"From the Close Roll we learn "that the Lord Cardinal, Archbishop Kempe, on 25 Feb. 1432, delivered up to the King, the gold and silver seals, and the Duke of Gloucester immediately took them and kept them till the fourth of March, on which day, he gave them back to the King and they were delivered by his Majesty to John Stafford, Bishop of Bath and Wells for the despatch of business."
"He filled the office of Chancellor till 1450 a longer period than any one had before continuously held the Great Seal. This took place on 31 Jany. 1450, the day the Parliament pursuant to the last adjournment, when "the Archbishop of Canterbury was discharged from the office of Chancellor, and John Kempe, Cardinal and Archbishop of York was put in his place."
"He retired from politics and died at Maidstone, in Kent, on 6 July 1452. He was _pars negotiis neque supra_, one of those sensible, moderate, plodding safe men, who are often much relished by the leaders of political parties, as they can fill an office not discreditably, without any danger of gaining too much _eclat_, and with a certainty of continued subserviency."
"Sensible--moderate--plodding--safe,"--words which may be condensed into, and construed to embody that most useful, homely, yet withal rarest, of all endowments,--common-sense--whose practice in the long run is of far greater value from its reliability, than the too-often-found instability and hazard of careers termed brilliant,--and ever forms a most desirable, if not a great character.
To return to the descent of Stafford and the four children of Sir Humphrey "_with the Silver Hand_."
Sir Richard Stafford the eldest son, married Maud daughter and heir of Richard Lovell, Esq., by Elizabeth daughter and coheir of Sir Guy de Briene, knt. By her he had one child only, a daughter, named Avice, ob. 3 June, 1457, "a great heiress," married as his second wife, to James Butler, fifth Earl of Ormonde, created Earl of Wiltshire and K.G. in 1449. He was also Lord Treasurer of England and a staunch adherent of the Red Rose, was taken prisoner after the battle of Towton, by Richard Salkeld, Esq., and beheaded at Newcastle 1 May, 1461. Sir Richard died about 1427, his wife afterward married John Fitzalan, thirteenth Earl of Arundel, K.G., ob. 12 June, 1435, by whom she had a son Humphrey, fourteenth Earl. She died 19 May, 1436, and was buried with her first husband in the Chapel of St. Anne in the Abbey Church of Abbotsbury.
Sir John Stafford, second son, married Anne daughter of William the third and last Lord Bottreaux, ob. 14 May, 1462, by his wife Elizabeth daughter of John, Lord Beaumont. By her he had one child only, Humphrey, who died in Scotland 6 Aug., 1461. Sir John died 5 Nov., 1427, and was buried with his kindred at Abbotsbury Abbey.
The presumed tomb with effigies of Lord and Lady Bottreaux, the parents of Anne, is in the church of North-Cadbury, Somerset. Its original position was in the Founder"s place, on the north side of the chancel, but it is now relegated to a corner of the tower at the west end. The knight is in complete plate armour, the lady in richly ornamented horned head-dress, and long robes. A canopy is over their heads. Lord Bottreaux married first Elizabeth, daughter of John, Lord Beaumont, she died about 37 Henry VI. (1459). By her he had two sons and two daughters. William, who died before 1434; Reginald, ob. 1420; Anne, married to Sir John Stafford; and Margaret, who died 7 Feb., 1478-9, eventually sole heiress to the large property and t.i.tles of Bottreaux and Mules, married to Robert, Lord Hungerford, ob. 14 May, 1459. Lord Bottreaux married secondly Margaret daughter of Thomas, Lord Roos. He died seized of fifty manors, in the western counties, among them North-Cadbury, which they possessed through the heiress of Mules, and in that church (which they probably rebuilt), by his will he ordered himself to be buried. Reginald, the second son, and brother of Anne, was buried at Aller church, near Langport, which parish was part of the family property. On a flat stone formerly in the pavement of the chancel, but now set upright, on a ledger-line is incised the following inscription,--
=Hic jacet Roginaldus filius William dom" de Botreaux qui obiit x.x.x die mensis Julii anno dom" m^o cccc xx=
In the centre is a shield,--_A griffin rampant_ (BOTTREAUX), impaling _semee of fleurs-de-lys, a lion rampant_ (BEAUMONT).
William Stafford, Esq., third son, was of Suthwyke; he married Katharine daughter of Sir John Chidiock, knt., by whom he had one son Humphrey, subsequently created Lord Stafford of Suthwyke and Earl of Devon. More with regard to him presently. William Stafford, together with his relative Sir Humphrey Stafford of Grafton, knt., Commander of the King"s forces, were both killed in the encounter with Jack Cade and the Kentish insurgents (who came off victorious), at Sevenoaks, 18 June, 1450. His wife married secondly Sir John Arundell of Lanherne, Cornwall, knt., ob. 12 Nov., 1473, and thirdly Sir Roger Lewkenor, knt., ob. 4 Aug., 1478. She died 10 April, 1479.
