Henry Greene (abt. 1346 - 1399)

Born about 1346 in Drayton, Northamptonshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Matilda (Mauduit) Greene — married before Aug 1364 in England

Descendants

Died 2 Sep 1399 at about age 53 in Bristol, England

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Biography

Sir Henry de Greene de Boketon, son of Sir Henry de Greene de Boketon (lord chief justice of England), was made the heir of his father, despite the English law of primogeniture, by a special license given by the King. He was a very rich man, and the owner of many estates. He married Matilda, sole heiress of her father, Lord Thomas Mauduit, owner of five lordships and other possessions (Werminster, Westburg, Lye, Gratley, and Dychurch). Sir Henry became as prominent a statesman as his father had been, a member of the House of Commons, and one of its leaders, and subsequently was knighted and became one of the King's near counselors. As a favorite of the King, he received 40 manors and estates, besides his townhouses in London. Sir Henry was one of a commission appointed over King Richard II., grandson of Edward III who died in 1377, and whose eccentricity amounted almost to insanity. In this capacity, he counseled the King to confiscate the estates of the banished Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford and Lancaster. After the overthrow of Richard, Sir Henry was taken prisoner by Bolingbroke, hustled out without ceremony or the shadow of a trial, and beheaded in the market square in Bristol, September 2, 1399. Shakespeare devotes much of Acts I and II of his "Richard II." to Sir Henry Greene.

Queen Catherine Parr, consort of King Henry VIII., was a member of this family, the daughter of Matilda Greene, who was the daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Greene, of Greene's Norton. By the marriage of Matilda and her sister Anne, respectively, to Sir Thomas Parr and Baron Vaux, the Northampton estate passed into other families.

Sir Henry Greene was knighted by King Richard II. During the rebellion against the King, Sir Henry was taken and beheaded. Sir Henry, Lord Chancellor of England,, Knight and Lord of Drayton.

Sir Henry left seven children, Ralph, John, Thomas, Henry, Eleanor, Elizabeth, and Mary. Two daughters married noblemen. In the first year of King Henry IV, Ralph was restored to his title and estates but left no children. Lord Henry succeeded but left only a daughter, who married John, Earl of Wiltshire, whose only son John died without heirs. Ralph and John were successively Lord Green. Henry likely died during the 'bloody century', leaving no children. The great estate passed through the last heiress to the Earls of Wiltshire and Peterborough, Matilda's descendants. Thomas de Greene de Boketon, son of Sir Henry, was the only son of his father whose descendants remain to bear the name of Greene. From him came the Gillingham Greenes, and from them again the Warwick and Quidnesset Greenes of America.

Children

• Ralph, no issue
• John
• Thomas
• Henry
• Eleanor
• Elizabeth
• Mary

Sources

• Clarke, Louise Brownell The Greenes of Rhode Island (Knickerbocker Press, New York, 1903) Page 25
• Mordaunt, Henry. Succinct Genealogical Proofs of the House of Greene that were Lords of Drayton (Malby, London, 1896) Page 153-4
• History of Parliament Online
• Wikipedia: Henry_Green_(politician)
• Wikipedia: Drayton_House
• Aubrey, John. Wiltshire. The Topographical Collections of John Aubrey, F.R.S., 1659-70, with Illustrations. (Longman & Co., London, 1862) Page 84. footnote #2.