Background
Denny was born in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire in 1547, the second surviving son of Sir Anthony Denny who was a Privy Councillor to Henry VIII and one of the Guardians of Edward VI.
Denny was born in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire in 1547, the second surviving son of Sir Anthony Denny who was a Privy Councillor to Henry VIII and one of the Guardians of Edward VI.
Orphaned in childhood, he inherited lands in Hertfordshire. After some minor appointments at court, in 1573 Edward Denny went to Ulster on a military expedition led by Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex. Denny then took up privateering, capturing a Spanish ship in 1577 and a Flemish one in 1578.
The same year saw him join a colonizing expedition led by Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Raleigh.
However, their ships were forced to turn for home by bad weather. Denny led a company at the infamous Siege of Smerwick, when 400 Spanish and Italian troops were beheaded by the English after surrendering.
In 1581, he commanded another expedition to and returned with the head of Garret O’Toole, leader of one of the Irish clans. Children of Edward and Margaret Denny:
Arthur (1584-1584 July 1619)
Francis
Henry (1595-1658)
Anthony (died young)
Anthony (1592-1662)
Thomas
Charles (d 29 December 1635)
Elizabeth (b1586)
Honora (died young)
Marie (d 29 November 1678)
He was granted lands at Tralee, confiscated from the Earl of Desmond.
He both became High Sheriff of Kerry and was knighted in 1588.
His estates in were a financial failure and in 1591 he returned to England to command a naval expedition to the Azores. The following year he returned to during the Nine Years" War, to find that the confiscated land he had been granted had been ransacked. Disgruntled by the lack of rewards for his service to the Crown, Denny allied himself to Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.
Late in 1599 or early in 1600, Denny "took a deadly sickness in his country’s service".
He died on 12 February 1600 at the age of 52. His tomb and monument are in Waltham Abbey Church in Essex.
lieutenant carries the inscription;
Sir Edward is interred in the family vault in the churchyard, Lady Margaret Denny lived on until 1648 and is buried in Street Michael"s Church, Bishop"s Stortford.
Denny first became Member of Parliament for Liskeard in Cornwall for the 1584 to 1585 parliament.