John Clifford, 9th Baron Clifford
John Clifford, 9th Baron de Clifford | |
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Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford | |
Mother | Joan Dacre |
John Clifford, 9th Baron Clifford, 9th Lord of Skipton (8 April 1435 – 28 March 1461) was a
Clifford had already achieved prominence in the north where, as an ally of the son of the
Armed conflict erupted again in 1459, and again Clifford was found on the side of King Henry and Queen Margaret. Clifford took part in the parliament that attainted the Yorkists – by now in exile – and he took a share of the profits from their lands, as well as being appointed to offices traditionally in their keeping. The Yorkist lords returned from exile in June 1460 and subsequently defeated a royal army at Northampton. As a result of the royalist defeat, Clifford was ordered to surrender such castles and offices as he had from the Nevilles back to them, although it is unlikely that he did so. In fact, he and his fellow northern Lancastrian lords merely commenced a campaign of destruction on Neville and Yorkist estates and tenantry, to such an extent that in December 1460, the duke of York and his close ally, the earl of Salisbury, raised an army and headed north to crush the Lancastrian rebellion. This winter campaign culminated in the Battle of Wakefield in the last days of the year, and was a decisive victory for the Lancastrian army, of which Clifford was by now an important commander. The battle resulted in the deaths of both York and Salisbury, but was probably most notorious for Clifford's slaying of Edmund, Earl of Rutland, York's seventeen-year-old second son and the younger brother of the future King Edward IV. This may have resulted in Clifford's being nicknamed 'Butcher Clifford', although historians disagree as to how widely used by contemporaries this term was.
Clifford accompanied the royal army on its march south early the next year, where, although wounded, he played a leading part in the second Battle of St Albans, and then afterwards with the Queen to the north. The Yorkist army, now under the command of Edward of York and Richard, Earl of Warwick, pursued the Lancastrians to Yorkshire and eventually defeated them at the Battle of Towton on 29 March 1461. Clifford though was not present; he had been slain in a skirmish with a Yorkist advance party the previous day. Following the coronation of the by-then victorious Edward IV, he was attainted and his lands confiscated by the Crown.
Background, youth, marriage and family
The Clifford family has been described as one of the greatest fifteenth-century families "never to receive an earldom."
Clifford had three younger brothers and five sisters.
In 1454, John Clifford married Margaret Bromflete (1443 – 12 April 1493), who was the only daughter and heiress of Sir
Early career
Little is known of Clifford's early life or career until he appears on the records of 24 August 1453, as supporting the traditional allies of his family, the
Clifford's career was transformed when, on 22 May 1455, his father was killed fighting
It is likely that for him, the death of his father personalised an already bitter struggle with the Nevilles.
King Henry's attempts at peacekeeping, however, came to little; indeed, it was around this time that Henry's forcible wife, Margaret of Anjou, became more involved in the partisan politics of the day and increasingly influential in government. Summerson has noted how Clifford's youth and energy "made him an increasingly important supporter of the Lancastrian cause."[4] Likewise, a pro-Lancastrian poem, using a favoured contemporary metaphor for government, the ship of State, referred to Clifford as a "well good sayl" of it.[23] A few months later he was appointed to the King’s Bench for the West Riding of Yorkshire,[4] but when a great council was summoned for October 1458, it seems that Clifford – along with other anti-York peers such as the dukes of Somerset and Exeter – were excluded from it.[24]
The Wars of the Roses
The next point at which Clifford appears to have been fully involved in national politics was attending the
In June 1460 the exiled Yorkists successfully invaded England, and on 10 July they defeated a royal army at the
Death of the earl of Rutland
One modern historian has noted, however, that although Rutland's death brought Clifford "considerable notoriety, much of it [was] first reported only several decades after the event."
Death and attainder
Following the victory at Wakefield, Clifford and other Lancastrian lords in the north attended Queen Margaret's
The day after Clifford's death the bulk of the Yorkist and Lancastrian armies faced each other at the
Fictional portrayals and later reputation
According to
Clifford is depicted in Sharon Kay Penman's historical novel, The Sunne in Splendour.[citation needed]
References
- ^ Dockray, K. R., 'Richard III and the Yorkshire Gentry', in P. W. Hammond (ed.), Richard III: Lordship, Loyalty and Law (Gloucester, 1986), 48.
