thumb|[[Sir Thomas Salusbury, 2nd Baronet and his family]]
The Salusbury family was an Anglo-Welsh family notable for their social prominence, wealth, literary contributions and philanthropy. They were patrons of the arts and were featured in William Shakespeare's The Phoenix and the Turtle and other works. The family mostly rose in power by supporting the rising Tudor dynasty.
Early history
John Williams, in Ancient and Modern Denbigh, traces back the family to Adam de Salzburg, a Bavarian knight from Salzburg who claimed descent from Charlemagne and who came over with William the Conqueror during the Norman Conquest, when he states that the toponymic surname Salzburg was anglicised into Salusbury.
Hester Lynch Piozzi (1740–1821) recalls visiting a Benedictine convent in Salzburg where she was shown records of a "young Prince Adam" who came over with William the Conqueror. Prince Adam was supposedly granted a large estate in Richmondshire, where he built a residence called Salzburg Court.
Furthermore, Williams traces the family's arrival in Denbighshire to the reign of Henry II, when Adam de Saltzburg is recorded as Captain of the Garrison of Denbigh. This John was father of Syr Harri Ddu (or Sir Harry the Black), the namesake of the North Welsh traditional virtuoso fantasia arranged for harps. Sir Harry the Black is also regarded as the founder of Lleweni Hall, or at the very least, the family that would reside there. His son Sir John (d. 1289) also may have been a crusader. Sir John founded the Carmelite Priory in Denbigh.
Thomas Salusbury fought at the Battle of Blackheath (1497) and was knighted by Henry VII and appointed steward of the Lordship of Denbigh.
The estate and family of Lleweni remained the most powerful of the many branches of the Salusbury family tree, particularly in the Tudor period where many of its members held powerful positions such as Sheriff of Denbighshire and Custos Rotulorum. This series of titles and offices can likely be traced back to Sir Thomas Salusbury of Lleweni who was appointed Steward of the Lordship of Denbigh.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the young Thomas Salusbury was put in the care of the Earl of Leicester who was already unfavoured by the people of Denbighshire as the Lord of Denbigh. This alliance with the Earl of Leicester as well as a growing conservative sentiment in Denbighshire at the time led to an Anti-Lleweni faction which remained active for the remainder of the century. furthermore much of Lleweni had been leased out to the Crown and the family had found themselves facing ruinous fines and debts, all the while the Anti-Lleweni faction had managed to keep the Lleweni Salusburys out of office in favour of the Salusburys of Rug and Bachymbyd.