Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon

Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon (24 April 1586 – 14 November 1643), was a prominent English nobleman and literary patron in England during the first half of the seventeenth century.

The Earl, still offended, asked the Countess to refuse the horse, and the rift continued for a year.

However, Mary pre-deceased her brother Henry VIII and her descendants were passed over for James VI of Scotland.

Hastings was known as the most important aristocratic patron of the playwrights Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher.

Hastings patronized other dramatists of the era as well, including John Marston, who wrote the masque at Ashby Castle performed in 1607.