Earl of Huntingdon arms

Earl of Huntingdon, Hastings, stained glass arms.

Argent a maunch sable.

The arms are environed with the Garter and the whole ensigned with an earl’s coronet.

Francis Hastings, the 2nd Earl of Huntingdon (born 1514 died 20th June 1561) was like John Dudley, a Tudor courtier and politician and one of John’s supporters at Court. He was the was the eldest son of George Hastings, the 1st Earl of Huntingdon and Anne Stafford, Countess of Huntingdon, the ex-mistress of Henry VIII. He married Katherine Pole (born 1519 died 23 September 1576) on the 25th June 1532. She was a daughter of Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu and Jane Neville. With such a marriage Francis was well placed for preferment within the Court. With England being at war with both Scotland and France, under Mary, Queen of Scots, and King Henry II, respectively, Francis was appointed as Lieutenant General of the Army and Chief Captain of the Fleet in a campaign against Boulogne-sur-Mer that ended in

1551. He, too, was a supporter of Lady Jane Grey during her brief reign as Queen, but he was fortunate enough, although arrested and detained in the Tower of London, to be released and so escaped the executor’s block.
Francis was appointed as a Knight of the Garter on 24th April 1549.