Alice, their only daughter, married first her neighbour Sir Edmond Cheney, of Broke, Wilts, and by him had two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne.[35] Secondly she married Walter Tailboys of Newton-Kyme, Yorkshire, ob. 13 Apl., 1444; by him she had one daughter Alianore, married to Thomas Strangeways, Esq., by whom she had two sons Henry and Thomas, and one daughter Joan. Thomas Strangeways died in 1484, his wife Alianore 2 April, 1502, and both were buried in the Lady Chapel of the Abbey church of Abbotsbury.
[35] See page 5.
Our thoughts now concentrate on the last--most greatly honoured, yet withal most unfortunate--representative of Stafford of Suthwyke, who rose to the highest dignity conferred on the family, but whose possession of the distinction was indeed short, and his life still more suddenly and disastrously extinguished.
This was Humphrey, the only son of William Stafford of Suthwyke, killed at Sevenoaks in 1450. His cousin Humphrey, son of his uncle Sir John Stafford, dying in Scotland in 1461, he became the sole male heir left remaining. He was born about 1440, and appears to have identified himself with the cause of the White Rose, and to have been in much favour with Edward IV.
Stafford is accused of having been ill-disposed toward the Courtenays, Earls of Devon, who were zealous adherents of the Red Rose; naturally so, for they were descendants of that branch of the royal blood, and with such devotion, that the three brothers, Thomas, Henry, and John, who were the last representatives of the elder descent of that ill.u.s.trious house, lost their lives, either in the battlefield or on the scaffold, and their property by confiscation, in support of its claims. They were the sons of Thomas Courtenay, first of that name, Earl of Devon, who died 3 Feb., 1458, by his wife Margaret Beaufort, second daughter of John, Earl of Somerset, eldest son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, by his third wife Katharine Swynford.
A necessary digression respecting the Courtenays takes place here, as Stafford bears the sinister reputation of acquiring, by means not the most honourable, a large portion of their property and their t.i.tle.
Thomas Courtenay, Earl of Devon, the eldest of these brothers, fighting for the Red Rose, was made prisoner after the battle of Towton, 29 March, 1461, taken to York, attainted and beheaded by order of Edward IV., and all his property confiscated to the crown.
He appears to have been one of the most lawless and unscrupulous men of that lawless era,--his father it was, who is said to have fought with Lord Bonville on Clyst-Heath, and himself, the son, the leader of the outrage and murder of poor old Radford the lawyer, at Poughill, near Crediton, so graphically described in one of the Paston letters, and which as a picture of the ferocity of the time will bear extract here,--
"Also y"r is gret varyance bytwene ye Erll of Devenshire and the Lord Bonvyle as hath be many day and meche debat is like to growe y"rby for on thursday at nyght last pa.s.sed ye Erll of Denshyres sone and heir come w"t lx men of Armes to Radfords place in Devenshire which was of counceil w"t my Lord Bonvyle and they sette an hous on fyer at Radfords gate and cryed and mad an noyse as though they had be sorry for ye fyer, and by that cause Radfords men set opyn ye gats and yede owt to se ye fyer and for w"t th"erll sone foreseid entred into ye place and intreted Radford to come down of his chambre to spike w"t" them p"myttyng him that he shuld no bodyly harm have upon whiche p"mysse he come down and spak w"t ye said Erll sone.
"In ye mene tyme his menye robbe his chambre and ryfled his hutches and trussed suyche as they coude gete to gydder and caryed it away on his own hors.
"Thanne y"erll sone seid, Radford thou must come to my Lord my Fadir, he seid he wold and bad oon of his men make redy his hors to ride w"t "hene whiche answerd hym yt alle his hors wern take awey, thanne he seid to y"erll sone s^r yo"r men have robbed my chambre and thei have myn hors yt I may not ride w"t you to my Lord yo"r fadir, wherfor I p"y you lete me ride for I am old and may not go.
"It was answerid hym ageyn yat he shuld walke forth w"t them on his feete and so he dede till he was a flyte shote or more from his place and yanne he was ... softly for cawse he myght not go fast and whanne yei were thus dep"ted he t"ned ... oon forw"t come ix men ageyn upon hym and smot hym in the hed and fellid ...
of then kyt his throte." (28 October 1455.)
We fear the feud between Bonville and Courtenay, that began with the "valiant performance" on Clyst-Heath, was still raging, and it may be, the cause of poor old lawyer Radford"s death, as it is mentioned he "_was of counceil w"t my Lord Bonvyle_," which circ.u.mstance the Courtenays appear to have resented in this terrible manner. Six years afterward the edge of the axe fatally crossed the throat of "_ye said Erll"s sone_," and leader of this outrage, at York.
