Henry de Nassau d'Auverquerque, 1st Earl of Grantham

Who was Henry de Nassau d'Auverquerque, 1st Earl of Grantham?

Henry de Nassau, Lord d'Auverquerque, 1st Earl of Grantham PC, was a British peer and courtier, a member of the House of Orange-Nassau and second cousin once removed to King William III of England. He inherited the lordship of Ouwerkerk in Holland, and was a count of the Holy Roman Empire.

He was born in The Hague to the Dutch general Henry de Nassau d'Auverquerque and his wife Frances van Aerssen, and baptised there 30 May 1673. On 12 January 1697, he married his first cousin Lady Henrietta Butler, daughter of the Earl of Ossory and sister of the 2nd Duke of Ormonde. In 1698, during his father's lifetime, he was created Baron Alford, Viscount Boston and Earl of Grantham by William III.

Despite Grantham's marriage to the sister of one of the most notorious participants in the 1715 Jacobite rising, George I appointed him Lord Chamberlain to the household of the Princess of Wales in 1717, and Grantham retained his position when the Prince of Wales succeeded as King George II in 1727 and the Princess became Queen Caroline. He remained her Lord Chamberlain until her death in 1737.