Greene was a Catholic and a royalist, and some historians have speculated that Stone, a Protestant and supporter of Parliament, was appointed in his place to appease the Protestant majority in the colony. Following his removal from office, Greene served as Deputy Governor under Stone. In November 1649, while Stone was in neighbouring Virginia, Greene used this position to publicly declare Maryland in support of Prince Charles, the heir to the English throne. Earlier that year, the Prince's father, King Charles I, had been executed by the mainly Puritan Parliamentarians in the culminating event of the English Civil War. Stone quickly returned and retracted the declaration, but the event was enough to convince Parliament to appoint Protestant commissioners Richard Bennett and William Claiborne to help oversee the colony. Bennett and Claiborne appointed a Protestant council to oversee the colony, creating some confusion as to whether this council of the proprietary governor and his deputies was in charge. The council, among other decisions, rescinded the Maryland Toleration Act which had guaranteed religious freedom in the colony and banned Catholics from worshiping openly. Stone attempted to regain control of the colony by force, but was defeated in the Battle of the Severn. Ancestry The Greene family of Maryland did not descend from the Green family of Green's Norton, Northamptonshire, but rather through the illegitimate child of Sir John Norton of Northwood, Sir Thomas Norton who took on the alias Greene; hence the descendants surname of Greene. He was descended from Nicholas de Norton, who lived in the reign of King Stephen, and was possessed of much land in the neighbourhood of Norton and Faversham, as appeared by the chartulary of the monastery of St. Augustine. Governor Thomas Greene was the son of Sir Thomas Greene of Bobbing Kent and Margaret Webb of Frittenden, Kent, England. Gov. Thomas had three brothers; Jerimiah Greene, John Greene, and the Hon. Robert Greene, Lord of Bobbing Manor who had joined his brother in Maryland for a time, but returned to England as the eldest son to inherit his father's property. Governor Greene's father, Sir Thomas, was created a Knight Bachelor of the Realm by King James I on 5 September 1622. at Windsor Castle in Berkshire, England. Sir Thomas Greene's father was Sir Robert Green of Bobbing Kent who married Frances Darrel, daughter of Thomas Darrel of Scotney. Sir Robert was the son of Sir Thomas