Background
He was born the eldest son of Sir Francis Knollys, Treasurer of the Royal Household, and Catherine Carey, Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I. He was reputedly educated at Magdelen College, Oxford.
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Henry Knollys
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He entered Parliament in 1562 as Member of Parliament for Reading in Berkshire and was re-elected for Reading in 1571. He served against the Northern rebels in 1569 and by 1570 had been appointed Esquire of the Body to Queen Elizabeth I. In 1572, together with his father, he became Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire. Around 1578, he joined Sir Humphrey Gilbert in a venture designed to set up a new colony on the east coast of North America although Henry showed more interest in the more profitable business of privateering in the Spanish Caribbean.
Gilbert gathered eleven heavily armed ships and a crew of 600, many of them convicted pirates especially pardoned for the voyage.
Knollys soon refused to acknowledge Sir Humphrey"s authority and, together with the pirate John Callis, took three ships (later joined by more) to the Spanish Coast on a privateering expedition. The planned voyage across the Atlantic never came to pass and Gilbert complained to Sir Francis Walsingham of Knolly"s “unkind and ill dealing”.
In 1582 an expedition to Portugal in support of Don Antonio, Prior of Crato, the Royal claimant to the throne, foundered when Henry was ordered to return home. They had two daughters: Elizabeth, who married Sir Henry Willoughby of Risley, Derbyshire and Lettice, who married William Paget, 4th Baron Paget.
