Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell
Francis Lovell, 9th Baron Lovell, 6th Baron Holand, later 1st Viscount Lovell,
Lovell continued the Yorkist resistance into the early years of Henry VII's reign, but his fate is unknown after he disappeared following the final defeat of the Yorkists at the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487.
Early life
Francis was the son of
By 1466, he was married to Anne FitzHugh,[2] daughter of Henry FitzHugh, 5th Baron FitzHugh. They had a daughter named Agnes and a son whose name is unknown.[7] Neither child seems to have survived past the age of four. FitzHugh had married the Earl of Warwick's sister Alice Neville and supported Warwick's rebellion against Edward IV in 1470. As the pardon issued to Henry, Lord FitzHugh includes Francis Lovell it can be assumed that Francis lived with his father-in-law at this time.[8] When Edward IV had re-established his rule in 1471, he granted the wardship of Francis Lovell, who was still underage, to his sister Elizabeth and her husband John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk.[9]
Upon the death of his paternal grandmother Alice Deincourt in 1474 he inherited a large estate, including the lands of the baronies of
Follower of Richard III
Lovell became a follower of his friend,
Richard acceded to the throne on 26 June 1483; at his coronation on 6 July 1483, Francis Lovell bore the third sword of state.
In July 1484,
The Catte, the Ratte and Lovell our dogge
Rulyth all Englande under a hogge.
The poem was interpolated into
Bosworth and aftermath
In June 1485, Lovell was appointed to guard the south coast to prevent the landing of
As a chief leader of the
Lovell's wife, Anne Fitzhugh, was granted an annuity of £20 in 1489.[23] She was still alive in 1495; the date of her death is not known.[24]
Later reports about his death
Francis Bacon relates that according to one report he lived long afterward in a cave or vault.[10][25]
More than 200 years later, in 1708, the skeleton of a man was found in a secret chamber in the family mansion at
On the Nottinghamshire History website, a reference is made to the The third slab, an alabaster one, lies at the south end of the altar-table. A few lines in black wax constitute the remains of an inscription and effigy of a knight of the 15th century. The late Mr. Lawson Lowe, of Chepstow, said in December, 1882, that when he visited the church in 1865, the date could be made out, and he thought the effigy might be that of a knight who fought at the battle of Stoke, near Newark, in 1487. Gedling Church and Stoke Bardolph Castle, the ancestral home of Joan Bardolph who was Francis's great-grandmother, lie just a few miles away from the battlefield of Stoke. It is feasible that Francis attempted to escape across the river at the Fiskerton shallows but was either killed or died later of his wounds, his body being buried under the flagstones in the Gedling Church in order to prevent the certain fate of then being 'hung, drawn and quartered'.[29]
Documentary evidence that a chantry chapel in Gedling church was founded for Francis Lovel has been published on the church website.[1]
See also
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lovell, Francis Lovell". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 71. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Archbold, W.A.J. (1893). "Francis Lovell, Viscount Lovell (1454-1487?)". Dictionary of National Biography. 34: 172–173.
- Ross, Charles (1981). Richard III. ISBN 9780520045897.
- Williams, Joanna M. (1990). "The Political Career of Francis Viscount Lovell (1456–?)" (PDF). The Ricardian. 8 (109): 382–402. ISSN 0048-8267.
Notes
- ^ Ross, p.159
- ^ a b Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1467-1477
- ^ Calendar of Patent Rolls 1476–1485 pp. 14, 62
- ^ Williams 1990, p. 382.
- ^ Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1467-1477, p. 51.
- ^ a b Ross, p. 49.
- ^ The Stonor letters and papers, 1290-1483; ed. For the Royal historical society, from the origial documents in the Public record office, by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford. 2006.
- ^ Pollard, A.J., "Lord FitzHugh’s Rising in 1470", BIHR 53 (1979), p. 170-171.
- ^ Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1467-1477, pp. 261, 312.
- ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911.
- ^ R. Horrox and P. Hammond (eds.), British Library Manuscript. 433 (Gloucester, 1983), vol. iii, p. 3-4.
- ^ Anne F. Sutton and P.W. Hammond (eds.), The Coronation of Richard III. The Extant Documents (Gloucester, 1983), p. 37.
- ^ Michèle Schindler. Lovell Our Dogge: The Life of Viscount Lovell, Closest Friend of Richard III and Failed Regicide, 2019 Google eBook
- ^ Rosemary Horrox, Richard III, p. 249.
- ^ Complete Peerage, vol. ii, Appendix B.
- ^ Robert Fabyan, The New Chronicles of England and France in to Parts (London, 1811), p. 672.
- ^ Fields, Bertram. Royal Blood: Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes. 2000
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17058. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ M. Bennett, The Battle of Bosworth (Stroud, 1993), p. 155.
- ^ Roger Lockyer, Andrew Trush, "Henry VII"
- ^ J. Williams, 'The Political Career of Francis Viscount Lovell. 1456-?', The Ricardian 8 (1990), pp. 393-94.
- ^ Joanna M. Williams, "The Political Career of Francis Viscount Lovell (1456–?)"
- ^ J.G. Gairdner (ed.), Letters and Papers of the Reign of Richard III and Henry VII, RS 24 (London, 1861), vol. ii, p. 71.
- ^ J. Williams, p. 397.
- Lumby, Joseph Rawsoned. History of Henry VII, p. 37
- ^ For the discovery at Minster Lovell see Notes and Queries, 2nd series i. and 5th series x; F. Peck, Memoirs of Oliver Cromwell, p. 87, cited after A.J. Taylor, Minster Lovell Hall. Oxfordshire (English Heritage)(1958), p. 19.
- ^ Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1485-1494, p. 64.
- ^ https://sparkypus.com/2020/06/24/minster-lovell-hall-home-to-francis-lovell-viscount-lovell. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
- ^ Whitbread, Richard (1903). "Gedling church". Transactions of the Thoroton Society X. nottshistory.org.uk. Retrieved 20 April 2018.