STAFFORD, Humphrey IV

When Henry VI came to the throne, the fortunes of the Staffords, one of the leading gentry families of Somerset and Dorset, seemed assured, for the head of the family, Sir Humphrey Stafford *, had no fewer than five living adult sons. The family’s standing found expression and was further enhanced by the prestigious marriages that Sir Humphrey contracted for them. While the two eldest were respectively betrothed to daughters of Robert Lovell* and William, Lord Botreaux, the third, William, married one of the two coheiresses of another leading western landowner, Sir John Chideock, and by about 1439 that match had produced a son, the subject of this biography, named Humphrey after his grandfather.

When Humphrey was 11 years old, in 1450, his father was killed at Sevenoaks by Jack Cade’s rebels. His wardship and the custody of his estates were granted to his mother, his distinguished kinsman, John Stafford, archbishop of Canterbury, and William, Lord Bonville*. CFR, xviii. 159-60. It is uncertain what arrangements were made for his education and upbringing, or whether his marriage to Isabel, sole daughter and heiress presumptive to the wealthy marcher landowner Sir John Barre was contracted by his guardians. Equally, it is not known whether he remained in the household of his widowed mother, who before long married the Cornish landowner Sir John Arundell of Lanherne, or was brought up by one of his other custodians, but Stafford’s later fortunes suggest that it was Bonville who assumed prime responsibility for him. H. Kleineke, ‘Some Observations of the Household of Humphrey Stafford’, The Fifteenth Cent. XIV, ed. Clark, 123. For Bonville, the 1450s were dominated by his increasingly acrimonious conflict with Thomas Courtenay, earl of Devon, an animosity that may have left its mark on his young ward. In the second half of the decade the Courtenays, previously allies of the government’s principal critic, Richard, duke of York, effected a rapprochement with the Lancastrian court, which found its confirmation in the marriage of Thomas Courtenay the younger (who succeeded his father as earl in 1458), to one of Queen Margaret’s kinswomen. The earl’s new-found acceptance at court presented a problem for Bonville, who had previously enjoyed favour there, and caused him for his part to align himself more closely with the duke of York. Although his ties with York remained loose, and he did not apparently suffer any repercussions when the duke and his principal adherents were attainted and driven into exile in the final months of 1459, he was quick to join the Yorkist lords when they invaded from Calais in the early summer of 1460, and thus found himself on the winning side at the battle of Northampton. While these dramatic political events were unfolding, Humphrey Stafford came of age. His movements during the months before Northampton are open to speculation. In those months control of the strategically vital port and fortresses at Calais lay with the Yorkist lords, and although the duke of Somerset had been formally appointed captain of Calais in the earl of Warwick’s place his attempt to seize command ended with the retreat of his force to the neighbouring castle of Guînes. At some stage, either as part of Somerset’s main army or in a subsequent bid to reinforce it, John Audley alias Tuchet*, the new Lord Audley, sailed for Picardy with reinforcements. Taken captive by the Yorkists, he switched sides and joined his former enemies in their successful invasion of England at the end of June. In Audley’s company was a Humphrey Stafford. This suggests a possible narrative of events whereby Lord Bonville’s ward was captured alongside his commander Audley and by following the latter’s example in changing sides at this juncture triggered his rapid rise to prominence in the Yorkist camp. C.L. Scofield, Edw. IV, i. 62, 76; English Chron. (Cam. Soc. lxiv), 84-85; Reg. Whethamstede ed. Riley, i. 369-70. Yet that Humphrey’s relative youth and inexperience would have made him an odd choice as one of the leaders of the relief force. Much more likely is that the man concerned was our Humphrey’s older cousin Humphrey Stafford II* of Hooke, a member of Queen Margaret’s household. If so, he made his escape back to England, and remained firm in his adherence to the Lancastrian cause.

