1. Reginald Bray was the Chancellor of the Duchy and County Palatine of Lancaster under Henry VII, briefly Treasurer of the Exchequer, and one of the most influential men in Henry VII's government and administration.
19 Facts About Reginald Bray
1. 2.
Reginald Bray was an estate officer and senior councillor to both Henry VII and the king's mother, Margaret Beaufort.
3.
Reginald Bray was a major benefactor to St George's Chapel, Windsor, where some of the building work for which he provided funds can still be seen and identified.
4.
Reginald Bray was born about 1440 in St John Bedwardine parish, then outside of Worcester, the second son of Richard Bray, a surgeon,.
5.
Reginald Bray was the eldest son born of his father's second marriage to Joan Troughton.
6.
Reginald Bray continued in Margaret Beaufort's service after Stafford's death in 1471, and by 1485 had been her estate officer for more than twenty years, serving both Margaret and her successive husbands, Henry Stafford and Thomas, Lord Stanley.
7.
Reginald Bray would continue as Margaret Beaufort's receiver-general until his own death in 1503.
8.
Reginald Bray was quickly established at the administrative and financial heart of the new regime.
9.
Reginald Bray enjoyed extraordinary and trusted access to the king whom he had first met as a boy.
10.
Reginald Bray was one of the seven men created a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Henry VII.
11.
Reginald Bray retained some fiscal responsibility until his own death in 1503.
12.
Reginald Bray was Treasurer of War for the king's invasion of France in 1492.
13.
Reginald Bray was elevated to be a knight banneret after the battle of Blackheath in 1497.
14.
Reginald Bray was above all the king's councillor, one of many, but one of the most important.
15.
Reginald Bray's methods prefigured those of the notorious Empson and Dudley, although his authority and responsibilities were greater than both.
16.
Reginald Bray was a known source of patronage and of intercession with the king.
17.
Reginald Bray built, for example, at his houses of Edgcote, which Henry VII briefly visited in 1498, and at Eaton, now known as Eaton Bray, in Bedfordshire.
18.
Reginald Bray contributed to Jesus College in Cambridge and lent his assistance to Bishop Oliver King for building works at Bath Abbey.
19.
In 2017 the Royal Mail issued a commemorative set of postage stamps celebrating Windsor Castle and St George's Chapel in which one of the quartet of stamps showing the Chapel was an illustration of a stone roof boss carved with Reginald Bray's initials set within the garter.