Henry Lee of Ditchley

Sir Henry Lee
Sir Henry Lee by Antonis Mor, 1568
Born	March 1533
Died	12 February 1611
Spouse(s)	Anne Paget
Children	John Lee Henry Lee Mary Lee
Parent(s)	Sir Anthony Lee, Margaret Wyatt

Sir Henry Lee KG (March, 1533 – 12 February 1611), of Ditchley, was Queen's Champion and Master of the Armouries under Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Henry Lee, born in Kent in March 1533, was the grandson of Sir Robert Lee (d.1539), and the eldest son of Sir Anthony Lee (d.1549) of Quarrendon, Buckinghamshire, by his first wife, Margaret Wyatt, daughter of Sir Henry Wyatt of Allington Castle, Kent by Anne Skinner, the daughter of John Skinner of Reigate, Surrey. Margaret Wyatt was a sister of the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt. Lee had three younger brothers, Robert Lee (died c.1598), Thomas Lee, and Cromwell Lee (d.1601), who compiled an Italian-English dictionary. Lee also had an illegitimate half-brother, Sir Richard Lee (d.1608).

Lee became Queen Elizabeth I’s champion in 1570 and was appointed Master of the Armoury in 1580, an office which he held until his death. As Queen's Champion, Lee devised the Accession Day tilts held annually on 17 November, the most important Elizabethan court festival from the 1580s. He retired as Queen's Champion in 1590, and the poems "His Golden Locks" by George Peele and "Time's Eldest Son" were set to music by John Dowland and performed at the lavish retirement pageant. He was made a Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1597 and founded Aylesbury Grammar School in 1598.