# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chamberlayne, Edward (1484?-1543?)

​CHAMBERLAYNE, Sir EDWARD (1484?–1543?), of Shirburn Castle in Oxfordshire, came of a family which claimed descent from the counts of Tancarville, hereditary chamberlains to the dukes of Normandy and early Norman kings of England. Eldest son of Richard Chamberlayne of Shirburn, who died on 20 Aug. 1497, and Sibilla Fowler, he was over forty years of age when his mother died in 1525 (Inq. post mortem, 18 Hen. VIII, No. 167). Henry VII made him keeper of Woodstock Park on 10 Sept. 1508 (Pat. Roll, 24 Hen. VII, p. 1, m. 11), and that office was, on 16 April 1532, renewed to him and his son Leonard in survivorship (Privy Seal, 28 Hen. VIII). In the summer of 1512 he led thirty men in Sir William Sandys's company in the fruitless expedition led by Thomas, marquis of Dorset, to Biscay, to aid King Ferdinand's invasion of France. In the following spring Lord Edmund Howard carried on the war with France by sea until killed in a fight off Brest on 25 April, and Chamberlayne was captain of the Henry Totehill, 3 tons, 62 men, in Howard's fleet. In May of that year, when Henry VIII in person invaded France, Chamberlayne went in the retinue of Charles Brandon, lord Lisle, who led the vanguard of the English army. He was sheriff of Oxfordshire and Berkshire in 1517–18. In 1520 he was at the Field of the Cloth of Gold and the subsequent meeting of Henry VIII and the Emperor Charles at Gravelines. He accompanied Thomas, earl of Surrey's expedition, or rather raid, into Picardy in the war of 1522. ln the spring of 1526 he and George Carew of Mohuns Ottery were refugees in France, but why they fled the realm does not appear. He sat as a burgess for Wallingford in the parliament of 1525. When Catherine of Arragon after her divorce in 1533 was kept virtually as a prisoner at Kimbolton, he seems to have held some office of authority over her household. Hs was at Kimholton when Catherine died there in January 1536. He died about 1543. By Cecily, his wife, daughter of Sir John Verney, knight, he left a son, Leonard, afterwards governor of the Tower and of Guernsey [see Chamberlain or Chamberlayne, Sir Leonard]. A certain Sir Edward Chamberlayns is named as under-almoner to Henry VIII in 1516 (Cal. of Hen. VIII, ii. App. 58), but this was perhaps a priest.
Sir Edward Chamberlayne of Shirburn is not to be confounded with his contemporary Sir Edward Chamberlayne of Gedding in Suffolk (1470–1541), second son of Sir Robert Chamberlayne of Barking, Essex, who was attainted by statute 7 Henry VII, cap. 23, and executed on 12 March 1491 for high treason. This Edward Chamberlayne in 1522 succeeded his brother, Sir Francis Chamberlayne, in the ssessions of their mother, Elizabeth Fitz-Raaf, which had escaped the confiscation consequent upon Sir Robert's attainder. He was then Edward Chamberlayne, ‘esquire,’ and over fifty-two years of age (Inq. p. m. 14 Hen. VIII, No. 125). On ​11 March 1531 he obtained a reversal of his father's attainder, but without restitution of property. He died on 15 July 1541, and was buried at Burnham Broome in Norfolk. By his wife, Jane Starkey, he left four sons and a daughter. The third son, Leonard, died on 20 Aug. 1561 (Inq. p. m. 4 Eliz. No. 8), the same year and month as Sir Leonmard Chamberlayne of Shirburn.
[Calendar of Henry VIII; State Papers Henry VIII (the Chamberlain referred to in vol. ix. pp. 366, 368-9, &c., although indexed as Sir Edward, seems to be Thomas Chamberlain); Patent Rolls and Inquisitions post mortem; Wills of Sir Edward Chamberlayne of Gedding and Sir Leonard Chamberlayne of Shirburn; Strype's Memorials, i. i. 371; Blomefield's Norfolk; Newoourt's Repert. ii. 466; Heralds' Visitations of Norfolk and Suffolk among Harleian MSS.; Visitation of Oxford in 1634, Harl. MS. 1667, f. 29 6; Berry's County Genealogies, Hants, p. 337; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (ed. Bliss), iv. 789; Chamberlayne's Notitiæ, pt. ii. iii. cap. 3; Chronicle of Calais; Wriothesley's Chronicle, i. 2.]
R. H. B.