Honor Plantagenet, Viscountess Lisle

Honor Grenville was an English lady-in-waiting during the reign of Henry VIII. Honor was the daughter of Sir Thomas Grenville of Stowe in Kilkhampton, Cornwall, and his wife Isabella. She was first the wife of Sir John Bassett of Umberleigh, Devon, and then the second wife of Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle, who was an illegitimate son of King Edward IV, half-brother of Queen Elizabeth of York, and uncle of King Henry. With Sir John Basset she had seven children: Philippa Basset, born 1516; Katherine Basset, born 1517; John Basset, born 1518; Anne Bassett, born 1521; Mary Basset, born between 1522-5; George Basset, born between 1522-5; and James Basset, born between 1526-7.

Honor was one of the ladies who attended Anne Boleyn when she travelled to Calais with Henry VIII in 1532. Honor permanently moved to Calais with her second husband in 1533 when he was appointed Lord deputy of Calais. They lived in Calais until 1540, where Honor succeeded in making good marriage matches for her daughters and placing her sons in the houses of other lords.

Her daughter, Anne Bassett, was reputedly a mistress of King Henry VIII. Honor is notable for her surviving letters depicting sixteenth-century court life, published as the Lisle Letters.

References

David Grummitt, ‘Plantagenet, Arthur, Viscount Lisle (b. before 1472, d. 1542)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 29 Oct 2009