Edward Windsor, 3rd Baron Windsor

Edward was born into a landowning family of Norman ancestry that had steadily increased its possessions through the Middle Ages, including estates in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Middlesex and Surrey.

[1] They were hereditary wardens of Windsor Castle, from which they derived their name, and their close association with the monarchy temporarily lost them their lands on the defeat of Richard III in 1485.

On his accession in 1509, the new King Henry VIII signalled his acceptance of Sir Andrew into the inner circles of government by making him Knight of the Bath and he was ennobled 20 years later.

[1] In his grandfather's dotage in 1542, during a visit by King Henry VIII, Lord Windsor was obliged to surrender one of the family manors, Stanwell between Hampton Court and Windsor to the crown, in return given a more modest historic farm of Hewell Grange, a manor of Tardebigge in north Worcestershire.

He fought at the Battle of St Quentin (1557), an engagement of the Italian War of 1551–1559, as part of an English force commanded by Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford.