Family Tree Welborn » Francis ·ÄúThe Vicar of Hell·Äô BRYAN I (1517-1550)

Persoonlijke gegevens Francis ·ÄúThe Vicar of Hell·Äô BRYAN I 

• Hij is geboren in het jaar 1517 in Cheddington, Buckinghamshire, England.Bronnen 2, 9

  Let op: Getrouwd (1 juni 1507) voordat geboren (??-??-1517).

  Let op: Leeftijd bij trouwen (1 juni 1507) lag beneden de 16 jaar (0).

  Let op: Was jonger dan 16 jaar (3) toen kind (Edward Bryan) werd geboren (??-??-1520).

• Alternatief: Hij is geboren in het jaar 1490 in Cheddington, Buckinghamshire, England.Bronnen 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13
• Hij is gedoopt in Buckinghamshire, England.Bron 10
• Beroepen:
• op 28 januari 1547 .Bron 10

  Henry VIII died and Francis was assigned the chief place as "Master of the Henchmen" at the funeral. King Henry fondly referred to Francis as his "one-eyed Vicar of Hell" - referring to his loyalty

• in het jaar 1520 .Bron 10

  Attended Henry VIII at the "Field of the Cloth of Gold" - a 4-week summit peace meeting with King Francis I of France held at Guines near Calais.

• in het jaar 1516 .Bron 10

  Became "Cup Bearer" for King Henry VIII

• in het jaar 1513 .Bron 10

  Official appointment as Captain of the Margaret Bonaventure, a ship in the retinue of Sir Thomas Howard

• in het jaar 1539 .Bron 10

  Sent on a mission by Henry III to Calais, France, to escort Anne of Cleves to England where she became the 4th of Henry's 6 wives.

• in het jaar 1528 .Bron 10

  Sent by Henry VIII to Rome to obtain papal sanction for his divorce from his 1st wife Catherine of Aragon. Mission failed because her nephew was Charles V, leader of the Holy Roman Empire who controlled Pope Clement VII

• Opleidingen:
• , England.Bron 10

  Educated at Oxford

• , England.Bron 10

  Educated at

• Hij is overleden op 2 februari 1550 in Clonmel, Ireland, hij was toen 33 jaar oud.Bronnen 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

  Let op: Was 9 maanden voor de geboorte (1 juni 1565) van kind (Edward John Bryan) al overleden (2 februari 1550).

  Let op: Was 9 maanden voor de geboorte (1 juni 1565) van kind (Edward Bryan) al overleden (2 februari 1550).

• Hij is begraven in Waterford, Ireland.Bron 10
• Een kind van Thomas II BRYAN en Margaret (BOURCHIER) Bryan (Plantagenet)
• Deze gegevens zijn voor het laatst bijgewerkt op 21 maart 2020.

Gezin van Francis ·ÄúThe Vicar of Hell·Äô BRYAN I

(1) Hij is getrouwd met ??? Joan FITZGERALD (Bryan).

Marriage
Place: Chidington, Bucks, England
Marriage
Date: 1548
Place: Buckinghamshire, England
Marriage
Date: 1548
Place: Buckinghamshire, England,
Marriage
Date: 1548
Place: Buckinghamshire, England,
Marriage
Date: 01 Jun 1507
Place: England
Marriage
Date: 1548
Place: Chidington, Buckinghamshire, England
Marriage
Date: 1548
Place: , Buckinghamshire, , England
Marriage
Date: 1540
Place: , Clare, , Ireland, ,, ,

Marriage
Date: Bef. 28 Aug 1548
Place: Chidington, Bucks, England
Marriage
Date: 1540
Place: Clare, Ireland

Zij zijn getrouwd in het jaar 1548 te Buckinghamshire, England, hij was toen 31 jaar oud.Bronnen 7, 9

Kind(eren):

1. Francis BRYAN  1549-1640 

• Het echtpaar heeft gemeenschappelijke voorouders.



(2) Hij is getrouwd met Jean Joan Bryan Fitzgerald.

Zij zijn getrouwd in het jaar 1548 te Buckinghamshire, England, hij was toen 31 jaar oud.




(3) Hij is getrouwd met Phillipa Spice (Montgomery).


Marriage
Date: 1517
Marriage
Place: Ireland
Marriage
Date: Abt. 1513
Place: England
Marriage
Date: Abt. 1521
Marriage
Date: 01 Jun 1517
Place: England
Marriage
Date: 1517,,,

Zij zijn getrouwd op 1 juni 1507 te England.




Kind(eren):

1. Edward Bryan  1520-????
2. Francis aa Bryan  1549-1640
3. Edward Bryan  1565-1630




(4) Hij is getrouwd met unknown mistress of Francis I Bryan.

Zij zijn getrouwd




Kind(eren):

1. Edward John Bryan  1565-1630




Notities over Francis ·ÄúThe Vicar of Hell·Äô BRYAN I



Sir Francis Bryan I "The Vicar of Hell", Lord Chief Justice of Ireland is your 12th great grandfather.
You ¬â€  ·Üí Geneva Allene Welborn
your mother ·Üí Henry Loyd Smith, Sr.
her father ·Üí Edith Lucinda Smith
his mother ·Üí William M LEE, Will
her father ·Üí Britton Lee
his father ·Üí William Samuel Lee
his father ·Üí Lemuel Samuel Lee
his father ·Üí Edward Lee, Sr.
his father ·Üí Mary Bryan
his mother ·Üí William Bryan, I
her father ·Üí John Smith Bryan
his father ·Üí William Bryan
his father ·Üí Sir Francis Bryan, II, Justicar of Ireland
his father ·Üí Sir Francis Bryan I "The Vicar of Hell", Lord Chief Justice of Ireland
his father

