's exclusion left the conservatives without a leader and on the King's death Browne was the first to accept the ascendancy of the Earl of Hertford. According to an account given by Browne's servant Wightman to William Cecil in 1549, Browne agreed while walking with Hertford in the garden at Enfield, as they were bringing Edward VI from Hertford Castle to London, that Hertford should be Protector, ‘thinking it ... both the surest kind of government, and most fit for that commonwealth’. His adhesion was significant since he stood eighth of the late King's executors in order of precedence, and also because as a Catholic he was one of those on whom Henry VIII is said to have relied to check Hertford and the reformers. Browne was one of the seven Councillors who signed the letters patent of 12 Mar 1547 confirming Hertford's appointment. In the same month Browne, Hertford and Sir Edward North received the great seal from the outgoing chancellor, Wriothesley.
• Browne's inheritance was relatively modest, although on his mother's death in 1534 he received the manor of Wickhambreaux, Kent, worth £111 a year. The bulk of his estate he acquired for himself, starting in 1528 with a grant of the manors of Stewton in Lincolnshire, Newhall and Coppenhall in Cheshire, and Egleton in Rutland. By 1537 he had exchanged these for the Cheshire lordship of Nantwich and for various Sussex manors which had belonged to Henry, 5th Earl of Northumberland. In the following year, while the court was at Fitzwilliam's house at Cowdray, Browne was granted the site and demesne lands of Battle abbey and in 1539 he paid £850 for several of the abbey's manors. He obtained further monastic lands in Sussex and his last acquisition there formed part of the bequest of lands worth £100 a year made to him by Henry VIII. The total acreage of his lands in Sussex, including those of which he had the ultimate reversion from Fitzwilliam, has been estimated at 11,000 acres and its annual value at £679 for lands in possession and £147 for those in reversion. His estate in Surrey, although worth less than half that in Sussex, amounted to not less than 8,500 acres and included the priory of St. Mary Overey, granted to him in 1544 ‘for his services’. He also obtained property in Cambridgeshire, Essex and Warwickshire. His half-brother Fitzwilliam left no legitimate child, and most of his lands, which included, besides such further Sussex property as the manor of Midhurst, some 4,600 acres in Hampshire, were to pass to Browne on the death of the widow, Mabel Clifford. Although Browne died before the Countess, he had already come into possession of at least one of these estates, Cowdray, which was to become the family seat.
• Browne died at Byfleet on 28 Apr 1548 and was probably replaced as knight of the shire by Sir Thomas Cawarden. He appointed as executors of his will Sir Richard Rich, Lord Rich; Lord Russell; Sir William Paulet, Baron St. John; Sir John Baker; Sir John Gage, and John Skinner, leaving them each a gift as token of his goodwill and explaining that ‘these simple legacies come from the father of so many children’. He directed that he should be buried in the same tomb as his first wife and the funeral procession began in London and passed through East Grinstead and Dallington to Battle. Browne's eldest son, Anthony, was still under age at his father's death. Of his other children, Mary married the Marquis of Dorset's younger son John, Mabel married Gerald Fitzgerald, 11th Earl of Kildare, and Lucy married Thomas Roper. Browne's widow, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Kildare´s sister, married Edward, 9th Lord Clinton, later 1st Earl of Lincoln.
• From: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/AnthonyBrowne(SirKnight).htm _________________________
• Sir Anthony Browne, KG (c.1500[1] - 28 April 1548[1]) was an English courtier and Knight of the Shire.
• He was the son of Sir Anthony Browne, Standard Bearer of England and Governor of Queenborough Castle, by his wife Lady Lucy Neville, daughter of John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu and widow of Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam.[1] Anthony junior was thereby half-brother of William Fitzwilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton.
• By 1528, Browne married Alice, daughter of Sir John Gage, and by her had seven sons and three daughters which included:[1]
  • Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu;
  • Mary Browne, who married John Grey of Pirgo and was the mother of Henry Grey, 1st Baron Grey of Groby;
  • Mabel Browne, who married Gerald FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Kildare;
  • Annabelle Browne, who married Thomas Spring of Castlemaine.
• His recorded royal service began in 1518, when he was appointed surveyor and master of hunting for the Yorkshire castles and Lordships of Hatfield, Thorne, and Conisbrough. He was included him in an embassy to hand over Tournai to Francois I. Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, knighted him on 1 July 1522. In 1525 he was made lieutenant of the Isle of Man. He was ambassador to France in 1527, reporting home in increasingly anti-French terms. In 1539 he was appointed Master of the Horse for life.
• During the uprisings in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, Browne was sent against the Catholic protesters, to test his loyalty. Anthony maintained Henry's trust. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1540. When Henry VIII came to Rochester to meet Anne of Cleves, he first sent Anthony, as his Master of Horse, into her chamber. He later declared that he was never more dismayed in his life, lamenting in his heart to see the Lady so far and unlike that was reported. Henry confided his own disappointment the next day to Anthony as they returned to Greenwich by barge.[2]
