Sir John Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville KG (1384–1421), was an eminent soldier in the Hundred Years' War between England and France under Henry V of England.
Family
Sir John Grey was son of Sir Thomas Grey of Heton, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Chillingham, Northumberland by Joan daughter of John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray. He was born at Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1384.
In 1418 he married Joan Cherleton, Lady of Powys, daughter and co-heiress of Edward Charleton, 5th Baron Cherleton in whose right he succeeded to the title of Lord Powis with its estates including Powis Castle.
Their only child was a son Henry, born about 1419 in Normandy, France who succeeded his father to become 2nd Earl of Tankerville.
Life
In 1417 he was with Henry V at the siege of Caen and behaved himself so valiantly that be had a grant of the castle and lordship of Tilye in Normandy then forfeited by Sir William Harcourt a supporter of the king's enemies[1].
He was subsequently sent with a guard to Powys where Sir John Oldcastle the chief of the Lollards had been caught by Ieuan ap Gruffudd and Sir Gruffudd Vychan to bring him before parliament.
In 1418 he was again in the French wars as Captain of Haunt when he was granted the Earldom of Tankerville in Normandy, to hold by homage to King Henry, and by delivery of a Bascinet or helmet at the castle of Roan on the Feast of Saint George each year. Continuing in those wars Grey was awarded several further grants and was made governor of the castle of Tournay.
On 31 January 1419 he was created a Knight of the Garter.
On 22 March 1421 while fording a river near the castle of Beaufort at the Battle of Baugé in Anjou both he and Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence as well as many others of the English nobility were slain by a Franco-Scottish force because they had engaged the enemy without proper preparation and with no archers to support them.[2]
References
^ A genealogical history of the dormant, abeyant, forfeited, and extinct peerages of the British Empire, Bernard Burke, London, 1866, pg 250
^ JOHN D. MILNER, The Battle of Baugé, March 1421: Impact and Memory, History, Volume 91 Issue 304, Pages 484 - 507
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Grey,_1st_Earl_of_Tankerville