In any event, through Bonville’s good offices the younger Humphrey Stafford found himself well placed to play a part from the very outset in the administration established by the victors of Northampton. As early as August 1460 he was included in a commission of inquiry for the county of Somerset, and his subsequent advancement was rapid. On 30 July a Parliament had been summoned to meet at Westminster in early October, and the duke of York’s partisans took care to ensure the return of their supporters. In September, in spite of his youth, Stafford was duly elected a knight of the shire by the commons of Somerset, and in early November, while Parliament was in session, he was pricked sheriff of Somerset and Dorset. One of the MPs for Bridport, John Jewe*, became Stafford’s under sheriff: Som. Med. Wills (Som. Rec. Soc. xvi), 197. Others swiftly recognized Stafford’s importance as a key supporter of the new rulers: on 15 Nov. Bishop Waynflete of Winchester, the recently-dismissed Lancastrian chancellor, appointed him constable of his strategically important castle of Taunton, at an annual fee of £10, later increased to £20. V. Davis, ‘Wm. Waynflete and the Wars of the Roses’, Southern Hist. xi. 8, 19.

Stafford’s diverse responsibilities make it difficult to trace his movements in the next few weeks. Probably, when the Commons rose for Christmas he returned to the south-west, perhaps in the company of York’s heir, Edward, earl of March. The two men, not far apart in age, were soon to develop a close friendship which may well have been budding in these final months of 1460. It seems likely that Stafford was with Earl Edward at Gloucester, where he spent Christmas, when the news came of York’s death at Wakefield. Edward hastily assembled an army from the estates of his earldom in the marches of Wales, and rode north against the forces of the earls of Pembroke and Wiltshire. When, on 2 or 3 Feb., the two armies clashed at Mortimer’s Cross in Herefordshire, the Yorkists gained the upper hand, and began to make their way east to join up with the troops commanded by the earl of Warwick, William of Worcestre, Itins. ed. Harvey, 202-3; C.D. Ross, Edw. IV, 30-31; Scofield, i. 137. but these, for their part, were defeated by a Lancastrian army assembled by Queen Margaret at St. Albans on 17 Feb., and forced to retreat. The city of London nevertheless refused to admit the queen, and it was the combined forces led by Edward and Warwick that entered the capital a few days later and proceeded to set up an administration separate from that of Henry VI, who was deemed to have forfeited his crown by rejoining his wife and son after their victory at St. Albans. On 3 Mar. Edward of York was proclaimed King Edward IV. The lords in London lost little time in dispatching their supporters into the shires to raise armed men to quell Lancastrian resistance. Among them was Stafford who on 10 Mar. was ordered to seize the estates and property of the dukes of Exeter and Somerset, the earls of Devon, Wiltshire and Northumberland and the Somerset knights Sir James Luttrell and (Sir) Alexander Hody*. CPR, 1461-7, p. 32. He may have delegated this task to deputies, for less than three weeks later he was in the ranks of Edward’s army at Pontefract, distinguished himself in the decisive battle at Towton and was one of those knighted by the young King on the battlefield. Ross, 36-37, 74; Shaw, ii. 13; Paston Letters, iii. 267. The victorious army’s return south was marked by a degree of exuberance, but Stafford also displayed early signs of the greed which was to characterize his career: two years later he described how money and goods had come into his hands ‘by constraynt ayen [men’s] will, or in other fourme unlawfull, as […] comyng home fro yorke felde’. Som. Med. Wills, 196.

Formal rewards for his loyalty were readily forthcoming. The early months of 1461 had claimed the lives of the rivals Lord Bonville and the earl of Devon (who had respectively been executed after the battles of St. Albans and Towton), and it fell to Stafford to fill the gap. On 15 June he was appointed steward of the duchy of Cornwall, the most important office in the south-west in the monarch’s gift. B.P. Wolffe, R. Demesne in English Hist. 160; SC6/1291/3/1/16-17; 2/17. Three weeks later his personal wealth and standing were buttressed on his taking possession of the estates of his cousin Humphrey Stafford II, who had died childless. These included extensive lands in south-western England centered on the principal family seat of Hooke in Dorset, but also including the manors of Burmington in Warwickshire, Bedcote and Stourbridge in Worcestershire, Crowell in Oxfordshire, and West Wittenham in Berkshire, besides 16 more in Staffordshire, altogether said to be worth some £100 p.a. CPR, 1461-7, p. 124; C140/3/30. In the following weeks and months the King continued to shower him with offices and rewards. He was added to the south-western county benches, appointed constable of Bristol castle and keeper of the forests of Kingswood, Filwood and Gillingham, and headed numerous royal commissions in the region. Finally, when Edward called his first Parliament in mid July Stafford was summoned in his own right as Lord Stafford of Southwick. His presence in the Upper House is documented on several days of the winter session, and he was among the lords who voted on 1 Dec. that the orders for the payment of royal judges should be warranted at the King’s pleasure, rather than by authority of Parliament. W.H. Dunham jnr., Fane Fragment, 8, 12, 15, 18, 22, 25.