"Joan, first married to James, Earl of Ormond ; secondly to Sir Francis Bryan, Knight-Marshal and L. J. of Ireland, who dying at Clonmell 2 February, 1549, without issue she married lastly Gerald, Earl of Defmond, and dying in 1564, was buried at Aflteaton."
The Peerage of Ireland: a Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of That Kingdom, Vol. 1, 1789
Subject: Nobility, Heraldry
Description: Book digitized by Google from the library of Harvard University and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb
Publication date: 1789
Publisher: Dublin, J. Moore
Author: Lodge, John, 1692-1774, Archdall, Mervyn, 1723-1791, Pre-1801 Imprint Collection (Library of Congress) DLC
Sponsor: Google
Tags: americana
Notes: Another issue of this work appeared in 1789 with the imprint: London: printed for G. G. J. and J. Robinson. - English Short Title Catalog, ESTCN20017. - Includes indicies. - Last leaf of each volume bears corrections and additions; penultimate leaf of vol. 7 bears directions to the binder. - Reproduction of original from the Huntington Library. - With a list of subscribers in vol. 1,
Contributor: Harvard University

Sir Francis Bryan I "The Vicar of Hell", Lord Chief Justice of Ireland
Francis Bryan, I
Gender: Male
Birth: 1490
Cheddington, Buckinghamshire, England
Death: February 2, 1550 (59) Clonmel, Tiperary, Munster, Ireland (Suspected to have been poisoned by second wife, Lady Joan Fitzgerald)
Place of Burial: Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, Clonmel, South Tipperary, Tipperary, Ireland
Immediate Family:
Son of Sir Thomas Bryan, II, Kt. and Margaret Bryan, Lady Bryan
Husband of Phillipa Bryan and Lady Joan Fitzgerald, Duchess of Ormond
Father of Edward John Bryan; Sir Francis Bryan, II, Justicar of Ireland and Elizabeth Bryan
Brother of Elizabeth Bryan, Lady Carew; John Bryan; Thomas Bryan and Margaret Guildford

Added by: Marilyn V. Horn on June 4, 2007
Managed by: Ann Margrethe Nilsen (Carlsen) and 71 others
Curated by: Ric Dickinson

https://www.geni.com/people/Sir-Francis-Bryan-I-The-Vicar-of-Hell-Lord-Chief-Justice-of-Ireland/6000000000794772304

http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/sirfrancisbryan.htm

Family and Education
b. by 1492, 1st surv. s. of Sir Thomas Bryan of Ashridge, Herts. by Margaret, da. of Sir Humphrey Bourchier (d.1471), s. and h. of John, 1st Lord Berners. educ. ? Oxf. m. (1) by Mar. 1522, Philippa, da. and h. of Humphrey Spice of Black Notley, Essex, wid. of John Fortescue of Ponsbourne, Herts.; (2) by 29 Aug. 1548, Joan, da. of James Fitzmaurice (Fitzgerald), 10th Earl of Desmond, wid. of James Butler (d.1546), 9th Earl of Ormond; at least 1s. illegit. suc. fa. by 31 Jan. 1518. Kntd. 2 July 1522, banneret Sept. 1547.3
Offices Held Capt. Margaret Bonaventure 1513; master of the toils 1518-48; constable, Hertford castle, Herts. 1518-34, Harlech castle, Merion. 1521-d., Wallingford castle, Berks. 1536, jt. constable, Warwick castle, Warws. 1528-d.; cipherer, the Household 1520; gent. privy chamber by 1521; esquire of the body by 1522; commr. subsidy, Herts. 1523, Essex 1524, survey lands, Calais 1532, tenths of spiritualities, Beds. 1535, benevolence 1544/45, musters 1546; forester, Enfield Chase, Mdx. 1524-6; v.-adm. 1525, 1543; j.p. Beds. 1525-d., Bucks. 1525-42, Herts. 1526; master of the henchmen 1526-49; custos rot. Bucks. 1528; keeper, Richmond Park, Surr. 1529-46, jt. (with Francis Bulstrode) Brogborough Park, Beds., 1547; ambassador to France and Rome Aug. 1528-Oct. 1529, France Oct. 1530-Dec. 1531, Nov. 1535, Apr.-Aug. 1538, to the Empire Oct.-Dec. 1543; steward, the Chiltern hundreds 1536, Ewelme and Nuneham Courtnay, Oxon. 1538; chief butler, Eng. 1537-d.; recorder, Bedford c.1548; marshal, Ireland Nov. 1548, ld. justice Dec. 1549.4

Biography
Francis Bryan was born into a family well-endowed by the achievements of his grandfather. Sir Thomas Bryan, chief justice of common pleas, died in 1500 holding lands in Buckinghamshire and seven other counties stretching from Kent to Yorkshire. Sir Thomas Bryan, the judgeမs son, made his career at court where he was a knight of the body to Henry VII and Henry VIII and vice-chamberlain to Queen Catherine of Aragon: he married into a cultured baronial family prominent at court and his widow, who was something of a blue-stocking, was to become governess to the princesses Mary and Elizabeth. Francis Bryan may have been the second son of this marriage: he had a brother Thomas who died before 1508 and was buried in Ashridge chapel. There is no reference to either brother in their grandfatherမs will of 1496, but Francis was almost certainly born before that date: the abbot of Woburn was to describe him in 1538 as ဘnow growing in ageမ. As a boy he may have been placed in the household of Sir Thomas Parr (d.1517), whom in later life he was to call his special patron, and he is thought to have finished his education at Oxford. As the son of one courtier and the protégé of another, Bryan soon found his own place at court, where one of his sisters became the wife of Sir Henry Guildford and the other of Sir Nicholas Carew.5

