1507 – 1596, Maidstone),[1] also seen as Ashley, was an English courtier, Marian exile, and Master of the Jewel Office.

Richard Astley's daughter Mary married Stephen Pears or Pearce, a keeper of the Royal Wardrobe at Richmond Palace.

[7] In or about 1568 the queen granted him a lease in reversion of the castle and manor of Allington, Kent, and he also had an estate at Otterden.

Astley was on friendly terms with Thomas Blundeville, whose translation two decades earlier of the Ordini di cavalcare of Federico Grisone was the first treatise on horsemanship to be published in English, and part of which had been dedicated to him.

[15] Astley may also have been the author of the first English translation of Il cavallerizzo by Claudio Corte, also entitled The Art of Riding,[16] although this is more usually attributed to Thomas Bedingley.