Stafford now also drew to himself the former members of the Bonville affinity, to many of whom he, as a one-time ward of Lord Bonville, was probably well known. Kleineke, 122-5. It seems that initially it was intended that in the rule of the south-west he should take a secondary role to the King’s uncle, William Neville, earl of Kent, to whom many of the confiscated estates of the Courtenay earls of Devon had been granted, but Neville’s death in January 1463 left him the undisputed leader of society in the region. Yet his smooth accession was not guaranteed. Within a few months of Neville’s death, he too seems to have fallen seriously ill. In mid 1463, in evident fear for his life, Stafford drew up a panic-stricken, rambling will, a far cry from his customary arrogance. He promised, should he survive, to make amends for all his extortions and unlawful dealings, and begged his executors to provide for the health of his soul, pleading

…that ye which in my lyfe here have loved me and y you bothe desire you no more but to love the pouer soule which cannot help hym self When he is departed from hense, but standeth in the mercy of God and lokith after refute and comforte which shold come fro this world by the remembrance of executours and feoffez of trust made in this forsaide world, which bith so of verray trust maade will not forgete the forsaid pouer soule the pylgryme, and so I charge you as ye will answere afore the high Juge which shall deme both you and me And that I have no cause to crye upon you at the dredefull day of Dome.

He closed ‘I can no more at this tyme but six latyn wordes, which be these, In domino confido et in vos.’ Som. Med. Wills, 197. Yet Stafford’s humility in the face of death was not to last. He made a full recovery and was soon once more actively seeking to increase his wealth and power. In recognition of the role he was to play in the rule of the south-west, the King now granted him many of the estates of the forfeited earldoms of Devon and Wiltshire on which Neville’s position in the region had been based. Not surprisingly, the largesse bestowed on Stafford aroused the jealousy of others with a valid claim on Edward’s gratitude. In particular, John Dynham of Nutwell, one of the young King’s companions in exile at Calais, whose family had long ranked among the most important below the nobility in Devon and Cornwall, could reasonably expect to be given a prominent role, but now found himself subordinated to Stafford, a newcomer to the far west. By 1463-4 relations between the two men had broken down to such a degree as to threaten open violence, and at Michaelmas 1464 the receiver of Exeter accounted for the cost of guarding the south gate of the city during the time of their quarrel. Devon RO, Exeter city recs., receiver’s acct. 3-4 Edw. IV, m. 2.