The first glimpse of Bryan comes in 1513 when during the admiralty of his kinsman Sir Thomas Howard he held a command in the navy. Within two years he had established himself as a favourite with the King, who was of an age with him: a frequent sharer in the royal pastimes, his enthusiasm for the chase was rewarded by his appointment in 1518 as master of the toils, but in the years that followed he was given posts of greater responsibility. The extent of Bryanမs patrimony is not known, but between 1517 and 1523 the Kingမs favour brought him a number of stewardships and bailiwicks in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. In 1522 he obtained the wardship of Henry Fortescue, whose mother he had already married. Five years later he was assessed for the subsidy in the Household at £400 in lands and fees.6

Bryan·Äôs career overseas began inauspiciously. In 1518, while his uncle the 2nd Lord Berners journeyed to Spain, he visited the French court with several other young men, among them Nicholas Carew. They found such boon companions in France that on returning to England they ·Äòwere all French in eating, drinking and apparel·Äô. Their behaviour led to their dismissal from the court in May 1519 on the ground that ·Äòafter their appetite·Äô they ·Äògoverned the King·Äô. Carew was removed to Calais, but Bryan kept his post and was in Henry VIII·Äôs retinue in 1520, when he doubtless revelled in the Field of Cloth of Gold. His flair for languages commended him to Wolsey, who in 1521 employed him on a mission to Bruges and the Netherlands and thereafter increasingly on special assignments. In 1522 he served in the expedition against Brittany, and after the fall of Morlaix he received the accolade ·Äòfor hardiness and noble courage·Äô. He came to no harm in battle, but in the mock warfare of the court he was less fortunate, one of his eyes being put out by the ·Äòshivering·Äô of a spear.7

In the summer of 1528 Bryan went to Paris to confer with Francis I and to meet Cardinal Campeggio on his journey to England. Of this mission John Clerk, Wolsey·Äôs chaplain, reported a month later that Bryan had ·Äòright well done his part·Äô, especially in his attentions to Campeggio. Later in the autumn Bryan was appointed ambassador with Peter Vannes, the King·Äôs secretary, to travel by way of Paris to Rome to promote a peace between Francis I and the Emperor and to further the King·Äôs divorce. In the following January, when they were joined by Gardiner, Vannes informed Wolsey that Bryan was behaving prudently and was beloved by all. A cousin of Anne Boleyn through their common grandmother Elizabeth Tilney, Bryan was wholly in favour of the divorce: he called Anne ·Äòmy mistress that shall be·Äô and said that he would not write to her until he could relate what would please her most in the world. Although during the summer he was reporting pessimistically about the mission and asking to return home, he was not recalled until October.8

Bryan undertook special missions in France during 1530 and at the end of that year was appointed resident ambassador at the French court in place of John Welsborne. He remained there for the next 12 months and earned the King·Äôs approval for his ·Äòdexterity, diligence and good behaviour·Äô: his only shortcoming was his lack of Latin, and to make this good the King·Äôs almoner Edward Foxe was sent to join him. Although from 1532 more of Bryan·Äôs time was to be spent in England, he served on further missions to France between 1533 and 1538 with his kinsman the 3rd Duke of Norfolk or Stephen Gardiner and led his own embassy there in 1537.9

As a gentleman of the privy chamber Bryan was expected to be in attendance for alternate periods of six weeks, and when in England he was a central figure at court. His depositions as to certain remarks and actions by Catherine of Aragon were used against her in 1533. Cromwell thought him implicated in the misdeeds of Anne Boleyn and denounced him as ·Äòvicar of hell·Äô, but when he peremptorily called Bryan before him nothing was proved and in a rearrangement of offices a few days before the execution Bryan became chief gentleman of the privy chamber and bore the King·Äôs personal announcement of the event to Jane Seymour. In 1537 he attended the christening of Prince Edward and two years later the reception of Anne of Cleves, where he was noted for his rich apparel and a chain of great worth and strange fashion. Apart from the episode at the time of Anne Boleyn·Äôs fall his relations with Cromwell were evidently correct, if not friendly: even then Cromwell had spoken to the King on his behalf, and when he was abroad in 1537 and 1538 he thanked the minister for being good to him, as he learned from Sir John Russell and other friends.10

During his early married life Bryan may have been domiciled at the Fortescue manor of Faulkbourne, Essex, which was visited several times by the King. For a period from 1539 he lived at Woburn, Bedfordshire, after acquiring a lease of the site of the dissolved abbey there. His fees from court offices were supplemented by his many leases and stewardships in the home counties and the midlands. These brought him nominations to local commissions, especially in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, but although thrice put forward as sheriff, for Essex and Hertfordshire in 1522 and 1523 and for Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire in 1528, he was never pricked. In 1535 and 1537 he reported to Cromwell on matters of treason heard at the sessions at Brickhill, Bedfordshire, and in 1535 the bishop of Lincoln commended ·Äòthe good order·Äô Bryan had taken in Buckinghamshire ·Äòin redressing the heresies hitherto used in this woody country of Chiltern·Äô.11

