Henry Lee of Ditchley

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Sir Henry Lee by Antonis Mor, 1568.

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.

[edit] Trivia

He was the son of Sir Anthony Lee and Margaret Wyatt-sister of Sir Thomas Wyatt (poet). Anthony Lee was apparently descended from the Lee family of Lee Hall, Staffordshire, England; possibly this family was related to the Lee Family of Coton Hall, Nordley Regis, Shropshire, England from whom the Lee family of Virginia was descended. Ironically a descendant of Henry Lee of Ditchley was Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield whose daughter married Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore whose great-granddaughter Eleanor {Calvert} Custis was the grandmother of Mary Anna Custis Lee the wife of Robert Edward Lee of the Lee family of Virginia.
By 1603 "Lee Hall" of Staffordshire England was the birthplace of Mary Bayley {daugther of William Bayley}; Mary Bayley was the wife of Colonel Roger Fowke of "Gunston Hall", Staffordshire, England-not to be confused with Gunston Hall home of George Mason of Virginia.