::''For other people named Henry Lee, see''
Henry Lee (disambiguation)
'Sir Henry Lee' (
1533-
1611) of
Ditchley was Master of the Ordnance under Queen
Elizabeth I of England.
Lee became Queen Elizabeth I’s champion in 1570 and was appointed Master of the Royal Armouries in 1580, an office which he held until his death. As
Queen's Champion, Lee devised the
Accession Day Tilts held annually on 17 November, the most important
Elizabethan court festival from the 1580s. He resigned as Queen's Champion in 1590 and was made a Knight of the
Order of the Garter in 1597.
After the death of his wife
Ann Paget in 1590, Lee openly lived with his long-time mistress,
Anne Vavasour, formerly one of the Queen's Ladies in Waiting.
He was the uncle of Captain
Thomas Lee, a troublesome soldier on whose behalf he allowed himself to be bound over and who was put to death in 1601 for an involvement in the treason of the
2nd Earl of Essex.
Family
He was the son of Sir Anthony Lee and Margaret Wyatt-sister of Sir
Thomas Wyatt (poet).
His heir and Cousin, also Sir Henry Lee, became 1st Bart
Quarendon
Trivia
★ Anthony Lee was apparently descended from the Lee family of Lee Hall,
Staffordshire, England; it is unknown if this family was related to the Lee Family of Coton Hall, Nordley Regis,
Shropshire, England from whom the
Lee family of
Virginia was descended.
★ A descendant of Henry Lee of Ditchley was
Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield-ancestor of
Mary Custis Lee-wife of
Robert Edward Lee.
★ Allegedly his 1st cousin seven times over was
Charles Lee (general) of the Continental Army.
External links
★
The Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers