Grey was the son and heir of
Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset (c. 1456–1501), and his wife,
Cecily Bonville, daughter and heiress of
William Bonville, 6th Baron Harington of Aldingham and of Lady
Katherine Neville (1442–1503) and granddaughter of
Alice Neville, 5th Countess of Salisbury (1407–1462). Cecily Bonville's maternal uncles included
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (called 'Warwick the Kingmaker'),
John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu and
George Neville, archbishop of York and
Chancellor of England, while her aunts had married
Henry de Beauchamp, 1st Duke of Warwick,
William FitzAlan, 16th Earl of Arundel,
Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, and
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford. Cecily Bonville succeeded her father as Baroness Harington in 1460, and two months later succeeded her great-grandfather William Bonville as
Baron Bonville. After the death of her first husband, Cecily Bonville married her late husband's first cousin
Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, the younger son of
Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and of
Catherine Woodville, Dorset's aunt. The younger Thomas Grey's paternal grandparents were Queen
Elizabeth Woodville (c. 1437–1492) and her first husband Sir
John Grey of Groby (c. 1432–1461), son and heir of Elizabeth Ferrers,
Lady Ferrers of Groby, His grandmother, Elizabeth Woodville, was the eldest daughter of
Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, and
Jacquetta of Luxembourg, widow of
John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford. Following his grandmother's marriage to Edward IV, members of her family gained advantages and made prosperous marriages. Grey's father-in-law Oliver St John (died in 1497) (also known as Oliver of Ewell) was the son of
Margaret Beauchamp (c. 1411–1482), the great-great-granddaughter of
Roger Beauchamp, 1st Lord Beauchamp of Bletso, Keeper of Devizes Castle, and heiress to the Beauchamp estates. After the death of her first husband, another Oliver St John (died 1437), she married
John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset (1404–1444), producing
Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond. Eleanor St John was therefore the first cousin of Henry VII. Through Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Dorset was descended from
Eleanor of England (1215–1275), the daughter of King
John and
Isabella of Angoulême, and from several other European royal families. His younger brother
Leonard Grey, 1st Viscount Grane (c. 14791541) served as
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1536 to 1540. His second wife had two notable brothers,
Sir Edward Wotton (1489–1551),
Treasurer of Calais, and
Nicholas Wotton (c. 1497–1567), a diplomat who, in 1539, arranged the marriage between Henry VIII and
Anne of Cleves.
Marriages and descendants Thomas Grey was contracted in 1483 to marry Anne St Leger (1476–1526), the daughter of
Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter and her second husband Sir Thomas St Leger. Remarkably, Anne St Leger had been declared the heiress to the Exeter estates, but the marriage did not take place. The young Thomas Grey's first marriage was to Eleanor St John, a daughter of Oliver St John of
Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire •
Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk (1517–1554). Succeeded his father as Marquess of Dorset, married
Lady Frances Brandon, a granddaughter of King Henry VII, and in 1551 (on the death of his brother-in-law
Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk) became
Duke of Suffolk, by way of a new creation. When this rebellion failed, all three were arrested, and Suffolk and his brother Thomas were executed, as were Lady Jane herself and her husband
Lord Guildford Dudley. Lord John Grey survived, and in July 1603 his youngest son, Henry Grey, was restored to the
House of Lords by King
James I as
Baron Grey of Groby. ==Death==