Dynham was eventually pacified by a royal grant of several manors forfeited by the attainted Lord Hungerford and Moleyns, but the grants to Stafford continued to flow, and increasingly at the expense of the King’s erstwhile allies, the earl of Warwick’s Neville kinsmen. The lands at one time held by the earl of Kent aside, in 1467 the King also granted to Stafford various Devon properties of which he stripped Warwick’s brother, the chancellor George Neville, archbishop of York: indeed, in June that year Stafford was present among the King’s councillors in the archbishop’s inn at Charing Cross when Edward deprived him of the great seal. CPR, 1461-7, p. 122; 1467-77, pp. 17-18; CCR, 1461-8, p. 456; L.S. Woodger, ‘Hen. Bourgchier’ (Oxf. Univ. D.Phil. thesis, 1974), 107; Ross, 110. Stafford was now clearly put in the place formerly filled by the Courtenay earl of Devon. He established himself at the comital seat of Tiverton, and by royal patronage took possession of substantial amounts of the Courtenays’ moveable goods, as well as a string of wardships, including those of the heirs of the families of Durneford, Whitlegh and Strode. CPR, 1461-7, p. 358-9, 532; 1467-77, pp. 17, 22-23, 116, 124; CFR, xx. 149, 202, 256; CP40/818, rot. 46; 820, rot. 506; DL37/33, no. 40a; 34, no. 10. If the challenge to his family’s pre-eminence had angered Warwick, he could only have been further incensed by Stafford’s opposition to his foreign policies. Even after the King’s marriage to Elizabeth Wydeville the earl had continued to favour an alliance with France, but by contrast, the King, supported by the queen’s family and close associates including Stafford, was actively seeking an alliance with Burgundy. M.A. Hicks, False, Fleeting, Perjur’d Clarence, 29-30; Woodger, 111. Symbolically, in the summer of 1467 Stafford played a prominent part in the ceremonies surrounding the tournament between Lord Scales and the Bastard of Burgundy, and alongside another of King Edward’s new creations, William, Lord Herbert*, he carried the weapons ahead of the combatants. Scofield, i. 417. His influence in the south-west and in the government of the realm more generally were now such that he could easily arrange for associates like John Kendale† and John Devyok† to be returned to Parliament that summer, and his servants as well as he himself were regularly plied with substantial gifts of wine and food by the towns of Devon and Cornwall. Exeter receivers’ accts, 1-4 Edw. IV; Cornw. RO, Launceston bor. recs. B/Laus/158. Nor were all of Stafford’s clients notable for their probity: by 1466, Stafford had allowed himself to be drawn into the schemes of Thomas Tropenell* designed to give his stepson, Richard Erle†, seisin of some of the lands that had descended to Richard Seymour* from his ancestor Sir William Sturmy*, and his influence (along with Tropenell’s hand-salves) may well have played a part in ensuring that an assize jury found in Erle’s favour. KB27/833, rot. 100; 834, rot. 43; 836, rot. 72

When in the autumn of 1467 the King’s sister, Margaret of York, agreed to marry Charles the Bold, the earl of Warwick withdrew to his northern estates in a state of high dudgeon. Realizing the untenable nature of the situation, in the first days of 1468 Edward summoned Archbishop Neville and Earl Rivers for their help in making peace between Warwick and the King’s close associates. This was brought about before the end of January at a great council at Coventry, where Warwick was publicly reconciled with Stafford, Herbert, now earl of Pembroke, and Lord Audley. Letters and Pprs. Illust. Wars of English ed. Stevenson, ii (2), [789]; Hicks, 30; idem, Warwick, 265; Ross, 118. But this fragile reconciliation was not destined to last, and the blatant avarice of Stafford and the Wydevilles soon began to capture the popular imagination. That autumn the heirs to two forfeited peerage titles, Henry Courtenay, younger brother of the late earl of Devon, and (Sir) Thomas Hungerford*, son of the executed Lord Hungerford – both of them claimants to lands the King had granted to Stafford – were arrested on suspicion of treason. On 12 Jan. 1469 the two men were tried at Salisbury by a special commission of oyer and terminer headed by the King’s 17-year-old brother, Richard, duke of Gloucester, and including Stafford among other nobles. Ross, 122-3. Convicted by a jury, the two men were beheaded on the same day, but many, according to rumour, were less sure of their guilt, maintaining that ‘the Lorde Stafforde of Southwyke was cause of the seyde Herry Curtenayes dethe, for he wolde be the Erle of Devynschyre’. Ibid. 66; J. Warkworth, Chron. Reign Edw. IV (Cam. Soc. x), 6; C140/22/48, m. 3. Just four months later, Stafford fulfilled this ultimate ambition: on 17 May he was granted five more former Courtenay manors (Colump John, Fareway, Trelugan, and moieties of Treverbyn and Tregamur), and was formally created earl of Devon. CPR, 1467-77, p. 156; Paston Letters, v. 28.