• He was returned as knight of the shire for Surrey in 1539 and was then re-elected in 1542, 1545, and 1547.
• Sometime after 1540, he married Elizabeth Fitzgerald, daughter of Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, his wife Alice having died. They had two children who died young. Elizabeth was one of the great beauties of the Court, known as " the fair Geraldine". After his death she remarried Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln.
• As a conservative, he had to be careful not to be brought down by factional politics at the court of Henry VIII. He became so trusted by Henry that in the King's latter years, Browne held a dry stamp of the King's signature, to use for minor letters. By 1547, he was Keeper of Oatlands Palace
• He died on 28 April 1548 at Byfleet, Surrey, and was buried at Battle in a tomb with his first wife. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Anthony.
• Browne was said to be a good-looking man and two members of his family were said to have been mistresses of Henry VIII. One, 'Mistress Browne', we do not know her first name, but it was allegedly his sister. One piece of information, however, points to it being his sister, Elizabeth Browne, countess of Worcester. The ex-mistress was alleged to have been a prime mover in the downfall of Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth Browne was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne Boleyn and the chief witness against her. Another member of his family, Anne Bassett was rumoured to be in the running to become Henry's fifth wife and there were earlier rumours of an affair, shortly before his marriage to Anne of Cleves.[3]
• From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Anthony_Browne_(d.1548) ______________________
• Sir Anthony Browne
• Birth: 1500 Surrey, England
• Death: Apr. 28, 1548 Surrey, England
• Henry VIII granted the Battle Abbey to him. He was Ambassador at the Court of France, 1528, and 1533. Appointed Master of the Horse, 1539, and had a Grant of that Office for life, and was elected Knight of the Garter, 1540, made Justice in Eire, North of Trent, 1546, and Standard Bearer of England, 1547.
• Family links:
• Parents:
• Anthony Browne (1443 - 1506)
• Lucy Neville Browne (____ - 1534)
• Spouses:
• Alice Gage Browne (____ - 1540)*
• Elizabeth FitzGerald Browne (1527 - 1590)*
• Burial: St Mary the Virgin Churchyard, Battle, Rother District, East Sussex, England
• Find A Grave Memorial# 12280
• From: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=browne&GSfn=a... ________________________
• A genealogical and heraldic history of the extinct and dormant baronetcies ... By John Burke, Sir Bernard Burke
• http://books.google.com/books?id=LKIKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA87&lpg=PA87&dq=G...
• Pg. 87
  • BROWNE, OF BEECHWORTH.
• SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, created a knight of the Bath at the coronation of RICHARD II. married, and had two sons, Sir Richard, his heir, and Stephen, lord mayor of London in 1430. The elder
• SIR ROBERT BROWNE, living temp. HENRY V. was father of
• SIR THOMAS BROWNE, treasurer of the household to HENRY VI. and sheriff of Kent in 1444 and 1460. He m. Eleanor, daughter and sole heir of Sir Thomas Fitz-Alan, of Beechworth Castle, brother of John, Earl of Arundel, and had issue,
  • I. GEORGE (Sir), his heir.
  • II. William, whose son removed to Tavistock. This line is extinct.
  • III. Robert (Sir), knt. m. Mary, daughter of Sir William Mallet, knt., and had an only daughter and heiress, Eleanor, wife, first, of Sir Thomas Fogge, and secondly, of Sir William Kempe.
  • IV. Anthony (Sir), standard-bearer of England, esquire of the body, governor of Queenboro' Castle, and constable fo the castle of Calais. From this eminent person derive the LORDS MONTAGU, the heiress of which distinguished family, the Hon. ELIZABETH MARY BROWN, wedded WILLIAM STEPHEN POYNTZ, esq. M.P. (See BURKE'S Extinct Peerage and Commoners.)
  • I. Catherine, m. to Humphry Sackville of Buckhurst.
• .... etc.
• Pg. 88
  • BROWNE, OF KIDDINGTON.
• .... etc.
• SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, was appointed in the first year of King HENRY VII. standard-bearer for the whole realm of England and elsewhere; and the next year, being then one of the esquires of the king's body, was constituted governor of Queenborough Castle, in Kent, in which year, being in the battle of Newark upon Trent, 16th June, when John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, and the pretender, Lambert Simnell, sustained a signal defeat, he was knighted for his valiant behaviour. In the eighteenth of the same reign, being constable of the castle of Calais, he and Sir Richard Nansan, deputy-lieutenant of Calais, were commissioned, in consideration of "their loyalty, industry, foresight, and car," to receive the sum of 25,000 franks in gold, due 1st November, 1502, being an annual payment from the French king, according to agreement concluded 3rd November, 1492; and again, in two years afterwards he was commissioned to receive the same payment. His last will and testament is dated at Calais, 25th September, 1505, ans was proved 19th November, 1506, wherein, being written, Sir Anthony Browne, knt. Lieutenant of the castle of Calais, he orders his body to be buried in the resurrection church, in St. Nicholas's Chapel, by his wife, and bequeathes to every brotherhood within the said church ten shillings, and to the lord prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, a standing cup of silver gilt; as also two others, to Sir Edward Poynings and Sir Hugh Conway, whom he constitutes overseers of his will, and Lucy, his wife, executrix, which Lucy was one of the daughters and co-heirs of John Nevil, MARQUESS OF MONTAGU, and widow of Sir Thomas FitzWilliams, of Aldwarke, in the county of York. By her he left, with two daughters, Elizabeth, the wife of Henry Somerset, Earl of Worcester, and Lucy, of Sir Thomas Clifford, knt. on only son, his successor,
• SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, who was with the Earl of Surry, lord high admiral, at Southampton, in the fourteenth HENRY VIII. when he conveyed the Emperor from that port to Biscay; and after landing at Morleis, in Brittany, was knighted for is valour in the assault and winning of that town. He m. Alice, daughter of Sir John Gage, K.G. and had issue,
  • ANTHONY, his heir.
  • William, m. Anne, daughter and co-heir of Hugh Hastings, esq. and thereby acquired Elsing, in Norfolk, were his descendants have been seated.
  • Henry.
  • Francis.
  • Mary, m. to John, second son of Thomas Grey, Marquess of Dorset.
  • Mabel, m. Gerard, Earl of Kildare.
  • Lucy, m. to Thomas Roper, esq. of Eltham, in Kent.
• He d. 6th May, 1548, and was s. by his eldest son,
• SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, who was one of the forty knights made at the coronation of King EDWARD VI. and was .... etc.
• Pg.89
• .... Lord Montagu m. first, Jane, daughter of Robert Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex, and by her ladyship had issue,
  • .... etc.
• His lordship wedded, secondly, Magdalen, daughter of William, Lord Darcre, of Gillesland, and by her had
  • .... etc.
• The Viscount, who sate on the trial of MARY, Queen of Scots, d. 19th October, 1592. .... etc. ______________
• Name Sir Anthony Browne [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33]
• Born 29 Jun 1500 of, Bechworth, Surrey, England [34]
• Died 28 Apr 1548 Byfleet, Surrey, England [36]
• Alt. Death 22 Apr 1548 [35]
• Inquisition Post Mortem 4 May 1548 [35] dated Sir Anthony Browne. Lewes, 4 May 3 Edw. VI. [1549]. Died 22 April 2 Edw. VI. [1548]. Heir, son Anthony Browne, knt., aged 22 and more. Sir A.B. made will 22 April 1547. To each of my yonger sonnes william, Henry, Fraunceys, Thomas, George, or Henry the yonger annuity of 40 marks--younger sons minors--wife Elizabeth.
• Alt. Death 6 May 1548 Byfleet, Surrey, England Find all individuals with events at this location [11, 13, 28, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41]
• Buried Battle, Sussex, England [41]
• Father Sir Anthony Browne, Knight, b. Bechworth Castle, Surrey, England d. Bef 17 Nov 1506
• Mother Lucy Neville, b. Cal 1468, of, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England d. 25 Mar 1534, Bagshot, Surrey, England (Age ~ 66 years)
• Family 1 Alice Gage, b. Abt 1506, of, Bechworth, Surrey, England d. 31 Mar 1540 (Age ~ 34 years)
• Married Bef 1528 [34]
• Children
  • 1. Henry Browne
  • 2. Mary Browne, b. of, Cowdry Park by Eastbourne, Sussex, England d. 4 Feb 1617
  • 3. Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, b. 29 Nov 1528, of, Cowdry Park by Eastbourne, Sussex, England d. 19 Oct 1592, West Horsley, Surrey, England (Age 63 years)
  • 4. Thomas Browne, b. Abt 1530, of, Cowdry Park by Eastbourne, Sussex, England
  • 5. William Browne, Esquire, b. Abt 1530, of, Cowdry Park by Eastbourne, Sussex, England d. of, Elsing, Norfolk, England
  • 6. Henry Browne, b. Abt 1531, of, Cowdry Park by Eastbourne, Sussex, England d. Aft 1568 (Age ~ 38 years)
  • 7. Lucy Browne, b. Abt 1532, of, Cowdry Park by Eastbourne, Sussex, England bur. 10 Jul 1606, St. Dunstans, Canterbury, Kent, England (Age ~ 74 years)
  • 8. George Browne, b. Abt 1536, of, Cowdry Park by Eastbourne, Sussex, England
  • 9. Francis Browne, b. Abt 1538, of, Cowdry Park by Eastbourne, Sussex, England
  • 10. Mabel Browne, b. Abt 1540, of, Cowdry Park by Eastbourne, Sussex, England d. 25 Aug 1610 (Age ~ 70 years)
• Family 2 Elizabeth Fitz Gerald, Countess of Lincoln, b. 15 Sep 1539, Maynooth, Kildare, Leinster, Ireland d. Mar 1590, Lincoln Chapel, St. George Windsor, Berkshire, England (Age 50 years)
• Children
  • 1. Edward Browne
  • 2. Thomas Browne
• Sources
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• "Sir Anthony Browne, was knighted for his gallantry in the assault and winning of the Southampton. In the 30th of Henry, sir Anthony was constituted standard-bearer to the king, and was nominated by his majesty one of the executors to his will."
• [S89] #550 The history and antiquities of the county of Leicester, Nichols, John, (4 volumes, each in 2 parts. London : Printed by and for J. Nichols, 1795-1815), FHL X book 942.54 H2nic., vol. 3 pt. 2 p. 683.
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• "Sir Anthony Browne (c. 1500-48), of Battle Abbey and Cowdray Park, Suss. b. c. 1500, 1st s. of Sir Anthony Browne by Lucy, da. and coh. of John Neville, Marquess of Montagu; half-bro. of William Fitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton. m. (1) by 1528, Alice, da. of Sir John Gage of Firle, Suss., 7s. inc. Anthony I, 3da.; (2) 1542, Elizabeth, da. of Gerald Fitzgerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, 2s.; 1s. 1da. illegit. suc. fa. 1506. Kntd. 1 July 1522; KG nom. 23 Apr., inst. 19 May 1540. Browne died at Byfleet on 28 Apr 1548."
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• From: https://histfam.familysearch.org//getperson.php?personID=I20400&tre... ______________________________

