Thomas Keyes

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Thomas Keyes was the Royal Gatekeeper to Elizabeth I of England.

Thomas married Elizabeth's cousin Lady Mary Grey in 1565 without the consent of the Queen regnant. Lady Mary Grey was then placed on house arrest until Thomas Keyes' death in 1572.

Thomas KEYES, the Sergeant-Porter, died on or shortly before 5 Sep 1571 (letter of Lord COBHAM to BURGHLEY of that date - "...Keyes ys departyd, which the Lady Mary taketh grievously...").

He married 2ndly, as a widowered father of a grown family, on 10 Aug 1564, at 9.00 p.m. & by candlelight, in his apartments over the Watergate at Westminster, to the Lady Mary GREY. [See Richard DAVEY, "The Sisters of Lady Jane Grey," Chapman & Hall, London, 1911, pp.262-63.]

BURGHLEY observed that the secret marriage was "...an unhappy chance & monstrous..."; owing, no doubt, to the contrast in their physical statures - KEYES stood 6 ft 8 in tall in stockinged feet, "...with a girth to match"; the Lady Mary, who suffered a rather severe form of spinal curvature, was descibed as "dwarf-like" [D.N.B.] and by the Spanish Ambassador as "...little, crook-backed, & very ugly..." [Calendar of State Papers, Spanish Series.]

KEYES was appointed to a position in Court by Henry VIII, Sep 1548. He also succeded his father, Richard KEYES, as Captain of Sandgate Castle, Kent (which Richard built for Henry VIII). He was M.P. for Hythe, Co Kent, in 1554, when summoned, as a Warden of the Cinq Ports, during the Wyatt rebellion, & "...took some share in suppressing that rising."

In Queen Elizabeth's General Pardon Roll of 15 Jan 1559, he was recorded as "Captain of Sandgate Castle, Foulkstone, Kent, now Serjeant-Usher of the Household, late of St Radigund's, in Poulton, Co Kent." In Aug 1562, he was appointed deputy to Lord Robert DUDLEY, Master of the Queen's Horse, with a brief to report on movements of all horses through the port of Dover.

For his "monstrous" act of lese-majeste, he was committed to the Fleet Prison, & in close confinement. His numerous pleas to CECIL (Lord BURGHLEY) fell on deaf ears. But on Archbishop GRINDAL's recommendation, he was eventually released, in 1568, & on orders to live quietly in Lewisham. He was again appointed Captain of Sandgate Castle on the threat of a French-Spanish alliance, 1569.