- ^ Given-Wilson, C., The English Nobility in the Late Middle Ages (Trowbridge, 1996), 64.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Cockayne, G.E. & V.E. Gibbs (ed.), The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland and the United Kingdom Extant Extinct or Dormant III (2nd ed, London, 1913), 293.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "John Clifford". www.oxforddnb.com. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
- ^ a b Richardson, D., Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families I, eds Kimball G. Everingham (2nd ed., Salt Lake City, 2011), 508.
- ^ Cokayne, G.E., Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant II, ed. V.Gibbs (2nd ed., London, 1912), 495 n.
- ^ a b c Richardson, D., Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families I, eds Kimball G. Everingham (2nd ed., Salt Lake City, 2011), 508–9.
- ^ Richardson, D., Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families IV, eds Kimball G. Everingham (2nd ed., Salt Lake City, 2011), 41–2.
- ^ Richardson, D., Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families IV, eds Kimball G. Everingham (2nd ed., Salt Lake City, 2011), 41.
- ^ "William Plumpton". www.oxforddnb.com. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
- ^ a b c Cockayne, G.E. & V.E. Gibbs (ed.), The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland and the United Kingdom Extant Extinct or Dormant III (2nd ed, London, 1913), 294.
- ^ Richardson, D., Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families IV, eds Kimball G. Everingham (2nd ed., Salt Lake City, 2011), 97–8.
- ^ Richardson, D., Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families I, eds Kimball G. Everingham (2nd ed., Salt Lake City, 2011), 52, 509.
- ^ a b Richardson, D., Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families I, eds Kimball G. Everingham (2nd ed., Salt Lake City, 2011), 509.
- ^ Hicks, M.A., Warwick the Kingmaker (Oxford, 1998), 129.
- ^ Davies, J.S. (ed.) An English Chronicle of the Reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI Written Before the Year 1471 (Camden Society, London, 1856), 77.
- ^ a b Hicks, M.A., Warwick the Kingmaker (Oxford, 1998), 132.
- ^ a b c Cox, H., The Battle of Wakefield Revisited (York, 2010), 69.
- ^ a b Johnson, P.A., Duke Richard of York (Oxford, 1988), 222.
- ^ Goodwin, G., Fatal Colours: Towton 1461 (London, 2011), 92.
- ^ Maurer, H.E., Margaret of Anjou: Queenship and Power in Late Medieval England (Woodbridge, 2003), 154.
- ^ Hicks, M.A., Warwick the Kingmaker (Oxford, 1998), 133.
- ^ Robbins, R.H. (ed.), Historical Poems of the XIVth and XVth Centuries (New York, 1959), 192–3.
- ^ Maurer, H.E., Margaret of Anjou: Queenship and Power in Late Medieval England (Woodbridge, 2003), 161.
- ^ Harriss, G.L., Shaping the Nation: England 1360–1461 (Oxford, 2005), 439.
- ^ a b Gillingham, J., The Wars of the Roses (London (repr.) 1993), 127.
- ^ Goodman, A., The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity and English Society, 1452–97 (USA 1981), 43.
- ^ Lander, J.R., Government & Community: England 1450–1509 (London, 1980), 212.
- ^ Leland, J., The Itinerary of John Leland I (ed. T. Hearne), (Eton, 1748), 43.
- ^ Lander, JR., 'Attainder and Forfeiture, 1453–1509', The Historical Journal, 4 (1961), 134 n.55.
- ^ Hicks, M.A., Warwick the Kingmaker (Oxford, 1998), 235.
- ^ Cockayne, G.E. & V.E. Gibbs (ed.), The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland and the United Kingdom Extant Extinct or Dormant III (2nd ed, London, 1913), 293–4.
- ^ Haigh, P.A., The Battle of Wakefield 1460 (Stroud, 1996), 65.
- ISBN 978-1-4391-9157-6.
- ^ Cockayne, G.E. & V.E. Gibbs (ed.), The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland and the United Kingdom Extant Extinct or Dormant III (2nd ed, London, 1913), 293–4.
- ^ Jacob, E.F., The 15th Century', 1399–1485 (Oxford, 1969), 539.
- ^ Cockayne, G.E. & V.E. Gibbs (ed.), The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland and the United Kingdom Extant Extinct or Dormant III (2nd ed, London, 1913), 294
- ^ Ross, J., 'The Treatment of Traitors' Children and Edward IV's Clemency in the 1460s', The Fifteenth Century: Essays Presented to Michael Hicks (Woodbridge, 2015), 139.