Bryan was not one of the Members originally returned to the Parliament of 1529, but after the list of Members had been revised in the spring of 1532 Cromwell nominated him (in preference to Sir Robert Lee of Quarrendon) for Buckinghamshire, where a vacancy had existed since the translation of Sir Andrew Windsor to the Lords during the first session. It must have been either as Windsor·Äôs successor or, if he was passed over for the shire, as a borough Member that Bryan entered the Commons: he was there by the penultimate session, when his name appears on a list of Members thought to have had a particular connexion with the treasons bill then passing through Parliament, perhaps as belonging to a committee. He may have served again for the same constituency in the following Parliament, that of June 1536, when the King asked for the re-election of the previous Members, although his connexion with the doomed Queen perhaps told against him on that occasion: the statement that he sat for a borough in this Parliament rests on a misreading of the name of Sir Francis Bigod in a document compiled by the rebels of 1536.12

On the outbreak of that rebellion Bryan was joined with Sir John Russell and Sir William Parr in mustering the forces of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, and his signature appears with theirs and Sir William Fitzwilliam I·Äôs on reports to the King. In the autumn of 1538 he fell ill and lost favour with the King when he drank too much and committed other ·Äòfollies·Äô after losing money in Provence, but he recovered both health and favour in time to be elected a knight for Buckinghamshire to the Parliament of the following year. After the dissolution of this Parliament he was sent a letter about the collection of the subsidy he had helped to grant. He reappeared in the following Parliament, that of 1542, this time taking the senior place for the shire: the honour was perhaps a measure of the continuing confidence placed in him by a King who had recently rejected another cousin of his, Catherine Howard. In 1543, on the appointment of John Dudley, Lord Lisle as admiral, Bryan was made vice-admiral because of ·Äòhis experience in sea matters·Äô. An embassy to the Emperor in October 1543 was followed in the next year by service in the rearguard of the army in France with a personal muster of some 200 billmen and archers: the despatches sent to England in June and July bore his signature. These services were rewarded by a grant of the site and demesne lands of the late priory of Taunton, Somerset. In the summer of 1545 he reviewed the defence of the south-west coast in company with Russell, who suggested Bryan to the Council as the most suitable man to deputize for him. It was with Russell·Äôs son Francis that in the autumn Bryan was elected for Buckinghamshire in the last Parliament of the reign.13

With Henry VIIIမs death Bryanမs own career entered its last phase: no longer a court favourite (although his mother was ဘlady mistressမ of the new Kingမs household) he remained a considerable figure, not least by reason of his landed wealth which was assessed for subsidy at £888 a year. In May 1547 he was granted the keepership of six royal parks in Bedfordshire, to be held for life, in each case with one other grantee who probably acted as his deputy. For his part in the Protector Somersetမs expedition against Scotland in September Bryan was created a knight banneret, and in the following year he was granted the bishopမs palace at Norwich and given continued tenancy of extensive parts of the Blackfriars in London. He was not, however, elected to the first Edwardian Parliament, the knighthoods for Buckinghamshire going to Francis Russell and Anthony Lee, with each of whom Bryan had sat earlier.14

Bryan·Äôs marriage to the widow of the 9th Earl of Ormond was probably a political match designed to prevent her marriage to the Desmond heir, a union which in the event it merely postponed. In November 1548 Bryan arrived in Dublin to take up the office of lord marshal: a year later he was made lord justice pending the arrival of a new lord deputy to replace (Sir) Edward Bellingham, who had resented his appointment, but on 2 Feb. 1550 he died suddenly at Clonmel from an unknown cause. If he made a will it has not been found and nothing is known of the disposition of his lands, most of which appear to have been held on lease. His son, who is mentioned as carrying a despatch to London in 1548 from the French admiral, was illegitimate.15

The course of Bryan·Äôs career and the witness of his contemporaries show him as a man of character and ability. His cultural interests were fostered especially by his uncle Lord Berners, whose many translations included, at Bryan·Äôs request, The golden boke of Marcus Aurelius. In 1548 Bryan himself translated from the French Antonio de Guevara·Äôs collection of stories and sayings under the title of A dispraise of the life of a courtier and a commendation of the life of the Labouryng man: in dedicating the work to William Parr, Marquess of Northampton, Bryan explained that he had undertaken it after seeing the marquess reading the book. Intimate with the circle of Sir Thomas Wyatt I and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Bryan had a reputation as a poet of almost the same calibre as his friends. He was also a man who, according to the abbot of Woburn, dared to speak his mind to the King; on foreign missions he could on occasion be equally outspoken, if not arrogant. Roger Ascham, who presumably knew him well, described his youthful personality as being maintained even when ·Äòspent by years·Äô, and one of Wyatt·Äôs satires addressed him as Bryan ... who knows how great a grace In writing is to counsel man the right. To thee ... that trots still up and down And never rests, but running day and night From realm to realm, from city, street and town, Why dost thou wear thy body to the bones?16

