Henry Spring

Sir Henry le Spring (died before 1311), also referred to as Lord Henry Spring, was an English knight and landowner in northern England.

Biography[edit]

He was born into the Anglo-Norman Le Spring family, who held large estates in the County Palatine of Durham and Northumberland.^[1] He was the son of another Sir Henry le Spring, a knight, by an unknown wife. He served as a squire to Sir John Coilet of Barmelston. Henry le Spring was knighted himself after having fought for Henry III at the Battle of Lewes in 1264.^[2] He became Lord of the Manor of Houghton, near the present-day City of Sunderland, after it was granted to him by Robert Fitzgerald, Lord of Raby.^[3] The estates surrounding the town had been in the possession of the Spring family since shortly after the Norman Conquest, and a result it became known as Houghton-le-Spring. He served as Knight of the Shire for the Northumberland constituency at least once.

Henry Spring married Albreda, the daughter and heiress of Robert Bernard.^[4] One of his sons, Sir John Spring, was murdered in his manor house at Houghton in 1313 by Robert Lascelles, the husband of his lover.^[5] Henry's daughter, Mary, married Sir Roland de Bellasise, who had fought with him at Lewes. Henry's wife was recorded as being a widow by 1311.

He is buried in the Church of St Michael and All Angel in Houghton-le-Spring, where he has an elaborate effigy alongside his son-in-law.

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