James Fiennes, 1st Baron Saye and Sele
James Fiennes, 1st Baron Saye and Sele (22 September 1395 – 4 July 1450) was an English soldier and politician. He was born at Herstmonceux, Sussex, the second son of Sir William Fiennes (1 August 1357 – 18 January 1402) and his wife Elizabeth Batisford (Wartling, Sussex, 1363 - Herstmonceux, 18 January 1405).
Fiennes fought in the
He was summoned to Parliament from 1446 to 1449 and is said to have been created Baron Saye and Sele by letters patent in 1447. Saye and Sele was a supporter of William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, the principal power behind the throne of Henry VI.
After Suffolk's deposition and murder in 1450, Fiennes was imprisoned in the
His son-in-law was also executed by the rebels outside the city walls on the same day. The heads of the two men were put on pikes and unceremoniously paraded through the streets of London while their bearers pushed them together so that they appeared to kiss.[4] Fiennes was subsequently buried in the Franciscan church at Newgate. Shortly after the burial, English settlers dispossessed from their property in Bayeux and Caen (who had recently arrived in London) removed his coat of arms from the pillar by his grave and reversed it - an act intended to dishonour the dead. [5].He was succeeded in the barony by his son William.
Ancestry
| Sir John Fiennes | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sir John Fiennes | |||||||||||||||||||
| Joan Jordan | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sir William Fiennes | |||||||||||||||||||
| John Monceaux | |||||||||||||||||||
| Maud Monceaux | |||||||||||||||||||
| Olympia | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sir William Fiennes | |||||||||||||||||||
| Geoffrey Saye, 1st Baron Saye | |||||||||||||||||||
| Geoffrey Saye, 2nd Baron Saye | |||||||||||||||||||
| Idonea Leybourne | |||||||||||||||||||
| Joan Saye | |||||||||||||||||||
| Guy Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick | |||||||||||||||||||
| Maud Beauchamp | |||||||||||||||||||
| Alice Tosny | |||||||||||||||||||
| James Fiennes | |||||||||||||||||||
| Everard Batsford | |||||||||||||||||||
| John Batsford | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sir William Batsford | |||||||||||||||||||
| Elizabeth Batsford | |||||||||||||||||||
| Stephen Pepelsham | |||||||||||||||||||
| Simon Peplesham | |||||||||||||||||||
| Margaret Peplesham | |||||||||||||||||||
| Ralph Rowse | |||||||||||||||||||
| Joan Rowse | |||||||||||||||||||
| Joan Godsford | |||||||||||||||||||
Family and legacy
He married twice.[6] His first wife was Joan, whose family name is uncertain, and their children were:
- Elizabeth (died 1475), who married three times. First, her stepmother's brother William Cromer (died 1450), of Tunstall, murdered like her father by Jack Cade's rebels; secondly Alexander Iden, of Westwell, Jack Cade's capturer, and lastly Sir Lawrence Raynsford (died 1490). Both her first two husbands had been a High Sheriff of Kent and her last was a High Sheriff of Essex and of Wiltshire.
- William (born about 1428), who became 2nd Baron Saye and Sele and was killed in 1471 during the Battle of Barnet.
Before 1441, he married as second wife Emmeline (died 5 January 1452), daughter of Sir William Cromer, twice Lord Mayor of London.[7] They may have had two daughters.
Fiennes appears as a named character in the play Henry VI, Part 2 by William Shakespeare, while the Battle of Barnet at which his son William died is referenced in the next play of the trilogy, Henry VI, Part 3.
His elder brother, Roger Fiennes (1384–1449) married Elizabeth Holland (daughter of John Holland (Duke of Exeter, half-brother of Richard II, son of Thomas Holland and Joan "the fair" of Kent) and Elizabeth of Lancaster (daughter of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster))[8]
References
- ^ "Kent County History". The High Sheriffs Association of England and Wales. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
- ^ "Wars of the Roses". Michael D. Miller. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
- ^ Harvey, I. M. W. (1991) Jack Cade's Rebellion of 1450. Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 93.
- ^ Griffiths, Ralph A. (1981). The Reign of King Henry VI: The Exercise of Royal Authority, 1422–1461. Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 618.
- ISBN 978-0-571-27457-4.
- ^ Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition. p. 599.
- ^ History of Parliament: William Cromer, Lord Mayor of London, accessed 10 July 2017
- ^ "FIENNES, Sir Roger (1384-1449), of Herstmonceux, Suss. | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (May 2014) |
- Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
