16TH CENTURY

The arms are those of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk (d. 1545) of Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire. He was created Duke of Suffolk in 1514, having played a prominent part in the 1513 siege of Tournai; and in the same year represented Henry VII at the coronation of Louis XII of France (d. 1515) and Mary Tudor (d. 1533), Henry's sister. In 1515, while serving as Henry VIII's ambassador to the court of François Ier he himself married the French Queen Mary, widow of Louis XII. He attended Henry VIII in 1520 at 'the Field of the Cloth of Gold', and commanded his armies during the capture of Boulogne in 1544.