Francis Knollys

Sir Francis Knollys, KG of Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire (c. 1511 / c. 1514 – 19 July 1596) was an English courtier in the service of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth I, and was a Member of Parliament for a number of constituencies. Early appointments Francis Knollys was born 1511, the elder son of Sir Robert Knollys (d. 1520/1521) and Lettice Peniston (d. 1557/1558), daughter of Sir Thomas Peniston of Hawridge, Buckinghamshire, henchman to Henry VIII. He appears to have received some education at Oxford. He married Catherine Carey, first cousin (as well as possible half-sister) of Queen Elizabeth I. Henry VIII extended to him the favour that he had shown to his father, and secured to him in fee the estate of Rotherfield Greys in 1538. Acts of Parliament in 1540–41 and in 1545–46 attested this grant, making his wife in the second act joint tenant with him. At the same time Francis became one of the gentlemen-pensioners at court, and in 1539 attended Anne of Cleves on her arrival in England. In 1542 he entered the House of Commons for the first time as member for Horsham. At the beginning of Edward VI's reign, he accompanied the English army to Scotland, and was knighted by the commander-in-chief, the Duke of Somerset, at the camp at Roxburgh on 28 September 1547.