Francis HASTINGS (2º E. Huntingdon)

Born ABT 1514, son of George Hastings, first Earl of Huntingdon, by his wife, Anne Stafford, sister of the Duke of Buckingham and reputed the be the Mistress of King Henry VIII or his friend Sir William Compton. He was the brother of Edward, first Baron Loughborough. He was tutored by John Leland during his youth. Francis Hastings was summoned to Parliament as Lord Hastings on 3 Nov 1529, the same day his father was created Earl of Huntingdon. The following year he was appointed steward of two abbeys. He was made a Knight of the Bath in 1533 and succeeded his father to the earldom on 24 Mar 1545.

At the coronation of Edward VI, he carried St. Edward's staff and played a prominent part in the jousting which followed. He backed Northumberland against the Lord Protector Somerset in the government of the boy king and conducted Somerset to the Tower on 13 Oct 1549, the same day he was created a Knight of the Garter, alongside George Brooke, 4th Baron Cobham, Thomas West, 10th Baron De La Warr and William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke.

He served as lieutenant general and chief captain in the army and fleet that was engaged in the struggle for Boulogne, in which service he complained bitterly about the lack of equipment and money. The campaign led however to the signing of the Peace of Boulogne. According to its terms all English claims were forfeit in exchange for 400,000 British Crown coins . The British forces accordingly withdrew from Boulogne and all hostilities ceased for a time.

In 1550, Northumberland now in full control, he was made a member of the Privy Council. In 1552 he accompanied Edward VI on his progress and the following year attended Northumberland as he visited the north, when the latter urged the King to give Huntingdon the estates in Leicestershire forfeited by John Beaumont. The King did so and Huntingdon gave the manor of Grace Dieu to Beaumont's widow, who was his cousin, Elizabeth Hastings.

On May 21, 1553, Huntingdon's son and heir, Henry, married Northumberland's daughter Catherine, the same day as Northumberland's son, Lord Guildford Dudley, married Lady Jane Grey.

Huntingdon signed the document naming Lady Jane Grey as heir to the throne and accompanied Northumberland to Cambridge where she was proclaimed. He was seized by forces loyal to Queen Mary and taken to the Tower. He was released the following Jan and sent in pursuit of Lady Jane Grey's father, the Duke of Suffolk, who had risen in revolt. He accompanied Suffolk to the Tower and was present at the execution of Sir Thomas Wyatt there.

Having married the niece of Reginald, Cardinal Pole, whom Queen Mary had made Archbishop of Canterbury, he did not suffer under the Queens attempts to restore Catholicism, but was undoubtedly Protestant at heart.

Queen Elizabeth appointed him master of the hart-hounds after her succession.

After his death, in 1583, his youngest daughter, Mary, received a formal proposal of marriage from Ivan IV "the Terrible," Czar of Russia, presented at Court by his Ambassador.

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