Greys Court is a country house and associated gardens situated in the Chiltern Hills at Rotherfield Greys, Henley-on-Thames, south Oxfordshire. Within the gardens is a surviving mediaeval fortified tower dating from 1347, giving extensive views of the gardens and surrounding countryside. Also to be found within the gardens is a Tudor wheelhouse, where a donkey operated a treadmill to haul water from a well. Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here while Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne. Greys Court was owned by Sir Francis Knollys, treasurer to Elizabeth I.
Greys Court passed to the crown and Henry VII gave it to his uncle, Jasper Tudor for a short period. Robert Knollys, a court official, who had lived in Greys Court since 1503, received papers passing the property to him in 1514 for an annual rent of a Red Rose at Midsummer. In 1538 it is recorded that Henry VIII secured the estate to 'his friend Francis Knollys', (1514-1598) son of Robert Knollys.
It has been said that this branch of the Knollys family descended from the great Sir Robert Knollys of Sculthorpe, (the soldier from the famous 'Free Companies' of the Hundred Years War whose name has featured previously on this web site) but Sir Francis's pedigree cannot be properly traced beyond Sir Thomas Knollys, Lord Mayor of London 1409-1410. He directed the rebuilding of the Guildhall in 1400 and was a member of the Grocers company in the City of London. Sir Francis Knollys was fifth in decent from him. Francis Knollys's wife was a grand-daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn and thus made her 1st cousin to Queen Elizabeth I. Francis himself became one of the Queen's most intimate councillors and was Treasurer of the Royal Household from 1572-1596. He was a staunch Protestant and was sent by Elizabeth to attend Mary, Queen of Scots in her captivity. He became great friends with Mary but always remained loyal to his Queen. He proved to be a trusted and loyal servant to his King and Queen, although he did spend some time in Germany during the reign of Mary due to his conflict over the church. His wife, as a relative of Queen Elizabeth always remained close to Royal Court. He died in 1596 and their magnificent Elizabethan tomb can also be seen in Rotherfield Greys Church, which later became the resting place for future generations of the Knollys family.
Grey's abbey was situated in Co. Down, the Ards Peninsula, seven miles from Newtownards, at the confluence of a small river and the Strangford Lough in Ulidia. The Latin name of the abbey is Iugum Dei, which means ‘Yoke of God’ and which later became the deanery of Newtownards.
Some parish churches in Britain:
