ARUNDELL, Sir John I

As noted in the earlier biography, The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 58-61. at the time of the fall of his father-in-law, Sir Robert Tresilian, Arundell was still a minor, and his lands, which had been in the chief justice’s custody, were taken into the King’s hands as forfeit along with Tresilian’s other possessions. Arundell lost little time in petitioning Richard II for the return of his property, and in this was apparently successful, but within months he nevertheless secured a divorce from the disgraced judge’s daughter. SC8/178/8869. It is not, however, clear to what extent Arundell was himself party to this decision. Certainly, it seems to have been his stepfather, Sir William Lambourne, who took the initiative and married the young heir to his own daughter. Several years elapsed before the Crown restated its own claim to Arundell’s wardship and it was not until 1396, long after he had come of age, that process in the Exchequer sought to recover a fine for Lambourne’s high-handedness, a protracted exercise which dragged on into the reign of Henry VI. E159/201, recorda Easter rot. 6d. Not surprisingly, relations between Arundell and Lambourne were not always cordial, and in the summer of 1394 several of the issues in dispute between them (including the surrender in 1391 by Arundell’s mother to her son of her title in the family estates) were submitted to the arbitration of the priors of Bodmin and Launceston. Cornw. RO, Arundell mss, AR17/1, 2; AR20/14; AR30/5.

Rather than Sir John of Lanherne, it was his kinsman, Sir John Arundell II* of Trerice, who served in the earl of Devon’s retinue in France in mid 1420. Arundell himself may, however, also have sailed to France, possibly in the King’s own retinue, for he had secured letters of protection for this expedition that April. E101/49/34; DKR, xliv. 617.

It is not clear what caused Arundell’s serious quarrel with his kinsman and namesake Sir John II, but it may have been in some way connected with his acquisition in 1415 of estates previously held by Joan, widow of Sir John II’s grandfather, Sir Ralph Arundell. In October 1417 Sir John II was bound to his kinsman in £300, but by 1421, when the matter reached the King’s council, the quarrel had flared up again. The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 60-61; CP40/664, rot. 459.

No concrete evidence of the exercise of any electoral patronage by Arundell has been discovered, but it is indicative of his central position in Cornish society that many of the lesser gentry who represented the county’s boroughs in the Commons were in some way connected with him, some more closely than others. Thus, John Polrudden* served him as his attorney in the Westminster law courts in the 1420s, while John Trewint* was his receiver. CP40/666, rots. 4, 4d. In 1419 Trewint called upon Arundell to arbitrate in a dispute with Adam Vivian*, but a few years later their relationship deteriorated, and Sir John was himself suing his former receiver for an account of his activities and the return of various documents. CP40/635, rot. 321; 666, rots. 4, 4d. John Tresithney* served as Arundell’s under sheriff in 1407-8, and headed the list of lay beneficiaries of his former master’s will, being assigned a legacy of ten marks. SC6/820/2, rot. 10d; Arundell mss, AR21/2.

The limits to even Arundell’s powers are illustrated by his abortive attempt to arrest the notorious Richard Tregoose* in July 1427. Although formally taken into custody by Sir John, Tregoose broke free and joined his waiting retainers, against whom the j.p. proved to be powerless. KB27/729, rex rot. 1.