Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter
Thomas Beaufort | |
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Captain of Calais |
Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter (c. January 1377 – 31 December 1426) was an
Under Henry IV
After the accession of his half-brother
He became Chancellor of England on 31 January 1410, an office he held until 5 January 1412[6] during a time when King Henry was having trouble with the clergy, and then returned to military matters. Later in 1412 he was created Earl of Dorset.[7]
Under Henry V
On the accession of
Beaufort was back in England in 1417, while the king was in Normandy, but had to deal with problems in Scotland. In 1418 he went back to Normandy with a large force, taking part in the sieges of Évreux, Ivry, and Rouen. After the fall of Rouen in 1419, he was captain of the city and conquered more of the smaller Norman cities. Finally, in 1419, he took the great fortress of Château Gaillard, midway between Rouen and Paris, after a six-month siege.
During this time, Henry V had a policy of creating Norman titles for his aristocrats, thus Beaufort was created Count of Harcourt in 1418.
In 1420, Beaufort helped negotiate the
Beaufort was one of the executors of Henry V's will, and so returned to England in 1422. He served on the governing council for the infant king Henry VI, though it is likely he spent some time in France as well.
The character of Exeter in Shakespeare's play Henry V is based on Beaufort, although Beaufort was not actually created Duke of Exeter until after the Battle of Agincourt. In 1415 he was Earl of Dorset.
He died on 31 December 1426.[8][5] 27 December 1426 or 1 January 1427[2][9] have been suggested as alternative dates. All of his titles (Duchy of Exeter, Earldom of Dorset, Countship of Harcourt) became extinct. The Duchy of Exeter was restored to the Holland family; the Earldom of Dorset was recreated for Edmund, Count of Mortain, his nephew.
Arms
As a legitimated grandson of the sovereign, Beaufort bore the arms of the kingdom, differenced by a bordure gobony azure and ermine.[10][11]
See also
Footnotes
- ISBN 978-1-4499-6638-6.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ a b Weir, A. Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy. ch. 3
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1864. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2013, Vol. III, p. 318
- ^ a b Richardson 2011, p. 542.
- ^ Powicke, F.; Fryde, E.B. (1961). Handbook of British Chronology (2nd ed.). London: Royal Historical Society. p. 85.
- ^ http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT4/H5/CP40no609/aCP40no609fronts/IMG_0152.htm ; 8th entry, plaintiff ; 1413
- ^ Cokayne, G. (1926). V. Gibbs; H.A. Doubleday (eds.). The Complete Peerage. Vol. 5 (2nd ed.). London: St. Catherine Press. p. 204.
- ^ Round, J. (1885). . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 4. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 585–586.