The place from which this free-booting party set out was Tiverton Castle, the family residence, where his father the Earl was then living. The castle and manor of Tiverton formed part of the Courtenay possessions afterward given by Edward IV. to Stafford.
Henry Courtenay, the next brother, and Earl of Devon, for alleged complicity with Richard Nevill, Earl of Warwick, and his brothers, then exerting their influence for the restoration of Henry VI., was with Sir Thomas Hungerford of Farleigh Castle, seized, attainted of treason, and after a short trial before the King"s Justices, both beheaded at Salisbury, 4 March, 1466.
John Courtenay, the third and last of these brothers, fell fighting for the Red Rose at the battle of Tewkesbury, 4 May, 1471. In his death, that branch of the family became _extinct_ for the cause of the Red Rose, as their neighbours and relatives the Bonvilles suffered extermination, about the same time, and in a similar manner, contending for the White Rose.
But the charge against Humphrey, Lord Stafford, chiefly related to his alleged antagonism to Henry Courtenay, the second of these brothers, who was executed at Salisbury, and whose death he is said to have "procured." In those days of feud and intrigue, it is impossible to say what men may not have covertly done, to carry out their aims and designs, but it is to be hoped such was not really Stafford"s conduct in this case, for if so, the signally sudden and similar retribution, that so soon afterward overtook him, was well deserved.
But be that as it may, it is certain that a large portion of the confiscated possessions of the Courtenays, "the bulk of the estate,"
about the time of the death of Henry Courtenay, was bestowed by Edward IV. on Stafford, and three years afterward, 7 May, 1469, he was raised by that monarch to the old and coveted t.i.tle of Earl of Devon, and this while John Courtenay, the last of the three brothers, was still alive, as he perished at the battle of Tewkesbury two years afterward.
But John Courtenay, the true heir to the distinguished t.i.tle, lived long enough to see this pretender to it as ignominiously extinguished, and it is remarkable that this ill.u.s.trious heirloom, although twice conferred on others, each attempt has proved futile to wrest it from the rightful owners.
Sir Humphrey Stafford had been created BARON OF SUTHWYKE, first by Writ of Summons dated 21 July, 1461, afterward confirmed by patent dated 24 April, 1464, and, as we have observed, he was further advanced to the dignity of EARL OF DEVON, 7 May, 1469.
Very soon after this honour was conferred on him, Edward despatched the Earl with eight hundred archers, to aid the Earl of Pembroke and his brother Sir Richard Herbert then in command of about seven thousand Welchmen, marching to give Sir John Coniers and the Lancastrians battle. The sequel cannot be better related than in the words of Cleaveland:--
"With these forces the Earl of Pembroke resolved to hinder the rebels in their journey, and having notice that they took their way by _Northampton_, he led the whole body of his army against them, having given orders to Sir _Richard Herbert_ with two thousand soldiers, to wheel about and charge the enemy in the rear. Sir _John Coniers_ had so carefully strengthened the rearward, that the _Welch_ were repulsed with loss, whereupon Sir _Richard Herbert_ retired to his brother, and Sir _John Coniers_ diverted from his direct course to _London_, marched towards _Warwick_, where the Duke of _Clarence_, and the Earl of _Warwick_, had levied a mighty host. The Earl of _Pembroke_ followed him closely, expecting an opportunity of cutting off some part of the enemy, as they marched disorderly, or to give battle to the whole army: but while he was in this pursuit of glory, a small difference between him and the Lord _Stafford_, ruined the whole attempt; for he encamping at _Banbury_, a question arose concerning an Inn, to which _Stafford_ pretended, as having long used the house; but the Earl of _Pembroke_, in regard of his preheminence as General, was resolved to lodge in it. This so trivial distaste, (if there was no farther treason in it) grew so high, that _Stafford_ withdrew himself and his _English_ archers. The rebels, who soon had notice of this unhappy discord, gave the Earl"s camp the next morning a sudden a.s.sault: the _Welch_ received the charge so stoutly, that they took Sir _Henry Neville_, the leader; but, guilty of too much barbarity, most cruelly slew him in cold blood, by which act they raised so fierce a desire of revenge in the enemy, that the next day they gave the Earl battle, and the fight was longe and cruel, but at last the _Welchmen_ fled; in the battle five thousand of the _Welch_ were slain, and, among the few prisoners the Earl of _Pembroke_, and Sir _Richard Herbert_ were taken, whose heads were soon after sacrificed to the ghost of _Neville_."
Another account says this quarrel about the Inn was the result of a matter of love rather than war, that "a fair damsel was resident in the house, of whom both Earls became enamoured, and contrary to the arrangement entered into between them, the first in possession should remain so, the Earl of Devon was dispossessed by the Earl of Pembroke, which excited so much discord between them that, unmindful of his duty to his Sovereign, and the cause in which he was engaged, he departed with his power,"--and so, as a consequence thereon, the Earl of Pembroke and his brother lost their lives, together with five thousand soldiers, who perished on the plain of Danesmore, near Edgcote, about three miles from Banbury, 6 July, 1469.
