[34] Edition, 1631.
"Here (Canterbury Cathedral) lies interred in the Martyrdome an
Archbishop, very noble, and no lesse learned, one of the
honourable familie of the _Staffords_; sonne (saith the Catalogue
of Bishops) vnto the Earle of Stafford, but I finde no such thing
in all the Catalogues of Honour; a man much favoured by King
_Henry_ the fifth, who preferred him first to the Deanrie of
Wells, gave him a Prebend in the Church of Salisbury, and made
him one of his privie Councell, and in the end Treasurer of
England. And then although this renowned King was taken away by
vntimely death, ye hee still went forward in the way of
promotion, and obtained the Bishopricke of Bath and Welles, which
with great wisedome hee governed eighteene yeares, from whence he
was removed to this of Canterbury, in which he sate almost nine
yeares; and in the meanetime was made Lord Chancellour of
England, which office hee held eighteene years (which you shall
hardly finde any other man to have done) vntill wearie of so
painfull a place, he voluntarily resigned it over into the King's
hands. And about three yeares after that died at Maidstone July
6. _Ann_: 1452. Vpon a flat marble stone over him I find this
confabulatorie Epitaph:--
=Quis fuit enuclees quem celas saxea moles?
Stafford Antistes fuerat dictusque Johannes.
Qua sedit sede marmor queso simul ede?
Pridem Bathonie. Regni totius et inde
Primas egregius. Pro presule funde precatus
Aureolam gratus huic det de Virgine natus.="
Of the Archbishop's public career as Metropolitan and Lord Chancellor,
this belongs rather to the province of national history, and is
altogether too extensive for even short notice here, it has been amply
treated by Dean Hook in his _Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury_.
Lord Campbell in his _Lives of the Chancellors_ thus speaks of
Stafford in that capacity,--
"Having with great reputation taken the degree of Doctor of Civil
Law at Oxford, he practised for some time as an advocate in
Doctors Commons, when Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury
elevated him to be Dean of the Arches and obtained for him the
deanery of St. Martin, and a prebend in Lincoln Cathedral. He
then became a favourite of Henry V., who made him successively
Dean of Wells, Prebendary of Sarum, Keeper of the Privy Seal, and
Treasurer of England. He attached himself to the party of
Cardinal Beaufort, by whose interest in 1425, he was appointed
Bishop of Bath and Wells.
[Illustration: EFFIGIES OF WILLIAM, LORD BOTTREAUX, AND ELIZABETH
BEAUMONT, HIS WIFE.
NORTH CADBURY CH----]
"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 titles 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
xxx 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
illustrious 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 title.
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 passed 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 circumstance 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 title 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 title, lived
long enough to see this pretender to it as ignominiously extinguished,
and it is remarkable that this illustrious 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
assault: 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 passed over by
Edward, justly angry at the defeat of his army, and ingratitude 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 Glastonbury, 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 Glastonbury, 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 Essex, 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 Essex; 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.=