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558 Author: M. K. Dale

Notes
1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament; LP Hen. VIII, vii. 56 citing SP1/82, f. 59; 1522(ii) citing SP1/87, f. 106v.
2. E159/319, brev. ret. Mich. r. [1-2].
3. Date of birth estimated from first reference. DNB; PCC 4 Ayloffe; CP, ii. 153; Emden, Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxf. 1501-40, pp. 654-5; Essex Feet of Fines, iv. ed. Reaney and Fitch, 253; LP Hen. VIII, iii; Corresp. Politique de Odet de Selve 1546-9, ed. Lefevre-Pontalis, 466. 4.LP Hen. VIII, i-xxi; CPR, 1547-8, pp. 80, 339; 1549-51, p. 179; Somerville, Duchy, i. 561, 604, 612; The Gen. xxx. 19; Ordinances and Regulations, R. Household (Soc. Antiq. 1790), 168-9; LC2/2, ff. 37, 41; E. Breese, Kalendars of Gwynedd, 133; W. C. Richardson, Tudor Chamber Admin. 486; PRO Lists, ii. 15; information from Bedford town clerk; CSP Ire. 1509-73, passim. 5. Foss, Judges, v. 40-41; CFR, 1485-1509, no. 690; PCC 13 Moone, 4 Ayloffe; LP Hen. VIII, i-ii; Cat. Anct. Deeds, iii. D. 1094; Emden, 654-5. 6.LP Hen. VIII, i-iv; Privy Purse Expenses, Hen. VIII, ed. Nicolas, passim. 7.LP Hen. VIII, ii-iv; Hall, Chron. 597-8, 613, 643, 660, 708, 772; CSP Ven. 1520-6, nos. 306, 308. 8.LP Hen. VIII, iv. 9. Ibid. iv-vi, ix, xii, xiii; Hall, 797; CSP Span. 1529-42, passim. 10.LP Hen. VIII, v-x, xii, xiii; Hall, 832; CPR, 1548-9, p. 100; CSP Span. 1536-8, p. 129. 11.LP Hen. VIII, iii, iv, vi, xiv; Archaeologia, xxvi. 450-3; Trans. Essex Arch. Soc. n.s. xv. 51-53; G. Scott Thomson, Two Cents. of Fam. Hist. 181-2. 12.LP Hen. VIII, iv-xii; SP1/82, f. 59, 87, f. 106v; Elton, Policy and Police, 126 n. 3, 165. 13.LP Hen. VIII, iii, viii, x-xii, xx; M. H. and R. Dodds, Pilgrimage of Grace, i. 358; Elton, Tudor Constitution, 291-3; VCH Bucks. iii. 20; E. Viney, Sheriffs, Bucks. 101-2. 14.CPR, 1548-9, pp. 67, 100; 1553-4, p. 212; E179/69/51. 15.CPR, 1548-9, p. 67; CSP Ire. 1509-73, passim; Corresp. Politique, 466. 16. J. K. McConica, Eng. Humanists and Reformation Pol. 254-5; LP Hen. VIII, vi, xii, xiii; CSP Span. 1538-42, pp. 7-9; Sotheby·Äôs Cat. 26 June 1967, nos. 573, 588; APC, iii. 279.

Sir Francis Bryan born about 1490, died 2 February 1550.
==================

SIR FRANCIS BRYAN* (d. 1550), poet, translator, soldier, and diplomatist, was the son of Sir Thomas Bryan, and grandson of Sir Thomas Bryan, chief justice of the common pleas from 1471 till his death in 1500. His father was knighted by Henry VII in 1497, was 'knight of the body' at the opening of Henry VIII's reign, and repeatedly served on the commission of the peace for Buckinghamshire, where the family property was settled. Francis Bryan's mother was Margaret, daughter of Humphry Bourchier, and sister of John Bourchier, lord Berners. Lady Bryan was for a time governess to the princesses Mary and Elizabeth, and died in 1551-2. Anne Boleyn is stated to have been his cousin; but we have been unable to discover the exact genealogical connection.1

Bryan's prominence in politics was mainly due to the lasting affection which Henry VIII conceived for him in early youth. Bryan is believed to have been educated at Oxford. In April 1513 he received his first official appointment, that of captain of the Margaret Bonaventure, a ship in the retinue of Sir Thomas Howard, afterwards duke of Norfolk, the newly appointed admiral. In the court entertainments held at Richmond (19 April 1515), at Eltham (Christmas 1516), and at Greenwich (7 July 1517), Bryan took a prominent part, and received very rich apparel from the king on each occasion. He became the king's cupbearer in 1516. In December 1518 he was acting as 'master of the Toyles,' and storing Greenwich Park with 'quick deer.' In 1520 he attended Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and took part in the jousts2 there under the captaincy of the Earl of Devonshire; and on 29 Sept. he received a pension from the king of 33l. 6s. 8d.3 as a servant and 'a cipherer'.4

He served in Brittany under the Earl of Surrey in July 1522, and was knighted by his commander for his hardiness and courage. He was one of the sheriffs of Essex and Hertfordshire in 1523, and accompanied Wolsey on his visit to Calais (9 July 1527), where he remained some days. A year later he escorted the papal envoy Campeggio, on his way to England from Orleans, to Calais. In November 1528 Bryan was sent to Rome by Henry to obtain the papal sanction for his divorce from Catherine. Bryan was especially instructed to induce the pope [Clement VII] to withdraw from his friendship with the emperor, and to discover the instructions originally given to Campeggio. Much to his disappointment, Bryan failed in his mission. Soon after leaving England he had written to his cousin, Anne Boleyn, encouraging her to look forward to the immediate removal of all obstacles between her and the title of queen; but he subsequently (5 May 1529) had to confess to the king that nothing would serve to gain the pope's consent to Catherine's divorce.

On 10 May 1533 Bryan, with Sir Thomas Gage and Lord Vaux, presented to Queen Catherine at Ampthill the summons bidding her appear before Archbishop Cranmer's court at Dunstable, to show cause why the divorce should not proceed; but the queen, who felt the presence of Bryan, a relative of Anne Boleyn, a new insult, informed the messengers that she did not acknowledge the court's competency. In 1531 Bryan was sent as ambassador to France, whither he was soon followed by Sir Nicholas Carew, his sister's husband, and at the time as zealous a champion of Anne Boleyn as himself. Between May and August 1533 Bryan was travelling with the Duke of Norfolk in France seeking to prevent an alliance or even a meeting between the pope [Clement VII] and the king of France, and he was engaged in similar negotiations, together with Bishop Gardiner and Sir John Wallop, in December 1535.

