Henry Norreys, 1st Baron Norreys of Rycote

He was born abt 1525, first son of Henry Norreys of Bray by Mary, dau. of Thomas Fiennes, 8th Lord Dacre of the South, and knighted 6 Sep 1566. He held the following positions: official of royal stables by 1546; gent. privy chamber by 1547; butler, port of Poole 1553; j.p. Berks. 1558/59, Oxon. 1561-91; sheriff, Oxon, and Berks. 1562-3; Ambassador to France 1566-70; 1566-70; cr. Lord Norreys 1572; keeper of the armoury and porter of the outer gate, Windsor castle 1578; high steward, Abingdon c. 1580, Wallingford 1588; jt. ld. lt. Oxon. and Berks. c.1585-99; capt. of light horse, the Queen's bodyguard Jul 1588.

The Norreys family, though probably considerably more ancient, rose to prominence with Sir John Norreys, keeper of the great wardrobe to Henry VI. Marriage brought him the manor of Yattendon in Berkshire, and he subsequently added many neighbouring estates to his property.

Henry's father Sir Henry Norreys was executed by Henry VIII on 17 May 1536 for suspected adultery with Anne Boleyn, and his estates confiscated. His patrimony was restored to him by an Act of 1539, and in Dec 1542 his uncle Sir John Norreys of Yattendon, who was childless, was licensed to settle his estates in reversion on Henry, who was his ward, and on Margery, the younger daughter of Sir John Williams, and their heirs. By 26 Aug 1544 this couple were married. Norreys was then described as a royal ‘servant’. During his life, Henry's father-in-law continued to acquire land in Berkshire and Rycote in Oxfordshire, and his death and that of Sir John Norreys increased Henry's wealth considerably. He settled at Rycote following Sir John Williams' death in 1559.

Henry became knight of the shire for Berkshire in 1547. On 21 Jun he was among the King's gentlemen who witnessed the device settling the crown upon Lady Jane Grey. After the succession crisis Mary did not hold this act against him as she approved his appointment as butler of Poole in the autumn, but he was to take little part in public affairs during her reign save for an interlude in 1554 when he is said to have helped to guard the Princess Elizabeth at Woodstock.

Norreys prospered under Elizabeth, who took the view that his father had died for his loyalty to Queen Anne and who bestowed her friendship on him and his wife. Margery had in fact been a favoured lady-in-waiting to the Queen, who referred to her affectionately as "my crow" because of her dark complexion.

In 1561, Norreys was Sheriff of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. In Sep 1666, the Queen visited him at his house at Rycote and knighted him before her departure. In the autumn of 1566, she appointed him Ambassador to France. Norreys did what he could to protect the French Protestants from the aggressions of the French Government but, early in 1570, warned the English Ministers that the French Government threatened immediate war with England if Elizabeth continued to encourage the Huguenots in attacks upon their princes. Although he fulfilled his duties prudently, he was recalled in Aug 1570 to make way for Sir Francis Walsingham, who was commissioned to make a firmer stand on behalf of the French Protestants. By way of recompense for his services abroad, Norreys received a summons to the House of Lords, as Baron Norreys of Rycote, on 8th May 1572.

In Oct 1596, Norreys was created Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire. He already held the same office for Berkshire. In 1597, the grief of Norreys and his wife upon the death of their distinguished son, Sir John, was somewhat assuaged by a stately letter of condolence from the Queen to "my own dear crow", as Elizabeth still affectionately called Lady Norreys. Norreys died in Jun 1601 and was temporarily buried, on the 21st, in the church at Englefield, where his son Edward was living. Finally, on 5th Aug, he was re-interred at Rycote, in a vault beneath the chapel of St. Michael and All Angels, in the grounds of Rycote House. Norreys' will was dated 24th Sep 1589. His wife died in Dec 1599 and both she and himself are commemorated by the monument erected in honour of them and their six sons in St. Andrew's Chapel in Westminster Abbey. Life-size figures of Lord and Lady Norreys lie beneath an elaborate canopy supported by marble pillars and they are surrounded by kneeling effigies of their children.

"Although himself of a meek and mild disposition", Camden says that Norreys was father of "a brood of spirited, martial men". His six sons - especially John and Thomas - all distinguished themselves as soldiers.