Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/178

Grey he saw active service at the battle of St. Quentin in 1557, and was present at the siege and surrender of Guisnes in 1558. Of this siege he afterwards wrote a long account, incorporated by Holinshed in his ‘Chronicle,’ and since edited by Sir P. de M. Grey Egerton for the Camden Society (1847). After a short detention in France he returned to England, where he seems to have found employment under Cecil, and to have been chiefly occupied in procuring his father's ransom (Cal. State Papers, Foreign, ii. 68, 361, iii. 490). After his father's release he accompanied him on an expedition into the north, nominally to reinforce the garrison at Berwick, but really to keep an eye on the movements of the French in Leith (, Hist. of England, vii. 154). On 28 March 1560 the English army crossed the borders and besieged Leith. During a sharp skirmish with the garrison on 10 April he was wounded, but not dangerously, being able to take part in the subsequent assault (, Burghley Papers, p. 294; Cal. State Papers, For. v. 28).

On the death of his father on 25 Dec. 1562 he succeeded to the title, and to an inheritance much impoverished by reason of his father's ransom. Taking up his residence at Whaddon in Buckinghamshire, he appears to have quietly devoted himself to his duties as chief magistrate in the county, being particularly zealous in propagating the reformed religion (, Magna Britannia, p. 662; Cal. State Papers, Dom. i. 564), More than once during his lifetime Whaddon Hall was graced by the presence of Elizabeth in the course of her annual progresses (, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, i. 254, iii. 660). In 1571 there was some question of sending him to Ireland as lord deputy in succession to Sir Henry Sidney; but the post, if an honourable one, was a costly one, and the idea of being obliged to go on the queen's terms so preyed upon him as to make him positively ill. Finally the question was decided in favour of Sir William Fitzwilliam (1526–1599) [q. v.] (Grey to Burghley, Lansdowne MSS. xiv. 83;, Ireland under the Tudors, ii. 207). On 17 June 1572 he was installed a knight of the Garter (Cal. State Papers, Dom., i. 446). In the following year he was involved in a serious quarrel with Sir John Fortescue, owing apparently to Grey's appointment as keeper of Whaddon Chase and steward of Olney Park. The quarrel, according to Fortescue, culminated in a brutal attack upon him by Grey and John Zouche in the neighbourhood of Chancery Lane and Temple Bar. For this, or for some unknown reason, Grey was shortly afterwards confined to the Fleet, where he remained for several months, contumaciously refusing to surrender a certain document required from him (Lansdowne MSS. vii. 54, xvi. 21, xviii. 87; State Papers, Dom. Eliz. xciii. 1). How the matter ended we do not know; but Grey had a powerful ally in Lord Burghley, and it may be presumed from the fact that he was one of the peers appointed for the trial of the Duke of Norfolk in 1574 that his detention was of short duration. His conduct gave great offence to Elizabeth, who long rejected his applications for employment. Nevertheless she appointed him lord deputy of Ireland in July 1580. In a letter to the Earl of Sussex Grey deplored the fate which sent him to ‘that unlucky place.’

Ireland was everywhere in a state of rebellion. Doubtful of his own ability to cope with the difficulties before him, he earnestly solicited the advice of the Earl of Sussex and Sir Henry Sidney; while Elizabeth, fearing that his religious zeal might only make matters worse, added to his instructions a private caution not to be overstrict in matters of religion (Cal. Carew MSS. ii. 277;, Hib.-Anglic.; State Papers, Ireland, Eliz. lxxix. 25). On Friday morning, 12 Aug., he landed at Dublin with the poet Spenser as his secretary (Lib. Hib.) The news of his appointment had already exercised a salutary influence on the situation of affairs, and prevented many from joining Lord Baltinglas in his rebellion (Cal. Papers, Ireland, ii. 237). At the time of his arrival Sir William Pelham, on whom the government had devolved since the death of Sir William Drury [q. v.], was busily engaged in prosecuting the war against the Earl of Desmond in Munster. Grey, however, took advantage of a clause in his patent to take upon himself the government of the country without waiting for formal investiture, and resolved to attack Lord Baltinglas, who, with Pheagh Mac Hugh O'Byrne and other rebels, had secured themselves in the fastnesses of Glendalough in Wicklow (State Papers, Ireland, Eliz., lxxvi. 40;, State of Ireland; , Annales; Cal. Hatfield MSS. ii. 339). The expedition, owing to an ‘unlucky accident,’ or, as Grey added reverently, ‘through God's appointment,’ proved a terrible disaster, ‘and baleful Oure, late stained with English blood,’ furnished him with a severe but salutary lesson in the methods of Irish warfare (Cal. Papers, Ireland, ii. 247). The disaster was an accident, and Elizabeth was easily appeased by Burghley (State Papers, lxxvi. 27). Early in September Pelham arrived in Dublin; but hardly had Grey received from him the sword of state when the news arrived that a foreign force had landed in Kerry, and were entrenching themselves in the Fort del Ore. Fortunately the north