Dorothy Bray

Dorothy Bray
Baroness Chandos
Portrait by John Bettes the Younger, alleged to be that of Dorothy Bray, Baroness Chandos, c.1578
Born	c.1524 Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire, England
Died	31 October 1605 (aged 80-81) Minty, Gloucestershire
Buried	Rotherfield Greys Church
Spouse(s)	Edmund Brydges, 2nd Baron Chandos William Knollys MP
Issue Mary Brydges Katherine Brydges Eleanor Brydges Giles Brydges, 3rd Baron Chandos William Brydges, 4th Baron Chandos
Father	Sir Edmund Braye, 1st Baron Braye
Mother	Jane Halliwell
Occupation	Maid of Honour

Dorothy Bray, Baroness Chandos (c. 1524 – 31 October 1605) was an English noblewoman, who served as a Maid of Honour to three queens consort of King Henry VIII of England; Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. From 1541 to 1543, she had an affair with the latter's brother, William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, whose own wife, Anne Bourchier, 7th Baroness Bourchier had eloped with a lover.

In 1546, Dorothy married her first husband Edmund Brydges, 2nd Baron Chandos.

Dorothy was born in about 1524 at Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire, the youngest daughter and child of Sir Edmund Braye, 1st Baron Braye, and Jane Halliwell. She had a brother, John Bray, 2nd Baron Braye, of whom she was one of his co-heirs, along with her five older sisters. The eldest, Anne, Baroness Cobham was 23 years her senior.

Dorothy first came to court in 1540, where she served as a Maid of Honour to Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of Henry VIII. When that marriage was annulled, Dorothy went on to serve in the same capacity, Anne's successor, Catherine Howard, whom the King had married in July 1540. In 1541, Dorothy embarked on a love affair with William Parr, Baron Parr of Kendal, who would later hold the title of 1st Marquess of Northampton, after Baron Parr's wife, Anne Bourchier had created a scandal when she ran off with her lover, John Lyngfield, and shortly afterwards bore him an illegitimate child.

Dorothy's affair with Parr lasted until 1543, when he began to court her niece, Elizabeth Brooke, who had also been one of Catherine Howard's Maids of Honour up until the Queen's execution for High treason. It was during that time (1543) that King Henry himself was courting Parr's sister, Catherine, whom he married in July. Dorothy entered the new Queen's household as one of her Maids of Honour.