Yet, even before the already disaffected earl of Warwick was forced to endure the fresh humiliation of seeing his rival elevated to a rank equal to his own, popular unrest had broken out in the north of England. In late April 1469 malcontents had rallied around a captain known as Robin of Redesdale, probably to be identified with Warwick’s cousin by marriage, Sir John Conyers of Hornby. These rebels, and a separate group assembled in the East Riding under a leader calling himself Robin of Holderness, were rapidly dispersed by John Neville, earl of Northumberland, but although he ‘of Holderness’ was executed, the rising of Robin of Redesdale soon revived. Ross, 126-7. In early July the Nevilles showed their hand: from the safety of Calais Warwick, Archbishop Neville, and the earl’s son-in-law, the King’s own brother George, duke of Clarence, sent a letter accompanied by a petition outlining the grievances of Robin of Redesdale and his rebels. Central to the complaints were the ‘disceyvabille covetous rule and gydynge of certain ceducious persones’, including Stafford alongside the queen’s Wydeville relatives, who were said to have ‘of thayre myschevous assent and oppinion … advised and causid [the King] to geve of [his] seyd lyvelode and possessions to them above theire disertis and degrees’. Not content with this, so the complaint ran on, in their avarice they had also caused the King to oppress the realm with taxes and other impositions, to debase the coinage, and to divert a levy intended for a crusade to his own use. Ibid. 121; Warkworth, 46-51; John Vale’s Bk. ed. Kekewich et al., 213; C.D. Ross, Ric. III, 12; Hicks, Clarence, 34.

Edward’s initial reaction to the rising was slow. Only in the second half of June did he set out for the north, and it was not until early July that his preparations to meet the rebels acquired any sense of urgency. Ross, Edw. IV, 128-9. While he made for Nottingham, he dispatched Stafford and Pembroke to their respective regions to raise troops to counter the rising. Whereas Pembroke raised a force of Welsh men-at-arms, Stafford marched north with a large contingent of west-country archers. The numbers of 43,000 Welshmen and 7,000 archers quoted by Warkworth are more than likely exaggerated: Warkworth, 6. On 25 July the two earls approached Banbury with their retinues, but, as if to vindicate those who accused them of arrogance, when they linked up the two men were unable to agree on their respective billeting. The angry Stafford withdrew his men some eight miles towards Banbury, while Pembroke set up camp south of the river Cherwell. The following day, the northerners attacked the latter’s forces, and although Stafford seems to have attempted to come to their assistance with his archers, he arrived too late to prevent their rout and the capture of Pembroke and his brother Sir Richard Herbert. Ibid.; P.A. Haigh, Military Campaigns of the Wars of the Roses, 100-2; Gt. Chron. London ed. Thomas and Thornley, 208-9; Paston Letters, i. 249; Ross, Edw. IV, 129-31; idem, Ric. III, 14. Stafford may never have become fully engaged in the fighting, and successfully avoided capture in the immediate aftermath of the battle. He headed west towards his own estates, but evidently failed to appreciate the degree to which the hatred of his aristocratic rivals was shared by the commons of the region. For nearly a decade, any opposition to his highhandedness had been easily overcome by Stafford’s ‘grete myght, power and fere that peple of that Cuntre hadde of hym’. C1/38/214. Emboldened by events further north, the people now struck back. Even a year earlier a group of merchants and artisans had felt bold enough to assault Stafford’s servant Devyok at Exeter, CP40/829, rot. 164; KB27/831, rot. 37. and now it was Earl Humphrey’s turn: in the early days of August he was apprehended and taken to Bridgwater. Rumours of his capture reached London by 16 Aug., when the Milanese ambassador reported to his master that it was ‘considered certain that [his captors] will make an end, as they mean to be the rulers at all costs’. CSP Milan, 1385-1619, no. 173. This was indeed the case: on 17 Aug. Earl Humphrey, aged only 30, was publicly executed at Bridgwater, ostensibly by the townsmen, but in reality probably at behest of the earl of Warwick. H. Kleineke, ‘Five Wills’, Nottingham Med. Studies, liv. 156-7; John Vale’s Bk. 46; Ross, Edw. IV, 132; Warkworth, 7, 30; CFR, xx. 247.

