Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford
Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford .
He won renown in the Hundred Years' War, fighting in many engagements, including the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. He was an English envoy at the Council of Constance in 1415. In 1417 he was made admiral of the fleet. On the death of Henry V he was an executor of Henry's will and a member of Protector Gloucester's council. He attended the conference at Arras in 1435, and was a Member of the House of Lords sitting as Baron Hungerford from January 1436 until his death in 1449. From 1426 to 1432, he served as Lord High Treasurer. Hungerford's tenure as Treasurer occurred during the Great Bullion Famine and the beginning of the Great Slump in England.
Origins
He was the only surviving son and heir of Sir
Career
His father had been strongly attached to the
He was appointed
Hungerford won renown as a warrior. In 1401 he was with the English army in France, and is said to have defeated the French king in a duel outside Calais. He distinguished himself in battle and tournament, and received substantial rewards. In consideration of his services he was granted in 1403 one hundred marks per annum, payable by the town and castle of Marlborough in Wiltshire, and was appointed Sheriff of Wiltshire. On 22 July 1414 he was nominated ambassador to treat for a league with Sigismund, King of the Romans,[7] and as the English envoy attended the Council of Constance in 1414–15.[8]
In the autumn of 1415, with twenty men-at-arms and sixty horse archers, Hungerford accompanied King Henry V to France.[9] He can probably be identified correctly as the officer who on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt expressed regret that the English had not ten thousand archers, which drew a famous rebuke from the king. In Shakespeare's Henry V, however, this officer is the Earl of Westmoreland.[10] He fought bravely at the Battle of Agincourt, but the legend that he took Charles, Duke of Orléans prisoner is not substantiated. He was employed in May 1416 in diplomatic negotiations with ambassadors of Theodoric, Archbishop of Cologne[11] and in November 1417 with envoys from France.[12]
In 1417 he was made
Hungerford was an executor of the will of
Marriages and progeny
Hungerford married twice:
- Firstly to Catherine (or Eleanor) Peverell, daughter of Sir Thomas Peverell, MP, of Parke and Hamatethy, Cornwall[6] (a cadet branch of Peverell of Sampford Peverell in Devon[18]) by his wife Margaret Courtenay (1355–1422[citation needed]) one of the two daughters and eventual sole heiresses of Sir Thomas Courtenay (died 1356)[19] of Wootton Courtenay in Somerset and of Woodhuish, Devon,[6] by whom he had three sons and at least one daughter:
- Walter Hungerford, eldest son and John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford in France in 1435, and predeceased his father without issue.[20]
- Robert Hungerford, 2nd Baron Hungerford, eldest surviving son and heir.[20]
- Edmund Hungerford, who was knighted by Henry VI after the Battle of Verneuil on Whit-Sunday 1426,[21] and married Margaret Burnell, daughter and co-heiress of Edward Burnell, by whom he had two sons:
- Thomas Hungerford, ancestor of the Hungerfords of Down Ampney in Gloucestershire, of the Hungerfords of Windrush, Oxfordshire and of the Hungerfords of Black Bourton, Oxfordshire.[20]
- Edward Hungerford, ancestor of the Hungerfords of . Detail from the Courtenay Mantelpiece, Bishop's Palace, Exeter
- Elizabeth Hungerford (died 14 December 1476), who married Sir chest tomb in Molland Church displays heraldic motifs of two interlaced Hungerford sickles and a dolphin of Courtenay of Powderham. Her third son was Peter Courtenay (c.1432–1492) Bishop of Exeter and Bishop of Winchester, whose splendid surviving mantlepiece in the Bishop's Palace, Exeter displays much heraldry including Hungerford sickles and Peverell garbs.[24]