No source given for the following

Sir Anthony Browne (d. 6 May 1548) was the son of Sir Anthony (or Ambrose) Browne, Standard Bearer of England and Governor of Queenborough Castle, by his wife Lucy Nevill, daughter of John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu.

He married Alice, daughter of Sir John Gage, and their children included:

Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu;

Mary Browne, who married John Grey of Pirgo and was the mother of Henry Grey, 1st Baron Grey of Groby;

Mabel Browne, who married Gerald FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Kildare.

He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1540.

Sometime after 1540, he remarried Elizabeth Fitzgerald, daughter of the 9th Earl of Kildare, his wife Alice having died. As a conservative, he had to be careful not to be brought down by factional politics at the court of Henry VIII. He became so trusted by Henry that in the King's latter years, Browne held a dry stamp of the King's signature, to use for minor letters. During the uprisings in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, Brown was sent against the Catholic protesters, to test his loyalty. He maintained Henry's trust. Browne was said to be a good-looking man and two members of his family were said to have been mistresses of Henry VIII. One, 'Mistress Browne', we do not know the first name of, but it was allegedly his sister. One piece of information, however, points to it being his daughter, Elizabeth Browne, countess of Worcester. The ex-mistress was alleged to have been a prime mover in the downfall of Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth Browne was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne Boleyn and the chief witness against her. Another member of his family, Anne Bassett was rumoured to be in the running to become Henry's fifth wife and there were eariler rumours of an affair, shortly before his marriage to Anne of Cleves.

Sources, References and Further Reading

• http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Browne,_Anthony_(1526-1592)_(DNB00)
• https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati07stepuoft#page/40/mode/1up
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Browne_(died_1506)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Browne,_1st_Viscount_Montagu
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabel_Browne,_Countess_of_Kildare
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Clinton,_Countess_of_Lincoln
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Grey,_Countess_of_Kildare
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_FitzGerald,_11th_Earl_of_Kildare
• http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/br...
• http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/ro...
• http://www.theweald.org/N10.asp?NId=4706

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