In March 1467 Stafford had supplemented his will of 1463 by two schedules, and on 21 July 1469 at Cirencester, on his way to Edgcote, he hastily penned a further codicil. Informed of his impending execution he made final dispositions for his soul. Som. Med. Wills, 196-201; PCC 29 Godyn (PROB11/5, ff. 227v-229). Despite having been drawn up in stages over a number of years and in at least two instances in a state of mental distress, the will’s provisions were remarkably consistent. Stafford requested burial in the Lady chapel of the abbey church of Glastonbury, to which he made a number of bequests. Central to his concerns was the need to atone for his rapacious acquisitions of lands. He asked that his heirs should not be given seisin of his estates until every man whom he had harmed had been recompensed, particularly the abbots of Glastonbury and Tavistock. Furthermore, he instructed his executors to hear the claim of ‘euery creature that I haue hadde lande of untrieuly’, specifically, John Clinton†, the son and heir of John, Lord Clinton (d.1464), for a claim dating back to his grandfather’s time, which he had chosen to ignore. Other provisions for the welfare of his soul were more conventional. He asked that his confessor, the warden of the Exeter Greyfriars, and Master Nicholas Gosse, the chancellor of Exeter cathedral, should go to every parish church in Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall and preach a sermon in each of them. In his lifetime, he had made provision for the foundation of an almshouse, and left the documentation at Muchelney priory. In the hour of his death he turned for succour to his mother’s namesake, St. Katherine, and the rather more obscure ‘St. Umfray’. Som. Med. Wills, 200; Kleineke, ‘Five Wills’, 149-51. As his executors Earl Humphrey appointed Bishop Waynflete, his kinsmen Sir John Willoughby† and John Cheyne, as well as his associates and servants John Kendale, William Browning I*, Richard Gildover and Roger Bekensawe. In the event, their task proved a momentous one, further complicated by squabbles between the heirs and Stafford’s more distant relatives, as well as the King’s intervention.

Stafford left no offspring. C140/32/30. He was survived by his wife, Isabel, who went on to marry Sir Thomas Bourgchier, a son of the earl of Essex. CPR, 1467-77, p. 425; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 472, 511, 512, 682-4. The majority of Stafford’s feoffees were soon agreed upon her dower, although Browning apparently dissented and refused to hand over any money until challenged by Countess Isabel in the court of Chancery. C1/41/217; CP40/845, rot. 298. In the absence of a direct heir, the Stafford estates were divided between the three daughters of Humphrey’s paternal aunt Alice (d.1448): Anne, wife of Sir John Willoughby, Elizabeth, wife of Sir John Colshull*, and Eleanor, wife of Thomas Strangeways†. In November 1469, before the executors could even gain probate of the earl’s will, let alone set about fulfilling it, the heirs were granted seisin of their inheritance. Left without the means to recompense those named in the will, the executors had to take legal action against the coheirs, but even if the latter had wanted to co-operate, they were unable to do so, for part of Stafford’s estates were now seized by his distant kinsman Humphrey Stafford III* of Grafton. While the rightful heirs were seeking to recover the lands from him, the executors had to sue them to recover temporary seisin. In the meantime, the individuals promised recompense in the late earl’s will grew impatient and themselves sought the assistance of the law against the executors. The complex dispute was partially resolved by Humphrey of Grafton’s execution in 1486, but litigation over the will nevertheless continued thereafter. Som. Med. Wills, 196-201; C1/38/214; 61/296; 67/327-8; C253/52/4; SC8/344/E1310; E159/249, recorda Trin. rot. 14; CP40/845, rots. 25, 211; 852, rots. 319, 418. To further complicate the executors’ task, the former earl’s plate and jewels, which he had entrusted to Master Nicholas Gosse, were stolen from the cleric’s custody by his household chaplain, Nicholas Stanbury, and the complex web of litigation which ensued from the executors’ efforts to recover them was still expanding in the late 1470s. KB9/326/6, 7; KB27/836, rots. 29, 48; E159/247, brevia Easter rot. 6; Kleineke, ‘Five Wills’, 158-64.

The former Courtenay estates, which had been granted to Stafford in tail-male, reverted to the Crown at his death and in part were settled on Joan Courtenay of Powderham, while Stafford’s old rival, Lord Dynham, was made steward of the remainder, and finally achieved some of the pre-eminence in the south-west to which he had aspired for a decade. CPR, 1467-77, pp. 173-4, 176. After the end of Henry VI’s readeption most of the Courtenay lands were granted to the King’s brother, Clarence: CPR, 1467-77, pp. 279-80. Stafford’s mother survived her son for a further ten years, and it was only on her death in April 1479 that her share of the former Chideock estates passed out of her hands to Humphrey’s heirs. CPR, 1467-77, pp. 77, 186; C140/71/47; John Vale’s Bk. 134; E405/62, rot. 2; CCR, 1476-85, no. 491; CFR, xxi. 541.