Arms of Edward Denny, 1st Earl of Norwich (d

Sir Edward Denny (1547 – 12 February 1600),

Knight Banneret A knight banneret, sometimes known simply as banneret, was a medieval knight ("a commoner of rank") who led a company of troops during time of war under his own banner (which was square-shaped, in contrast to the tapering standard or the penn ...

, of

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated po ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, was a soldier, privateer and adventurer during the reign of Queen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

Origins

He was born in

Cheshunt, Hertfordshire Cheshunt ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London on the River Lea and Lee Navigation. It contains a section of the Lee Valley Park, including much of the River Lee Country Park. To the north lies Broxbourne and Wormley, Hertfor ...

in 1547, the second surviving 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, having ...

, a

Privy Councillor A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

to King

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

and one of the Guardians of his young son and successor King

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...

. His nephew was

Edward Denny, 1st Earl of Norwich 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's eldest son, Henry Denny,Mos ...

(1569-1637), who died without male issue and was buried at

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 ...

in Essex.

Career

Orphaned in childhood, he inherited lands in Hertfordshire. After some minor appointments at court, in 1573 he went to

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

on a military expedition led by

Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, KG (16 September 1541 – 22 September 1576), was an English nobleman and general. From 1573 until his death he fought in Ireland in connection with the Plantations of Ireland, most notably the Rathlin Isl ...

. Denny then took up

privateering A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

, capturing a Spanish ship in 1577 and a Flemish one in 1578. The same year saw him join a colonizing expedition led by

Sir Humphrey Gilbert Sir Humphrey Gilbert (c. 1539 – 9 September 1583) was an English people, English adventurer, explorer, Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member of parliament and soldier who served during the reign of Elizabeth I of England, Queen ...

and

Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion ...

; however, their ships were forced to turn home due to bad weather.

Ireland

Denny and his cousin Raleigh were then sent to Ireland to help put down the

Second Desmond Rebellion The Second Desmond Rebellion (1579–1583) was the more widespread and bloody of the two Desmond Rebellions in Ireland launched by the FitzGerald Dynasty of Desmond in Munster against English rule. The second rebellion began in July 1579 when ...

. Denny led a company at the infamous

Siege of Smerwick The siege of Smerwick took place at (known in English as Smerwick) in November 1580, during the Second Desmond Rebellion in Ireland. A force of between 400 and 700 Papal freelance soldiers, mostly of Spanish and Italian origin, landed at Smer ...

, when 400 Spanish and Italian troops were beheaded by the English after surrendering. In 1581 he commanded another expedition to Ireland and returned with the head of Garret O’Toole, leader of one of the Irish clans.

High Sheriff, Knight and MP

Denny first became a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Liskeard Liskeard ( ; kw, Lyskerrys) is a small ancient stannary and market town in south-east Cornwall, South West England. It is situated approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Plymouth, west of the Devon border, and 12 miles (20 km) eas ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

for the 1584 to 1585 parliament. He was granted lands at Tralee, confiscated from the

Earl of Desmond Earl of Desmond is a title in the peerage of Ireland () created four times. When the powerful Earl of Desmond took arms against Queen Elizabeth Tudor, around 1578, along with the King of Spain and the Pope, he was confiscated from his estates, s ...

; he both became

High Sheriff of Kerry The High Sheriff of Kerry was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Kerry, Ireland from the 16th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Kerry County Sheriff. The sheri ...

and was knighted in 1588. His estates in Ireland were a financial failure and in 1591 he returned to England to command a naval expedition to the Azores. It has not been established whether it was this Sir Edward Denny or his nephew and namesake who was elected

Knight of the Shire Knight of the shire ( la, milites comitatus) was the formal title for a member of parliament (MP) representing a county constituency in the British House of Commons, from its origins in the medieval Parliament of England until the Redistributio ...

for

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

in 1593, however it is certain that in 1597 he was returned to Parliament for the "

rotten borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorat ...

" of

Tregony Tregony ( kw, Trerigoni), sometimes in the past Tregoney, is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Tregony with Cuby, in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies on the River Fal. In the village there is a post office (now ...

in Cornwall. The following year he returned to Ireland during the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...

