Edward Lee

Edward Lee (c. 1482 – 13 September 1544) was Archbishop of York from 1531 until his death. Early life He was son of Richard Lee of Lee Magna, Kent, who was the son of Sir Richard Lee, lord mayor of London in 1461 and 1470. He was born in Kent in or about 1482. Thomas More was a family friend, and dedicated an early work, Life of John Picus, to Lee's sister Joyce, a Poor Clare. Lee was elected fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1500. Having graduated BA, he was incorporated at Cambridge early in 1503, moving from Oxford, it is supposed, on account of some outbreak of plague. At Cambridge he proceeded MA in 1504, being ordained deacon in that year, with title to the church of Wells, Norfolk. In 1512 he was collated to a prebend at Lincoln, and had his grace for degree of BD, but was not admitted until 1515, in which year he was chosen proctor in convocation. Thomas Cranmer took his MA in 1515, an early chance of contact with his future fellow-archbishop; Lee was later (1526) to give him his first court employment, as a junior member attached to a diplomatic mission to Spain.