In the lead up to the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 King Richard III appointed Sir William Alington of Horseheath, Knt., his Commissioner of Array for Cambridgeshire.
His son and heir was Sir Giles Alington (1483–1522), a Knight of the Bath and twice High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, who had married Mary Gardiner, daughter & heiress of Sir Richard Gardiner, (died 1489) Lord Mayor of London by his spouse Audria, daughter of William Cotton, Lord of Landwade Manor, Cambridgeshire.
The Alingtons who dwelt at Horseheath Hall thrived under the Tudor and Stuart monarchs, and had the privilege of handing to the King his first drink at coronations.
"The [1st] marriage, between Ursula daughter of Sir Robert Drury of Hawstead in the County of Suffolk, knight, Privy Councillor" and "Sir Gyles Alington of Horseheath in the countie of Cambridge" is recorded on the tomb on their grandson, James Alington, in Milden parish church, Suffolk.
In his Will he mentions a worry:-"touching and concerninge the marriage betwene my foresaid nephew [sic; this should read grandson] Giles Alington and Margarett Ellington his Daughter which God is my witness I concluded and made with Sir John Spencer, rather for the goodwill and affection I bore unto him than for the profit. ...
[2] There are several Alington memorials within Horseheath parish church including a tomb of Sir Giles (died 1586) who lies in splendour with one of his sons, one above the other, both in armour, heads on helmets and feet on hounds.
There is also another Giles Alington of Shakespeare's day on an impressive alabaster monument with his wife and their six children, he in slashed breeches and armour, she in a ruff and hooped skirt.
Another notable descendant is the Very Reverend Cyril Argentine Alington (d. 1955), Chaplain to H.M. King George V, Dean of Durham, and sometime Headmaster of Eton College.