The New International Encyclopædia/Huntingdon, Henry Hastings

HUNTINGDON, Henry Hastings, Earl of (1535-95). An English noble, leader of the Protestant party, son of Francis Hastings, the second Earl, whom he succeeded in 1561. He was an intimate of Edward VI., who knighted him in 1548; and, through his mother's descent from George, brother of Edward IV., claimed after Elizabeth the succession to the crown. Especially in 1562, during her severe illness, he was considered as her probable successor. He hotly opposed the scheme to marry Mary Stuart to Norfolk, and was intrusted by Elizabeth to see that the Scotch Queen did not escape at the time of the threatened uprising in 1569. In the same year he was one of the council which considered the evidence against Mary; helped try Norfolk in 1573; and was prominent and active in the preparations of 1588 for the Spanish invasion. Huntingdon was a zealous Puritan in sympathies, possibly for political reasons. He was succeeded by his brother, George.