Hi, I'm Sarah Bryson. I'm the author of Le Réin Blanche, Mary Tudor, Life and Letters.

And tonight I'm actually going to be talking about Mary's second husband, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.

I've been researching Brandon for about 10 years now, and I'm currently writing a book about his family, four generations of Brandon men.

So I'd like to share a little bit about my research and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk's Extraordinary Life.

So Charles Brandon was an enigmatic, charismatic man, rising from a mere boyhood friend of a future king to flirting

with a European Duchess to marriading a dowager queen of France. He was created a Duke of

Suffolk and not to mention he became one of the leading magnates in Lincolnshire by the end of his life.

Now how did a man rise to such heights and managed to stay

both loyal and close to the ever-changing, sometimes tyrannical King Henry the 8th? Let's find out.

There is little documented evidence regarding the early members of Brandon's family. Sir William

Brandon of Henham, Charles

Brandon's grandfather, was a member of Parliament for New Shorham and Edward VIII appointed him

to the position of Knight Marshal of the Marshley Court in 1479. Sir William and Elizabeth

Wingfield had three sons, William Brandon, Robert and the youngest Thomas, as well as seven

daughters. After the death of Edward IV, Sir William stayed in the service of Richard III.

In 1483, the exiled Henry Truder had attempted an unsuccessful invasion to take the English

throne from Richard III, and he had returned to

Brittany. The following year in 1483, the younger William Brandon, also dissatisfied with

Richard III, participated in the Duke of Buckingham's Rebellion. When the rebellion failed,

William and his brother Thomas and his pregnant wife, also Elizabeth,

left England and set their lot in with the exiled Henry Tudor.

Elizabeth gave birth to Charles sometime in 1484 when they and the now exiled Henry Tudor

...