William Sandys, 1st Baron Sandys

In the 1520s he built a palatial Tudor-style mansion at "The Vyne", which survives in a reduced and classicised form as a possession of the National Trust.

In 1530 he was made Henry's Lord Chamberlain and later that same year he was appointed Captain of Guisnes, a position he held until his death in 1540.

King Henry VIII visited him three times at the Vyne, once with his queen, Anne Boleyn, whom Sandys was later to escort to her imprisonment in the Tower of London.

On that same day, Henry VIII wrote to the Council of Calais advising them that "the Lord Chamberlain, who was captain of Guisnes is dead.".

On 10 October, the French ambassador in London reported back to France that "lord Sens (sic) died four days ago, who was much esteemed here and was one of the few ancient captains left.

Henry VIII fell for Anne Boleyn in 1526, the same year in which Sandys was appointed Lord Chamberlain and Captain of Guisnes.

During those years Sandys spent some 18 months in Guisnes but, otherwise, his responsibilities at Court as Lord Chamberlain would have meant that he had frequent occasions to make provision for Anne Boleyn and her household, and that he would have known her well.

[12] On the following 9 May Sandys was summoned to a meeting of the Privy Council to consider "matters relating to the surety of [the King's] person, his honour, and the tranquillity of the realm";[13] on 12 May he attended the trial of the four men accused of committing adultery with the Queen, and on 15 May, after escorting her from Greenwich to the Tower of London, he was one of the jury which found her guilty of adultery, incest and treason.

He appears in William Shakespeare's Henry VIII as Lord Sands, who flirts with Anne Boleyn when she arrives at court and comments unfavourably upon the new fashions brought over from France.