ARUNDELL, John

As is clear from the earlier biography, The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 61-62. much of Arundell’s short career was overshadowed by his prominent father, alongside whom he is sometimes found attesting property deeds. Cornw. RO, Arundell mss, AR1/351. Only occasionally did he appear in the law courts, as when shortly before his death he was quarrelling with a Devon merchant over a debt of £20. CP40/647, rot. 153.

Custody of Arundell’s son and heir, aged just two at his father’s death, and whose mother had probably died in childbirth, had by 1432 passed from Thomas Chaucer* and Thomas Haseley† to John Fortescue*. The death of the ward’s grandfather in 1435 made him an even more valuable commodity, and his custody was consequently sold on to Walter, Lord Hungerford† (then the dominant magnate in the region), John Copplestone*, Nicholas Aysshton* and Thomas Bere* for the vast sum of 1,000 marks, before passing to William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, in 1442. C139/112/68; E403/700, m. 14; CPR, 1429-36, p. 497.