Treachery of this kind was not likely to be lightly pa.s.sed over by Edward, justly angry at the defeat of his army, and ingrat.i.tude of the man he had so recently honoured. Orders were sent to the Sheriffs of Somerset and Devon to seize Stafford wherever they could find him, and put him to immediate death. The Earl had returned to Somerset, he was taken at the village of Brentmarsh, promptly conveyed to Bridgwater, and there at once beheaded in the market-place on the 17 Aug., 1469.
His body was conveyed to Glas...o...b..ry, and buried under the south arch of the great tower, at the cross of the Abbey Church.
He had made his will some years before, bearing date 3 September, 1463, wherein he "_bequeathed his body to be buried in the Church of our Lady at Glas...o...b..ry, and appointed Mr. Michael Goss, and Mr.
Watts, then Wardens of the Grey Friars in Exeter, should for the salvation of his soul, go to every parish church, in the counties of_ _Dorset, Somerset, Wilts, Devon, and Cornwall, and say a sermon in every church, and town, and other. And because he could not recompense such whom he had offended, he desired them to forgive his poor soul, that it might not be in danger_" (Dugdale).
So perished Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Devon, still quite a young man, for he could not have been more than thirty years of age,--"he enjoyed," continues Cleaveland, "but a little time that honour and estate which he got by procuring the death of its right owner, and he was in derision called _The Earl of three months standing and no more_."
The Earl married Isabel daughter of Sir John Barry, knt.,--and after his death she remarried with Sir Thomas Bourchier, knt., fifth son of Henry Bourchier, second Earl of Ewe, and 30 June, 1461, created Earl of Ess.e.x, who was also Lord Treasurer of England, and who died in 1483,--by his wife Isabel, daughter of Richard, Duke of York, and sister to King Edward IV., another strange conjunction, her thus marrying a nephew of the man who had so vindictively beheaded her first husband. But sentiment had little place in those days; ambition, station, and love of rule were the things sought after, all else seems to have been forgotten.
Weever gives the following inscription as occurring in the church of Ware, Herts, where both herself and second husband appear to have been buried,--
=Hic iacet Thomas Bourchier miles filius Henrici comitis Ess.e.x; ac Isabella uxor eius nuper comitissa Devon, filia et heres Johannis Barry militis: qui obiit ... 1491 et Isabella ob. 1 die Marcij 1488, quorum animabus &c.=
Whereon the old "epitaphist" is induced to further moralize,--
"This _Isabell_, the daughter and heire of Sir _John Barry_, knight, was, when the said _Thomas_ married her, the widow of _Humfrey_ Lord _Stafford_, of Southwike, sonne of _William Stafford_ of _Hooke_, Esquire, created Earle of Devon, by King _Edward_ the fourth; to whom the King gave all honours, manors, Castles, &c., which were _Thomas Courtneys_, the fourteenth Earle of Devon: who neverthelesse, grew ingratefull to King _Edward_ his advancer, in revolting from him at the battaile of Banbury, for which cowardise (hee being apprehended) was without processe executed at Bridgewater, the seventeenth of August, _anno. 1469_, having been Earle but three moneths."
At his death the ill-gotten estates of the Courtenays that he possessed, were again forfeited, and Edward IV. gave a considerable portion of them to another eminent west-countryman John, Lord Dinham, and to other grantees, but the succession failed in nearly all the recipients, and Henry VII., in the first year of his reign, made void all these grants by Edward IV., and restored both the t.i.tle and the estates to their rightful owners.
Here, before we finally dismiss our thoughts on the signal catastrophe that ended the dynasty of Stafford of Suthwyke, we dwell awhile on the singular parallelism of characters and incidents that are presented to us in each of our little narratives relative to the distinguished but unfortunate house of Stafford.
Both the prominent factors of our unpretending histories fell victims to the vengeance of the White Rose, the result of defection doubtless, though of differing kind. Each experienced the same unhappy fate, Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Devon, was sent to the scaffold at Bridgwater, by the peremptory mandate of Edward IV., Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, suffered in similar summary manner at Salisbury, by the relentless order of Richard III.
Two eminent ecclesiastics of the highest dignity are also a.s.sociated with their relations. John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Chancellor to Henry VI., finds place in the one, and John Morton, Cardinal-Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Chancellor to Henry VII., appears in the other.
Both were west-countrymen also, having been born in neighbouring counties, the one at a village in north Wilts, the other in a little country town in central Dorset.
Stafford saw the beginning of the internecine strife of the Roses, but was called away as their rival pretensions began to a.s.sert themselves, and the deadly conflict to thicken.