Edward Norreys

Sir Edward Norreys (or Norris) (died 1603) was a 16th-century Governor of Ostend and English Member of Parliament.

Life

Norreys was the third son of Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norreys and his wife, Lady Margery Williams, then of Wytham in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). He was elected as Member of Parliament for Abingdon in the Parliaments of 1584–1585 and 1588–1589. Like his more famous brother, Sir John Norreys, Edward became a distinguished soldier, fighting in the Netherlands. He was knighted by the Earl of Leicester in 1586 and was appointed Governor of Ostend in 1590. In February the following year he raided the Spanish fort at Blankenberge and destroyed it, returning to Ostend with little loss.[1]

In England, Sir Edward lived on a small estate at Englefield in Berkshire. Dudley Carleton was his secretary.

Edward was relieved of his post as Governor of Ostend by the Queen. She sent him home as all of his brothers had died as soldiers and Elizabeth wanted her friend, and his mother, Margery to have one of her sons by her. Margery died soon afterwards in 1599 and the Queen wrote off £2,000 of their debt.[2]

Sir Edward married Elizabeth Norreys in 1600, but the cousinly union did not produce any children. He died in October 1603. Thomas Edmondes wrote that Norreys died after a quarrel with his wife left his mind unbalanced. She subsequently married the Scottish courtier Sir Thomas Erskine.[3]

References
  1. Knight, Charles Raleigh: Historical records of The Buffs, East Kent Regiment (3rd Foot) formerly designated the Holland Regiment and Prince George of Denmark's Regiment. Vol I. London, Gale & Polden, 1905, p. 11
  2. Doran, Susan (23 September 2004), "Norris [Norreys], Henry, first Baron Norris (c. 1525–1601), courtier and diplomat", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20272, ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8, retrieved 19 June 2023
  3. Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 3 (London, 1838), p. 55
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