Sir Anthony Denny (16 January 1501 – 10 September 1549) was Groom of the Stool to King Henry VIII of England, thus his closest courtier and confidant. In 1539 he was appointed a gentleman of the privy chamber and was its most prominent member in King Henry's last years, having together with his brother-in-law, John Gates, charge of the "dry stamp" of the King's signature, and attended the King on his deathbed. He was a member of the Reformist circle that offset the conservative religious influence of Bishop Gardiner. He was a wealthy man, having acquired several manors and former religious sites distributed by the Court of Augmentations after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
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Life
Anthony Denny was the second son of Sir Edmund Denny (d. 22 December 1520), a Baron of the Exchequer, by his second wife, Mary Troutbeck, the daughter and coheir of Robert Troutbeck of Bridge Trafford in Cheshire. He had an elder brother, Sir Thomas Denny, of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, who married Elizabeth Monoux, the daughter of Sir George Monoux, Lord Mayor of London, as well as two younger brothers and ten sisters, including Martha.
Denny was educated at St Paul's School and tradition asserts, at St John's College, Cambridge. He was first a servant of the courtier Francis Bryan, and joined the king's household in 1533 as a groom of the privy chamber. He was appointed keeper of Whitehall Palace in January 1536. Jane Seymour gave him a brooch. He was made Yeoman of the Robes in September 1537.
He was present at the wedding of Henry VIII to Catherine Parr in the Queen's Privy Closet at Hampton Court on 12 July 1543. In 1544, he joined Henry's military expedition to France. He was knighted at the capture of Boulogne in 1544. He became Groom of the Stool in October 1546. He oversaw the use and maintenance of the king's close stool.