Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/221

 Grey , the bishop's gift. Of these, unhappily many were destroyed in the reign of Edward VI and during the great rebellion, and by Wood's time few of the miniatures in the remaining volumes had escaped mutilation (, Ballioferyus, p. 99;, Hist. and Antiq. of Oxford, Colleges and Halls, p. 89). But even now, no less than 152 of Grey's codices are in the possession of the college. The bishop's coat of arms (gules, a lion rampant, within a bordure engrailed argent) is displayed on two windows of the library, and in the panels below the window of the master's dining hall.

During the troubled years of his episcopate Grey never took a leading part in public affairs. He devoted himself rather to the charge of his diocese, and still more probably to his learned interests, which were reputed to extend not only to Greek but also to Hebrew, while in his palace on Holborn he maintained the same stately establishment as that for which he had been famous on the continent (cf. [786]). Yet there is ample evidence also of his political activity. In the beginning of 1455 he was appointed to serve on a commission to arbitrate between the Dukes of York and Somerset (, xi. 362), the failure of which was shown in the first battle of St. Albans in the following May. Later on, apparently in 1460, before the battle of Northampton, he again took part in an attempted reconciliation of the Yorkist leaders ( [772], where the date is given as 1459). At length, on 25 Oct. 1469, he was made high treasurer, and held the seals until the following July (, 1. c.;, i. 339). On 26 Aug. 1471 he was named first on a commission of fifteen to hold a diet at Alnwick to deal with the infractions of the truce with Scotland (, xi. 717 f.), and in the following March to treat with the Scots ambassadors at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on 25 April (ib. p. 748 f.), and again on 16 May he was entrusted with a similar negotiation (ib. p. 776 ff.)

In February 1477-8 the bishop's health showed signs of breaking down. After Easter he quitted his London palace for Ely, and then, as his weakness increased, he removed to his neighbouring manor of Downham. Here he died on Tuesday, 4 Aug. 1478. On the next day his body was borne to Ely with great pomp, attended by almost all the priests of the Isle, and on the Thursday the bishop was buried between two marble pillars on the north side of the cathedral church (, 672 f.), the fabric of which owes not a little to his munificence (, p. 269).

[Vespasiano's Vite di uomini illustri del secolo xv. § 42, Vescovo d'Ely, printed in Cardinal Mai's Spicilegium Romanum, i. 280-3, Rome, 1839; Monachi Eliensis Contin. Hist. Eliensis in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 672 f.; Wilhelmi Wyrcester Annales (Letters and Papers illustrative of the Wars of the English in France, ed. J. Stevenson, vol. ii. pt. ii., 1864); Wood's Hist, and Antiq. of the University of Oxford, ed. Gutch, i. 2U7, ii. 782, Colleges and Halls, pp. 85, 87-90; G. Voigt's Wiederbelebung des classischen Altherthums, ii. 261 f., 2nd edit., Berlin, 1881.]  GREY, WILLIAM, thirteenth  (d. 1562), fourth son of Sir Edmund de Grey, ninth baron (d. 1511), survived his three brothers, the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth barons, who died in their minority, and was summoned to parliament on 3 Nov. 1529. He was one of the commanders in the expedition made into France in 1544, under John, lord Russell, and assisted in the siege of Montreuil. There seems to have been some jealousy between Grey and the famous Earl of Surrey. Grey had been appointed chief captain of the army called 'the Crews,' and it was arranged in 1545 that this command should be transferred to Surrey, while Grey was to be appointed lieutenant of Boulogne in the room of Lord Poynings. Upon letters from Guisnes, however, the king ordered Grey to keep his old charge, while Surrey was sent to Boulogne. Secretary Paget speaks of the sinister means constantly employed to set these noblemen at variance. Grey finally superseded Surrey as lieutenant of Boulogne in April 1546. During the French campaign Grey distinguished himself greatly, especially by his destruction of the Chatillon fortress, which he razed completely to the ground. The king took Grey into favour, and promised him rewards and preferment, but the promise failed in consequence of the king's death. In the first year of Edward VI, Grey, being then a field-marshal and captain-general of horse, was sent into Scotland. He placed himself at the head of the army, and in that position made the first charge against the enemy at the battle of Pinkie Cleugh, on 10 Sept. 1547. 'In this battle,' says Arthur, lord Grey, in his 'commentary' upon the services of his father, Grey 'receaved a greate wounde in the mouthe with a pyke, sutche as clave one of his teethe, strake hym thowroghe the tongue, and three fyngers deepe into the rouff of his mouthe: yet notwithstondyng hee poursued owte the chase, wheryn, whot with the aboundance of blood, heate of the weather, and dust of the press, hee had surely been suffocated had not the Duke of Northehumberland, then earle of Warwyck, lyghted and lyfted a fyrcken of ale too hys head, as they passed thowroughe the Scottische camp.' Grey recovered, and twelve days later (22 Sept.)