Bryan during all these years remained the king's permanent favourite. Throughout the reign almost all Henry's amusements were shared in by him, and he acquired on that account an unrivalled reputation for dissoluteness.4 Undoubtedly Bryan retained his place in the king's affection by very questionable means. When the influence of the Boleyn family was declining, Bryan entered upon a convenient quarrel with Lord Rochford, which enabled the king to break with his brother-in-law by openly declaring himself on his favourite's side. In May 1536 Anne Boleyn was charged with the offences for which she suffered on the scaffold, and Cromwell ·Äî no doubt without the knowledge of Henry VIII ·Äî at first suspected Bryan of being one of the queen's accomplices. When the charges were being formulated, Cromwell, who had no liking for Bryan, hastily sent for him from the country; but no further steps were taken against him, and there is no ground for believing the suspicion to have been well founded.

It is clear that Bryan was very anxious to secure the queen's conviction (Froude's History, ii. 385, quotes from Cotton MS. E. ix. the deposition of the abbot of Woburn relating to an important conversation with Bryan on this subject. [link]), and he had the baseness to undertake the office of conveying to Jane Seymour, Anne's successor, the news of Anne Boleyn's condemnation (15 May 1536). A pension vacated by one of Anne's accomplices was promptly bestowed on Bryan by the king. Cromwell, in writing of this circumstance to Gardiner and Wallop, calls Bryan 'the vicar of hell' ·Äî a popular nickname which his cruel indifference to the fate of his cousin Anne Boleyn proves that he well deserved. Bryan conspicuously aided the government in repressing the rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace in October of the same year. On 15 Oct. 1537 he played a prominent part at the christening of Prince Edward. In December 1539 he was one of the king's household deputed to meet Anne of Cleves near Calais on her way to England, and Hall, the chronicler, notes the splendour of his dress on the occasion. At the funeral of Henry VIII, on 14 Feb. 1546-7, Bryan was assigned a chief place as 'master of the henchmen.'

As a member of the privy council Bryan took part in public affairs until the close of Henry VIII's reign, and at the beginning of Edward VI's reign he was given a large share of the lands which the dissolution of the monasteries had handed over to the crown. He fought, as a captain of light horse, under the Duke of Somerset at Musselburgh 27 Sept. 1547, when he was created a knight banneret.

Soon afterwards Bryan rendered the government a very curious service. In 1548 James Butler, ninth earl of Ormonde, an Irish noble, whose powerful influence was obnoxious to the government at Dublin, although there were no valid grounds for suspecting his loyalty, died in London of poison under very suspicious circumstances. Thereupon his widow, Joan, daughter and heiress of James FitzJohn Fitzgerald, eleventh earl of Desmond, sought to marry her relative, Gerald Fitzgerald, the heir of the fifteenth earl of Desmond. To prevent this marriage, which would have united the leading representatives of the two chief Irish noble houses, Bryan was induced to prefer a suit to the lady himself. He had previously married (after 1517) Philippa, a rich heiress and widow of Sir John Fortescue; but Bryan's first wife died some time after 1534, and in 1548 he married the widowed countess. He was immediately nominated lord marshal of Ireland, and arrived in Dublin with his wife in November 1548. Sir Edward Bellingham, the haughty lord-deputy, resented his appointment, but Bryan's marriage gave him the command of the Butler influence, and Bellingham was unable to injure him. On Bellingham's departure from Ireland on 16 Dec. 1549 the Irish council recognised Bryan's powerful position by electing him lord-justice, pending the arrival of a new deputy.

But on 2 Feb. 1549-50 Bryan died suddenly at Clonmel. A postmortem examination was ordered to determine the cause of death, but the doctors came to no more satisfactory conclusion than that he died of grief, a conclusion unsupported by external evidence. Sir John Allen, the Irish chancellor, who was present at Bryan's death and at the autopsy, states that ' he departed very godly.' Roger Ascham, in the ' Scholemaster,' 1568, writes: 'Some men being never so old and spent by yeares will still be full of youthfull conditions, as was Syr F. Bryan, and evermore wold have bene.'

Bryan, like many other of Henry VIII's courtiers, interested himself deeply in literature. He is probably the 'Brian' to whom Erasmus frequently refers in his correspondence as one of his admirers in England, and he was the intimate friend of the poets Wyatt and Surrey. Like them he wrote poetry, but although Bryan had once a high reputation as a poet, his poetry is now unfortunately undiscoverable. He was an anonymous contributor to the 'Songes and Sonettes written by the ryght honorable Lorde Henry Howard, late earl of Surrey, and others,' 1557, usually known as 'Tottel's Miscellany ;' but it is impossible to distinguish his work there from that of the other anonymous writers. Of the high esteem in which his poetry was held in the sixteenth century there is abundant evidence. Wyatt dedicated a bitter satire to Bryan on the contemptible practices of court life; and while rallying him on his restless activity in politics, speaks of his fine literary taste. Drayton, in his 'Heroicall Epistle' of the Earl of Surrey to the Lady Geraldine (first published in 1629, but written much earlier), refers to

sacred Bryan (whom the Muses kept,
And in his cradle rockt him while he slept);
the poet represents Bryan as honouring Surrey 'in sacred verses most divinely pen'd.' Similarly Drayton, in his 'Letter ... of Poets and Poesie,' is as enthusiastic in praise of Bryan as of Surrey and Wyatt, and distinctly states that he was a chief author

Of those small poems which the title beare
Of songs and Bonnets·Äî
a reference to 'Tottel's Miscellany.' Francis Meres, in his 'Palladis Tamia,' 1598, describes Bryan with many other famous poets as 'the most passionate among us to bewail and bemoan the complexities of love.'

