Suffolk, Charles Brandon, 1st duke of

Suffolk, Charles Brandon, 1st duke of (sŭf`ək), d. 1545, English nobleman. A member of the court of Henry VIII, he received many preferments. He was created (1513) Viscount Lisle on his betrothal to his ward, Elizabeth Grey, Viscountess Lisle (in her own right), but the title was canceled when Elizabeth, on coming of age, refused to marry him. He was created duke of Suffolk in 1514, perhaps to aid him in his suit of Margaret of Austria, regent of the Netherlands. In 1515, while on an embassy to the new king of France, Francis I, Suffolk married Mary of England, recent widow of Louis XII of France and sister of Henry VIII. This ambitious marriage, complicated by the fact that one of Brandon's two former wives was still living, angered Henry, and it was only by the payment of jewels and large sums of money that the couple regained favor. Suffolk accompanied Henry to the Field of the Cloth of Gold (1520) and led an invading army into France (1523). He supported the king's divorce from Katharine of Aragón, received confiscated monastery lands, led troops against the rebels in the Pilgrimage of Grace (1536), and led an invasion of France (1544).