The Grey family's brush with history (and the Hastings family) continued in the seventeenth century. Henry Grey became the Earl of Stamford in 1628, and entertained King Charles I at Bradgate House in 1634. A few years later, Grey took the side of Parliament in its struggle against Charles. He was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire and rapidly took steps to recruit and arm men to fight for Parliament. Before War formally broke out, Captain Grey (a relative of Stamford) and 25 soldiers barricaded in the Newarke magazine in Leicester had a standoff with the King who arrived unexpectedly in the city. They were forced to give up their arms in return for freedom. Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham on 22nd August 1642, and the English Civil War began. Almost immediately, one of the Grey's old foes Colonel Hastings, a staunch Royalist, raided Bradgate House, taking arms, ammunition and clothing. The Earl of Stamford's son, Thomas Lord Grey of Groby, became a great captain for the Parliamentarians and played a decisive part in their victory at Newbury. Thomas was one of the signatories to King Charles I's Death Warrant when he was condemned to death by Parliament in 1648. Fortunately perhaps for Thomas, he died in 1657, 3 years before Charles I's son Charles II was restored to the throne. By this time, the old Earl of Stamford had already turned his support back in favour of the monarchy, but Charles II still viewed the Earls of Stamford and Bradgate House as a security risk. This fear proved realistic when the second Earl became involved in the Duke of Monmouth's conspiracy against James II in 1685. He was pardoned and later held high office under King William III. King William stayed at Bradgate House in 1696. During the eighteenth century, the Earls of Stamford preferred to base themselves at Enville, in Staffordshire. The great House at Bradgate fell into ruins. When the Stamfords visited Leicestershire, they stayed at a hunting lodge called Steward's Hay, which they had built in Groby. This was enlarged during the nineteenth century and renamed to Bradgate House, but has since been demolished. The last great event in the Grey's association with Bradgate was the visit of Edward, Prince of Wales (son of Queen Victoria and later Edward VII) for a shooting party at the new Bradgate House in 1882. In 1903, the Countess of Stamford, widow of the 7th Earl George-Harry, gave money for the building of Ratby vicarage, a fine granite-built Edwardian country vicarage. In 1925, the descendants of the Greys sold most of their Leicestershire estates, including the whole of Newtown Linford, and much of Groby and Ratby and parts of neighbouring Anstey. Bradgate Park itself was sold in 1928 to Charles Bennion, who presented Bradgate Park along with the ruins of the first Bradgate House to the City and County of Leicestershire to become a public country park. |
| The Greys of Bradgate during the Civil war and later |