Bryan was also a student of foreign languages and literature. It is clear that his uncle, John Bourchier, lord Berners, consulted him about much of his literary work. It was at Bryan's desire that Lord Berners undertook his translation of Guevara's 'Marcus Aurelius' (1534). Guevara, the founder of Euphuism, was apparently Bryan's favourite author. Not content with suggesting and editing his uncle's translation of one of the famous Spanish writer's books, he himself translated another through the French. It first appeared anonymously in 1548 under the title of 'A Dispraise of the Life of a Courtier and a Commendacion of the Life of a Labouryng Man,' London (by Berthelet), August 1548. In this form the work is of excessive rarity. In 1575 'T. Tymme, minister,' reprinted the book as 'A Looking-glasse for the Courte, composed in the Castilion tongue by the Lorde Anthony of Guevarra, Bishop of Mondonent and Cronicler to the Emperor Charles, and out of Castilion drawne into Frenche by Anthony A laygre, and out of the Frenche tongue into Englishe by Sir Frauncis Briant, Knight, one of the priuye chamber in the raygn of K. Henry the eyght.' The editor added a poem in praise of the English translator. A great many of Bryan's letters are printed in Brewer and Gairdner's 'Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII.' Three interesting manuscript letters are in the British Museum (Cotton MS. Vitell. B. x. 73, 77 ; and Harl. MS. 296, f. 18).

(Sidney L. Lee)

[Anniina Jokinen Notes:
* Variously Bryan, Brian, Bryant, or Briant, spelling of names being fluid in the Renaissance.
1. Terry Fuller, in the preface to The Spear and the Spindle: Ancestors of Sir Francis Bryan (Heritage Books, 1993), states that Bryan's mother was half-sister to Anne Boleyn's mother.
2. It was in a jousting accident in 1526, that Bryan lost an eye ·Äî he used an eyepatch for the rest of his life. See Weir, 267.
3. 33l. 6s. 8d. in 1519 was roughly equivalent in purchasing power to £60,000 in 2010.
Source: Measuring Worth.
4. There is ambiguity what 'a cipherer' meant·Äîin his biographical entry on Sir Nicholas Carew, James Gairdner states 'cypherers', "appears to mean cupbearers", but only a few decades later the term meant someone proficient in cryptography, who could decypher cyphers, coded messages.
5. Le Grand, in his Histoire du Divorce, writes of him: "Neveu de Norfolc, et cousin germain d'Anne Boulen. On crût qu'avec cet apuy, il ne manqueroit pas de s'élever, et on le considera pendant quelque tems comme un favory naissant, mais il ne put se soutenir. Il aimoit boire et etoit fort sujet a mentir." Translated, it says: "Nephew of Norfolk, first cousin of Anne Boleyn. One would think that with these things to recommend him, he wouldn't lack for advancement, and for some time he was considered the rising favorite, but he could not maintain that position. He loved to drink and had a talent for lying." -- my translation. French quote from Sander's Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism, London, Burns & Oates, 1877, p24.]

¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ Source:

¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ Lee, Sidney L. "Sir Francis Bryan."
¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. VII. Leslie Stephen, ed.
¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ ¬â€ New York: Macmillan and Co., 1886. 150-152.

http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/sirfrancisbryan.htm
========================

Sir Francis Bryan (about 1490 ·Äì 2 February 1550[1]) was an English courtier and diplomat during the reign of Henry VIII. He was Chief Gentleman of the Privy chamber and Lord Justice of Ireland.[1] Unlike many of his contemporaries, Bryan always retained Henry's favour, achieving this by altering his opinions to conform to the king's.[2] His rakish sexual life and his lack of principle at the time of his cousin Anne Boleyn's downfall led to his earning the nickname the Vicar of Hell.[3]

About 1490, Francis Bryan was born in Buckinghamshire, England.[1] He was the son of Sir Thomas Bryan and Margaret Bourchier, and came to court at a young age.[2] There he became, along with his brother-in-law Nicholas Carew, one of "the King's minions", a group of young gentlemen of the Privy chamber who held much sway with Henry and were known for their intemperate behaviour.[4] In 1519, Bryan and Sir Edward Neville disgraced themselves in the eyes of the minions' detractors when, during a diplomatic mission to Paris, they threw eggs and stones at the common people.[5]
Under the influence of Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Francis was removed from the Privy chamber in 1519,[5] and again in 1526 as part of the Eltham Ordinances.[6] Shortly after this he lost an eye in a tournament at Greenwich, and had to wear an eyepatch from then on.[7] Then in 1528, when Sir William Carey's death left a vacancy in the Privy chamber, Bryan returned to fill his place, possibly through the good offices of his cousin Anne Boleyn. From then on he was highly influential, becoming one of the king's most favoured companions,[8] and a leading member of the faction who wished to break Wolsey's grip on power.[9] He also sat in the Parliament of England as Member for Buckinghamshire probably in 1529 and certainly in the parliaments of 1539, 1542 and 1545.[10]
Bryan was a half cousin of both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard as well as half second cousin to Jane Seymour. He promoted the family of the latter, which was less well connected than the Boleyns and tried to find her a husband after her family had grown notorious because of the affair between Catherine Fillol and Jane's father.[11]
He remained a friend of the King, with Henry even ending his pursuit of a lady when he heard that Bryan was seriously interested in her. 'The Vicar of Hell', as Francis was known, was also a close ally of Nicholas Carew, the husband of Francis' sister, Elizabeth Carew. There are rumours that Elizabeth became Henry's mistress in 1514, when she would have been only around thirteen.
However, by 1536 Bryan was working with Thomas Cromwell to bring about his cousin's downfall as queen.[12] It was at this time that Cromwell coined Sir Francis' unfortunate sobriquet in a letter to the Bishop of Winchester, referring to his abandonment of Anne.[3] After Boleyn's death, Bryan became chief Gentleman of the Privy chamber,[13] but was removed from this post in 1539 when Cromwell turned against his former allies.[14] Sir Francis returned to favour following Cromwell's demise, becoming vice-admiral of the fleet, and then Lord Justice of Ireland during the reign of Edward VI. He died suddenly at Clonmel, Ireland in 1550.[1]