- Walter Hungerford, eldest son and
- Secondly he married Eleanor Berkeley (died 1 August 1455), daughter of
Death and burial
Hungerford died on 9 August 1449 and was buried beside his first wife in Salisbury Cathedral, where two beautiful mortuary chapels erected by the Hungerford family stood until removed and destroyed by the restorations of James Wyatt in 1790. William Hamilton Rogers (1877) wrote as follows concerning the monument:[28][29]
- "He was buried with his wife in the Hungerford Chapel in the nave, a beautiful structure composed chiefly of iron and which has since been removed to the choir. Their tombs, joined together and despoiled of their brass effigies, remain in the nave. The matrices exhibit the proportions of a knight on the one and of a lady on the other, both stones were powdered over with sickles and a ledger line outside all. The whole has now disappeared, except the stones in which the brasses were set. Forty shields of arms, according to Hutchins (who minutely describes these chapels previous to their removal) were set round outside exhibiting the various alliances of the family. Among these were Hungerford impaling Strange and Mohun, Peverell, Courtenay, St John, Mules, etc".[a]
Benefactions
By his marriages and royal grants Hungerford added largely to the family estates. He built chantries at
In his will he left to his daughter-in-law, Margaret de Botreaux (wife of Sir Robert Hungerford, 2nd Baron), his "best legend of the Lives of the Saints" and to John, Viscount Beaumont he bequeathed a cup formerly used by John of Gaunt.[35]
In 1407 Hungerford donated the
Notes
- ^ The heraldry was also described at length by Richard Symonds in his Diary of the Marches of the Royal Army, (1644).[30]
- ^ In Nov 1418 he was granted the Barony of Homet in Normandy, office insribed on seal
- ^ Footnote from Britton, John, History and Antiquities of Bath Abbey Church, London, 1825, p.47
- ^ a b c Lee 1891, p. 258.
- ^ Journal of the House of Commons: January 1559 at British History Online
- ^ Lee 1891, p. 258 cites: Manning, Lives of the Speakers, p. 55.
- ^ a b c Roskell & Kightly 1993.
- ^ Lee 1891, p. 258 cites: Rymer, Fœdera, vol. iv. pt. ii. p. 186
- ^ Lee 1891, p. 258 cites: cf. his accounts of expenses in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 24513, f. 68.
- ^ Lee 1891, p. 258 cites: Nicolas, Agincourt, p. 381
- ^ Lee 1891, p. 258 cites: Nicolas, Agincourt pp. 105, 241.
- ^ Lee 1891, p. 258 cites: Rymer, Fœdera, vol. iv. pt. ii. p. 158.
- ^ Lee 1891, p. 258 cites: Rymer, Fœdera, vol. iv. pt. ii. p. 25.
- ^ Lee 1891, p. 258 cites: Rymer, Fœdera, vol. iv. pt. iii. p. 76.
- ^ Lee 1891, p. 258 cites: Beltz, Hist. of Garter, p. clviii.
- ^ Lee 1891, p. 258 cites: Waurin, Chron., Rolls Ser.,iv. 11
- ^ Lee 1891, p. 258 cites: Wars of Henry VI in France, Rolls Ser., ed. Stevenson, ii. 431.
- ^ Pole, p.496
- ^ Pole, p.227 re descent of manor of Wolmerston
- ^ Date of birth "1315 or before" (Knight 2016 cites Richardson & Magna Carta Ancestry; death date "1356" (Knight 2016 cites (Richardson & Magna Carta Ancestry); and & Vivian 1895, p. 244
- ^ a b c d e f Lee 1891, p. 259.
- ^ Lee 1891, p. 259 cites: Metcalfe, Book of Knights, p.1
- ^ Vivian 1895, p. 246.
- ^ Vivian 1895, p. 246, 251-225.
- ^ A Delineation of the Courtenay Mantelpiece in the Episcopal Palace at Exeter by Roscoe Gibbs with a Biographical Notice of The Right Reverend Peter Courtenay, DD,... To which is added A Description of the Courtenay Mantelpiece compiled by Maria Halliday, privately published at the Office of the Torquay Directory, 1884, p.10
- ^ a b "BERKELEY, Sir John I (1352-1428), of Beverstone castle, Glos. - History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
- ^ Richardson II 2011, p. 428.
