Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1505–1583), also spelled Bedingfield, of Oxburgh Hall, King's Lynn, Norfolk, was a Privy Councillor to King Edward VI and Queen Mary I, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, and (in 1557) Vice-Chamberlain of the Household and Captain of the guards. With Sir Henry Jerningham he was among the principals who rallied to Mary's cause following the death of Edward VI in 1553 and helped to set her upon the throne. He was a senior figure in the kinship group of Catholic recusant landowning knights of Suffolk. Given responsibility for the custody of Mary I's half-sister Elizabeth when in the Tower of London and at Woodstock, his reputation has suffered from the repetition of claims of his severity towards her: however Queen Elizabeth was respectful towards him and continued to find service for him. Among the foremost Englishmen of his time, he occupied prominent and honourable positions and was of unquestioned loyalty.
Family and education
Sir Henry was the eldest of five sons of Sir Edmund Bedingfield (1479/80–1553) and his wife, Grace (died in or after 1553), the daughter of Henry Marney, 1st Baron Marney. His brothers were Francis, Anthony, Humphrey and Edmond, and his sisters were Elizabeth and Margaret. In February 1527/28, he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn. The Bedingfelds were closely connected to the ancient family of Beaupré, of Beaupré Hall, Outwell/Upwell, Norfolk.
During the 1530s he married Katherine (died 1581), the daughter of Sir Roger Townshend of Raynham, Norfolk and his wife Amy Brewes, daughter and co-heiress of William de Brewse of Wenham Hall, Suffolk, and of Stinton Hall in Norfolk. In 1549 he was one of the many knights, esquires and gentlemen who assisted the Marquess of Northampton in putting down Kett's Rebellion at Norwich, where, with Sir Thomas Paston, Sir John Clere, Sir William Waldegrave and Sir Thomas Cornwallis, he was appointed to the defence of part of the city. By that date, or certainly by 1551, he had received knighthood.
In 1553, the year of his father's death and the accession of Queen Mary, Sir Henry Bedingfield succeeded his father as heir to the Oxburgh estate and the Hall which had been built by his grandfather, the elder Sir Edmund Bedingfield, (died 1496/97). It was to the March parliament of 1553, the second parliament of King Edward VI, that Sir Henry was first elected, on that occasion as Knight of the Shire for Suffolk: from this it is supposed that he was then acquiescent in the regency of the Duke of Northumberland.
Career
Bedingfeld held various offices, including Privy Councillor to King Edward VI and Queen Mary I, Constable and (in 1555) Lieutenant of the Tower of London, and (in 1557) Captain of the Guard and Vice-Chamberlain of the Household to Mary I.
After the death of King Edward VI in 1553, Sir Henry Bedingfeld and (Sir) Henry Jerningham (together with Sir William Drury, John Sulyard, Sir John Shelton, Clement Higham and others) were two supporters very instrumental in placing Mary Tudor on the throne, coming to her aid at Kenninghall or Framlingham with 140 well-armed men. Bedingfeld proclaimed the queen at Norwich. He was afterwards rewarded for his loyalty with an annual pension of 100 pounds out of the forfeited estates of Sir Thomas Wyatt. Queen Mary appointed him a Privy Councillor and Knight Marshal of her army. It was in the light of this allegiance that he was elected to the first parliament of Mary's reign in October 1553 as one of the Knights of the Shire for Norfolk, and again in the succeeding parliament of 1554.
In March 1554 Mary (following Wyatt's rebellion) placed her half-sister Princess Elizabeth in the Tower of London. She was certainly aware that her mother Katherine of Aragon in later life had been kept at Kimbolton in the custody of Sir Henry's father. She now entrusted Sir Henry with the princess Elizabeth's custody, appointing him Constable of the Tower of London on 8 May, and instructing him to guard Elizabeth at Woodstock Palace, where he remained with her until March 1555.