Bryan was a distinguished diplomat, soldier, sailor, cipher, man of letters, and poet. However, he had a lifelong reputation as a rake and a libertine, and was a rumoured accomplice in the king's extramarital affairs. He was a trimmer, changing his views to suit Henry's current policy, but was also one of the few men who dared speak his mind to the king.[2][8]
No portrait of Sir Francis survives.[2]

In August 1548, he married Lady Joan Fitzgerald, the widow of James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond, and the mother of seven sons. After Bryan's death, Lady Joan married in 1551 her third husband, Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, who was many years her junior. She and Gerald had long been in love.

Bryan is a character in Hilary Mantel's novel Wolf Hall.

Bryan is played by actor Alan van Sprang in Season 3 of the television series, The Tudors.[15] In the series, he arrives at Court in 1536 and wears an eye patch, much later than the actual Sir Francis, and so his family ties to the Boleyns are not mentioned, nor are his successes afterwards.
In the 2003 two-part drama Henry VIII starring Ray Winstone, a character named 'Sir Francis' who sports an eye patch and is a former soldier friend of Henry's, makes several appearances.

Notes
1Tudor Place website.
2Weir, Henry VIII, p. 183.
3Weir, Henry VIII, p. 379.
4Weir, Henry VIII, p. 209.
5Weir, Henry VIII, p. 217.
6 Weir, Henry VIII, p. 259.
7 Weir, Henry VIII, p. 262.
8 Weir, Henry VIII, p. 286·Äì7.
9 Weir, Henry VIII, p. 289.
10 [1] Article in History of Parliament Online.
11 Norton, Elizabeth (2009). p.¬â€ 41.
12 Weir, Henry VIII, p. 374.
13 Weir, Henry VIII, p. 382.
14 Weir, Henry VIII, p. 417.
15 http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0888022/

References
·Ä¢Weir, Alison (2002). Henry VIII: King and Court. Pimlico. ISBN¬â€ 0-7126-6451-3.
·Ä¢Tudor Place website[unreliable source], accessed 18 November 2007.
·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî·Äî

Peerage of Ireland records show that Sir Francis Bryan and Joan Fitzgerald had no issue/children with each other and Sir Francis did not live but a years after marrying Joan, a marriage at the behest of Sir Francis' friend King Henry VIII. Sir Francis Bryan married Joan Fitzgerald by 29 Aug 1548 and died suddenly on 2 February 1550

From https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bryan-167#Disputed_Descendants
At his death, Sir Francis and his wife, Lady Joan Fitzgerald, had a son, Francis, but historians do not have evidence he lived beyond early childhood

Evidence supporting his existence
From https://www.geni.com/discussions/181631?msg=1218495
Here is the quote from archive.org:
Kerry Ross Boren 3 years ago Sir Francis Bryan was not from Dorset; he was born and lived on his family estate at Cheddington, Buckinghamshire. He did indeed have a son by his wife, Lady Joan Fitzgerald. Sir Francis spoke of this child on his death bed to Sir John Allen, the Irish chancellor, who was present at Bryan's death and at the autopsy of his body. It is a matter of official record. There are many naysayers about the lineage of Sir Francis Bryan but no one offers any credible evidence to the contrary. 1 Reply
sdbryan Kerry Ross Boren 2 years ago When I finally located this quote on archive.org:
" Sixt. Ye shall (if it shall be demaunded of you), declare the maner of the Lorde Justices [Sir Francis Bryan's] dethe, which I have amply de- clared unto youe, myself lyeing in his house, and being then w*. him ; and where it had been re- ported that he sholde dye of a purgac'on it is not true; for he wolde by no meanes be p'- suaded to take any medicine. I was at th'op- peneng of him, wherupon the physicians, by the serche of his hart, and other his entrailles, de- f yned that he died of gref ; but wherof so euer he died, he dep'ted veray godly. I have the ra- ther made menc'on of his dethe, because when he bade me farewell, he desired me to haue him com' ended to all his f rends in Ingland, and speciallie, saithe he, to my Lorde Pryvaie Seall [Lord Cromwell] my Lord of Warwick, and Mr. Herbert, and pray them to be good to my son the poore boy ; whiche my chardge I com'it to youe to doo, if yc can atteyn to their presens, to declare it."
Notes
My Lord Privy Seal in 1550 was https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Russell,_1st_Earl_of_Bedford (not Cromwell)
my Lord Warwick in 1550 was https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dudley,_1st_Duke_of_Northumberland
There are Bryan family connections to both men.
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