- ^ Richardson III 2011, pp. 394–5.
- ^ Rogers 1877, p. 184.
- ^ Lee 1891, pp. 258–259.
- ^ Symonds, Roy & Long 1859, pp. 137–140.
- ^ Lee 1891, p. 259 cites: Jackson, Anc. Statutes of Heytesbury Almshouses, Devizes, 1863.
- ^ "Heytesbury". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
- ^ Pugh, R.B.; Crittall, Elizabeth, eds. (1956a). "Victoria County History: Wiltshire: Vol 3 pp337-340 – Hospitals: St John and St Katherine, Heytesbury". British History Online. University of London. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
- ^ Historic England. "Hospital of St. John (1284088)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
- ^ Lee 1891, p. 259 cites Nicholas Harris Nicolas's Testamenta Vetusta, pp. 257–9
- ^ Pugh & Crittall 1956b, p. 302–303.
References
- Knight, Patrick (September 2016). "Sir Thomas DE COURTENAY, Knt., Of Woodhuish & Dunterton & ... [3942]". Genealogy - KNIGHTs from Continental Europe to England/Ireland, to Philadelphia (PA), to France. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
- Richardson, Douglas (2005). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families (2nd ed.). Genealogical Pub. Co.
- Pole, Sir William (1791). Pole, Sir John-William de la (ed.). Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon. London. p. 496.
- Pugh, R.B.; Crittall, Elizabeth, eds. (1956b). "Houses of Augustinian canons: Priory of Longleat". A History of the County of Wiltshire. Vol. 3. pp. 302–303.
- Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Vol. II (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 978-1449966386.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Vol. III (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 978-1449966393.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Rogers, William Henry Hamilton (1877). The Antient Sepulchral Effigies and Monumental and Memorial Sculpture of Devon. Exeter. p. 184. Archived from the original on 25 February 2015.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Roskell, J. S.; Kightly, Charles (1993). "Hungerford, Sir Walter (1378–1449), of Farleigh Hungerford, Som. and Heytesbury, Wilts.". In Roskell, J.S.; Clark, L.; Rawcliffe, C. (eds.). The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386–1421. Boydell and Brewer.
- Vivian, John Lambrickn, ed. (1895). "Pedigree of Courtenay". The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620. Exeter. p. 246.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Symonds, Richard; Roy, Ian; Long, C. E. (1859). Richard Symonds's Diary of the Marches of the Royal Army. Cambridge University Press. pp. 137–140. ISBN 978-0-521-62656-9.
- Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney (1891). "Hungerford, Walter (d.1449)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 28. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 258, 259.
- Dugdale's Baronage; Burke's Extinct Peerage;
- Collinson's Somerset, iii. 354;
- Hoare's Hungerfordiana, 1823;
- Maclean's Trigg Minor, i. 358 sq.;
- Hoare's Mod. Wiltshire, Heytesbury Hundred;
- Kymer's Fcedera;
- Stubbs's Const. Hist.;
- Nicolas's Battle of Agincourt, 1832;
- Monstrelet's Chroniques, ed. Doiiet d'Arcq (Soc. de 1'Hist. de France), 1862, ii. 404, iv. 93, vi. 314;
- Manning's Lives of the Speakers.
Further reading
- Goddard, Edward Hungerford (editor 1869). The Wiltshire archæological and natural history magazine, Volumes 11–12, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, H. Bull. p. 154
- Burke, Bernard (1866). A genealogical history of the dormant, abeyant, forfeited, and extinct peerages of the British empire, Harrison p. 291
- Hoare, Sir Richard Colt, 2nd Baronet (d.1838), Hungerfordiana or, The Memoirs of the Family of Hungerford, 1823