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Some interesting history relates to the dashing Henry Dudley of the Infamous Dudley Castle. Henry was my 13th Great Grandfather whom I decend directly. History books and other sources tell the following story.
The Dudley Castle was lost by my 13th Great Grandfather who unwittingly earning the name Lord Quondam John Sutton 3rd Lord Dudley lost the castle to his kinsman the clever and crafty Duke of Northumberland John Dudley.
By some dumb luck though later was returned the castle not before the Duke had redecorated and inserted some Code of Arms questioned as to his rights to some from his mothers side of family. John Sutton 3rd lord of Dudley had a son, and My 12th Great Grandfather Henry Dudley. Henry became a monastic auditor under Thomas Cromwell in 1535, and then a soldier serving in Ireland under his uncle Leonard Grey in 1536, and in Scotland from 1540-3. Dudley fought gallantly during the siege of Boulogne in 1544, and was made a Captain early in 1545 under Lord Clinton. Henry was promoted to Vice Admiral of the Narrow Seas 1552-3 when Edward Fiennes was Admiral, and knighted at Hampton Court on the 11th October 1551.A close associate of his second cousin, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, (Robert Dudley was known as the Queens favorite)he was arrested on 25 July 1553 for his complicity in the political maneuverings of the Duke of Northumberland. Henry was imprisoned in the Tower of London, but pardoned by Queen Mary on 18 October, 1553. Henry Dudley, having once been Captain of the Guard at Boulogne had many friends in France and in December 1555 visited Paris, where he was curiously well received by King Henry II of France. Although Dudley returned home with only the vaguest of assurances, even Pope Paul was ill- disposed toward the English Queen Mary because of her marriage into the powerful Hapsburg family and that same month signed a secret treaty with Henry II against Spanish dominion. Henry Dudley and his agents moved in January, to conceal stores of ammunition at strategic locations, and also secluded an amount of money totaling fifty thousand pounds, previously withdrawn and removed from the Exchequer, (where Dudley was a familiar visitor and had a number of friends) placed in water by (London) bridge to make ready for an invasion planned to be executed by mercenaries and exiles. The money was to be sent to France where his Protestant exile supporters would follow the initiative through. In Spain, Charles V crippled with arteriosclerosis abdicated on January 16,whereupon Philip and Mary became King and Queen of Spain. Henry Dudley returned to France, and by March was engaged in the raising of an invasion force, with the intention of landing it on the Isle of Wight, to march on London. Had the plot not been discovered, its intention was to remove Mary to exile in Spain where she could be happily reunited with King Philip and to bring about the succession of Elizabeth to the English throne. Bold and righteous as it was, it proved too daring for most of the English Gentry, who failed to lend it their support, "feebly, but not without some expectation, waiting for time to dispatch the evil Queen". It was Henry Dudley who now took the initiative, whilst greater noblemen trembled, Dudley was abroad organizing a widespread and sophisticated rebellion.
Amongst his agents was the courtier and M.P. Henry Peckham, the son Sir Edward Peckham, then Master of the Tower Mint and a member of the Royal Council. Henry Peckham was detected in the plan to obtain funds by robbing the Exchequer and he soon found himself a prisoner of the Tower. In July of 1555 he and his assistants were "hanged on the gallows of Tower Hill for treason against the queen .... and after cut down, beheaded and their bodies carried unto London Bridge and there set up and their bodies buried at Allhallows, Barking."
It appears that once revealed the plot dissolved and Henry Dudley remained at large in France, his great scheme undermined by careless talk and too unwieldy an organization. He was consequently to become an exile in the French service between 1556-1563.
Henry later was to return home again and serve as "Capt. Dudley" in 1563, receiving an annuity later the same year from Queen Elizabeth for his service. Soon after he died leaving no will found as yet and his only son Roger Dudley from the wife he married that was the daughter of Christopher Ashton, who bore him a son, Roger Dudley. Roger Dudley became a Captain also, and his son was the first elector governor Thomas Dudley of the new colony in America. And my 10th Great Grandfather.