William Sandys ★

Born Abt in England. He worked as lord chamberlain. He died December 6, 1540.

Family Background

William Sandys was born around 1470, younger son of Sir William Sandys and Edith Cheyne, daughter of Sir John Cheyne of Shurland on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. His sister Edith married Ralph Neville, Lord Neville, tying the Sandys family to the northern English nobility.

Rise at the Court of Henry VIII

Sandys gained royal favor early, assisting at the future Henry VIII's knighthood and at the reception of his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and became a Knight of the Body, remaining a close companion of the king through the early years of his reign. He was appointed Treasurer of Calais in 1517, made a Knight of the Garter in 1518, created 1st Baron Sandys of the Vyne in 1523, and became Lord Chamberlain in 1530 — the summit of a courtier's career.

Military and Diplomatic Service

From 1530 until his death Sandys served as Captain of Guisnes, the strategic English outpost south of Calais, overseeing extensive refortification work there; the marshy site's disease — likely malaria — periodically incapacitated him for the rest of his life. He also played an instrumental role organizing the 1520 Field of the Cloth of Gold, the lavish summit between Henry VIII and Francis I of France.

The Vyne

During the 1520s Sandys built a palatial Tudor mansion, The Vyne, in Hampshire, now held by the National Trust as one of the finest surviving examples of early Tudor domestic architecture. Henry VIII visited at least three times, once accompanied by Anne Boleyn.

Anne Boleyn and Later Life

Though Sandys personally disapproved of Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn and kept some distance from court over it, his official duties still drew him into her circle: he attended her 1532 elevation to the peerage and her 1533 coronation, and hosted her at The Vyne as queen in 1535. By May 1536 he sat on the jury that convicted her of adultery and treason.

Death and Legacy

Sandys died December 6, 1540, shortly after returning from Calais, and was buried at the Chapel of the Guild of the Holy Ghost in Basingstoke, which he himself had founded; his tomb remains partially visible among the chapel's ruins today.

Marriage and Family

Sandys married Margery Bray, daughter and heiress of John Bray, and had at least three sons and four daughters, including Thomas Sandys, who succeeded him as 2nd Baron Sandys, and Mary Sandys, who married Sir William Pelham and became mother to two sons notable in military and judicial service.