, to find that the confiscated land he had been granted had been ransacked. Disgruntled by the lack of rewards for his service to the Crown, Denny allied himself to

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG, PC (; 10 November 1565 – 25 February 1601) was an English nobleman and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a ...

. Late in 1599 or early in 1600, Denny "took a deadly sickness in his country’s service". He died on 12 February 1600 at the age of 52;

Marriage & issue

In 1583 he married Margaret Edgcumbe (d.1648), one of the queen's

maids of honour A maid of honour is a junior attendant of a queen in royal households. The position was and is junior to the lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts. Role Traditionally, a queen r ...

whom he had met at court in 1581, a daughter of Piers Edgcumbe (1536-1608) of

Mount Edgcumbe Mount Edgcumbe may refer to: ; Places * Mount Edgcumbe Country Park, in Cornwall, United Kingdom * Mount Edgcumbe House, located within Mount Edgcumbe Country Park * Mount Edgecombe, KwaZulu-Natal, a sugar-growing town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Afric ...

and of

Cotehele Cotehele ( kw, Kosheyl) is a medieval house with Tudor additions, situated in the parish of Calstock in the east of Cornwall, England, and now belonging to the National Trust. It is a rambling granite and slate-stone manor house on the banks ...

in the parish of

Calstock Calstock ( kw, Kalstok) is a civil parish and a large village in south east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, on the border with Devon. The village is situated on the River Tamar south west of Tavistock and north of Plymouth. The parish had ...

, both in

, a

. Margaret survived her husband and having died in 1648 was buried in St Michael's Church, Bishop's Stortford. By his wife he had issue including: *Sir Edward Denny, eldest son and heir, who founded the Denny family of

Tralee Castle Tralee Castle was a medieval strategic castle in Tralee, Kerry, owned by the Denny family from 1586. It is now a ruin. The castle was built by the Desmond family, likely in the mid-thirteenth century at a similar time to the constriction of ...

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

, Ireland. His descendant was

Sir Barry Denny, 1st Baronet Sir Barry Denny, 1st Baronet (c. 1744 – April 1794) was an Anglo-Irish politician. The Denny family effectively owned the town of Tralee. Denny was the son of Reverend Barry Denny and Jane O'Connor. He served in the Tralee Corps of the Irish V ...

(–1794) of Castle Moyle, created a baronet in 1782;Burke *Arthur Denny (1584 – 4 Jul 1619) *Francis Denny *Henry Denny (1595–1658) *Anthony Denny (died young) *Anthony Denny (1592–1662) *Thomas Denny *Charles Denny (d. 29 Dec 1635) *Elizabeth Denny (b. 1586) *Honora Denny (died young) *Marie Denny (d. 29 Nov 1678)

Death & burial

He died on 12 February 1600 at the age of 52 and was buried in his family's vault in the churchyard of

Waltham Abbey Church The Abbey Church of Waltham Holy Cross and St Lawrence, also known as Waltham Abbey, is the parish church of the town of Waltham Abbey, Essex, England. It has been a place of worship since the 7th century. The present building dates mainly from ...

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 which church survives his

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

with the recumbent effigies of himself and his wife. Situated beside the high altar it depicts Denny lying on his side in a

suit of armour Plate armour is a historical type of personal body armour made from bronze, iron, or steel plates, culminating in the iconic suit of armour entirely encasing the wearer. Full plate steel armour developed in Europe during the Late Middle Ages, e ...

, next to his wife; on a separate frieze below are sculpted his ten children, kneeling.Hagger, Nicholas (2012)
''A View of Epping Forest''
O-Books, John Hunt Publishing Ltd, (p. 179)

Notes

References

*http://www.stortfordhistory.co.uk/guide10/lady_denny.html *http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/EdwardDenny.htm *http://thepeerage.com/p35729.htm *https://web.archive.org/web/20080808135110/http://www.saintmichaelweb.org.uk/tourthechurch.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Denny, Edward 1547 births 1600 deaths English pirates Members of the pre-1707 English Parliament for constituencies in Cornwall

Edward Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...

English knights High Sheriffs of Kerry English MPs 1584–1585 English MPs 1593 English MPs 1597–1598 Knights banneret of England