Edward Darrell (died 1530)

Elizabeth had a notorious affair with the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt, by whom she had several children, and was later rumoured to have planned to become the sixth Queen of Henry VIII.

His father died when Edward was eight years old, and he succeeded to very substantial estates, the bulk of which were in Wiltshire: Littlecote House was the principal family residence.

He fought for the victorious King Henry VII at the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487, when he was barely of age, and was knighted as a result.

He was made Vice-Chamberlain of the household to Catherine of Aragon, and in that capacity accompanied her and the king to Henry's meeting in 1520 with Francis I of France at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.

The Darrells profited from a close family connection to Jane Seymour, who was the elder Sir Edward's grandniece.