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Richard Grey

English knight (1457-1483); younger son of Elizabeth Woodville and Sir John Grey

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ756948 ↗
Source-derived summary

Sir Richard Grey (1457 – 25 June 1483) was an English knight. He was the son of queen consort Elizabeth Woodville and the half-brother of King Edward V of England.

Early life

Richard Grey was the younger son of Sir John Grey of Groby and Elizabeth Woodville. Richard was a 3-year-old child when his father was killed fighting for the House of Lancaster at the Second Battle of St Albans on 17 February 1461. When Richard was 6 his mother married the Yorkist king, Edward IV, in secret, on 1 May 1464. Richard first appeared on the public scene when he took part in the jousts to celebrate the creation of his half-brother Richard as Duke of York in 1474, a feat he repeated at the 4-year old Duke's marriage celebrations in 1478 to the 5-year old Anne de Mowbray.

Knighthood

Grey was knighted in 1475 and was nominated four times to membership of The Most Noble Order of the Garter between 1476 and 1482. His political role also started in 1475, the year he was knighted, when he began to serve in Wales and the bordering English counties as part of the political rule of the council of his other half-brother, Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward V). Grey served as a justice of the peace in Herefordshire from 1475 and sat at sessions of the peace in Hereford and Ludlow in 1476 and 1477.

Career as constable

In 1479, he was appointed constable of Chester Castle and in the same year was considered important enough for the city of Bristol to appeal to him for his aid.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Richard Grey” as english knight (1457-1483); younger son of Elizabeth Woodville and Sir John Grey. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1457, 1483, 1461, 1464—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1457. The account is most persuasive where Richard, Grey and English can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as english knight (1457-1483); younger son of Elizabeth Woodville and Sir John Grey. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q756948. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1457, 1483, 1461 and 1464.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Richard Grey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.