Edward Denny, 1st Earl of Norwich (15 August 1569 – 24 October 1637), known as The Lord Denny between 1604 and 1627, was an English courtier, Member of Parliament, and a peer.

Life

The son of

Sir Anthony Denny Sir Anthony Denny (16 January 1501 – 10 September 1549) was Groom of the Stool to King Henry VIII of England, thus his closest courtier and confidant. He was the most prominent member of the Privy chamber in King Henry's last years, havin ...

's eldest son, Henry Denny,Mosley, Charles, editor. ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes'' (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), Volume I, page 1094. he matriculated at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

in 1585. His mother was Honora Grey, daughter of

William Grey, 13th Baron Grey de Wilton William Grey, 13th Baron Grey de Wilton (1508/1509 – 14 December 1562), was an English baron and military commander serving in France in the 1540s and 1550s, and in the Scottish Wars of the 1540s. Early life Grey was the thirteenth Baron ...

and Lady Mary Somerset. He was knighted in 1587, and welcomed the Scottish

King James I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...

to England while holding the post of

High Sheriff of Hertfordshire The High Sheriff of Hertfordshire was an ancient Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the foundation of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. On 1 April 1974, under the provisio ...

in 1603. He was M.P. for

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

in 1604, but on 27 October 1604, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Denny of Waltham. Around 1590–1600, Denny built Abbey House on the site of

Waltham Abbey Waltham Abbey is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, within the metropolitan and urban area of London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. It lies on the Greenwich Meridian, between the River Lea in the west and E ...

, the lands of which had been in the family for several generations. Most of the old abbey buildings had been demolished, but the church remained as a parish church. The new Abbey House was directly north-east of the church. The whole building was later demolished in 1770. The appearance of

Lady Mary Wroth Lady Mary Wroth (née Sidney; 18 October 1587 – 1651/3) was an English noblewoman and a poet of the English Renaissance. A member of a distinguished literary family, Lady Wroth was among the first female English writers to have achieved an en ...

's ''

The Countess of Montgomery's Urania ''The Countess of Montgomery's Urania'', also known as ''Urania'', is a prose romance by English Renaissance writer Lady Mary Wroth. Composed at the beginning of the 17th century, it is the first known prose romance written by an English woman. The ...

'' brought protests from Denny, objecting to portrayals of real people at the work. He particularly was stung by an incident from the work that to him seemed to allude to his own family life. He was created

Earl of Norwich Earl of Norwich was a title that was created four times in British history, three times in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1626 in favour of the courtier and ...

on 17 October 1626.

Family

Edward Denny married Lady Mary Cecil, daughter of

Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, KG (5 May 1542 – 8 February 1623), known as Lord Burghley from 1598 to 1605, was an English politician, courtier and soldier. Family Thomas Cecil was the elder son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, b ...

by his first wife, Dorothy Neville. They had one child, a daughter, Lady

Honora Denny Honora Denny (died 1614) was an English courtier. She was the daughter of Edward, Lord Denny and Mary Cecil, a daughter of Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter. Some sources use the name "Honoria" or "Honor". She married a prominent Scottish-born co ...

, who married

James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle KB (c. 1580March 1636) was a British noble. Life A Scot, he was the son of Sir James Hay of Fingask, second son of Peter Hay of Megginch (a branch member of Hay of Leys, a younger branch of the Erroll family) an ...

Death & burial

He was buried in

, with the following epitaph placed on his tomb:

Learn, curious reader, ere you pass, What Sir Edward Denny was: A courtier in the chamber, A soldier in the field, Whose tongue could never flatter, Whose heart could never yield.Burke,John (1852)
A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire
Colburn & Co, London

Notes

References

* (A biography on his grandfather but contains a paragraph of Edward Denny, Earl of Norwich) ;Attribution *(A biography on his grandfather but contains a paragraph of Edward Denny, Earl of Norwich)

External links

*http://www.stortfordhistory.co.uk/guide10/church_manor.html
National Monuments Record, Abbey House
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Norwich, Edward Denny, 1st Earl of English MPs 1604–1611 Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge 1569 births 1637 deaths Denny family 17th-century English nobility 16th-century English nobility Earls of Norwich