STAFFORD, Humphrey II

Humphrey was born in late September 1427 as the scion of a junior branch of the ancient family of Stafford. His father, Sir John, was the second son of one of the wealthiest knights in south-western and western England, Sir Humphrey Stafford ‘of the silver hand’, and was fighting in France at the time when his father contracted for him a marriage to one of the daughters of William, Lord Botreaux.4 Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, fr. 26295/885; Collectanea Topographia et Genealogica, iv. 249. The marriage was a potentially valuable one, for Botreaux had only a single son, who in the event was to die in infancy, and his only other heirs were his two daughters, Anne and Margaret. The importance of the match was recognized by the agreement between Sir Humphrey and Lord Botreaux, under the terms of which Stafford was to pay as much as 900 marks to the baron, while settling four and a half manors in Staffordshire and Worcestershire on the couple.5 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 441. The estates which John and Anne thus acquired included the Staffordshire manors of Perton, Littlewood, Penkridge and Robaston as well as Bedcote and Stourbridge in northern Worcestershire, and were later said to be worth more than £73 p.a., while Lord Botreaux augmented them further by a grant of the Somerset manor of Roden near Frome in Selwood, a third part of Maiden Newton and scattered holdings elsewhere in Dorset, property thought to be worth at least £14 p.a. Yet, neither of the couple lived to enjoy their newly acquired property, for Anne died within months of the marriage, perhaps in childbirth, and her husband survived her for weeks at best, dying in early November 1427 and leaving his only son and heir a five-week-old infant.6 C139/34/39; C140/3/30, mm. 4, 9; CCR, 1422-9, pp. 369-70; CPR, 1422-9, p. 486; CFR, xv. 188.

As both of the boy’s grandfathers were still alive, his wardship did not escheat to the Crown, and it is probable that he remained in the care of Sir Humphrey or of Lord Botreaux, who resumed control over the lands they had respectively settled on his parents.7 CCR, 1422-9, p. 370. When Sir Humphrey died in 1442, his grandson was still not much over 14 years old. In a will made the previous December Stafford had bequeathed a quantity of plate and other household goods to him, including 12 silver dishes, six silver saucers and two silver chargers, most of which had formerly belonged to young Humphrey’s aunt by marriage, Maud Lovell, countess of Arundel, and one-time wife of his uncle Sir Richard Stafford*.8 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 441; Reg. Chichele, i. 621. Humphrey did not come of age for more than six years after his grandfather’s death and only in September 1448 was he old enough to gain livery of his substantial patrimony. His lands, when he acquired them, made him a force to be reckoned with in local society and it was not long before he was called upon to assume his family’s traditional position in the south-west. Dorset had regularly returned members of the Stafford family as knights of the shire – Sir Humphrey had represented it on no fewer than ten occasions and the younger Humphrey’s uncles, Sir Richard and William*, had done likewise earlier in Henry VI’s reign – so it was not surprising that once the young man had come of age he was also elected to sit in Parliament for their home county. At the dissolution Humphrey was commissioned with his fellow knights of the shires to distribute the rebate from a tax granted by the Commons.

This commission aside, many of Humphrey’s activities in the 1450s are difficult to disentangle from those of two namesakes, resident respectively at Halmond’s Frome in Herefordshire and Grafton in Worcestershire.9 There was also a Humphrey Stafford resident at Chiswick in Mdx. who in the mid 1450s was connected with William, Lord Bonville*. It is possible that this was our Humphrey, for his gdfa. Sir Humphrey had been associated with Bonville earlier in the cent.: CCR, 1447-54, pp. 512-13. It is impossible to tell for certain whether it was he or his cousin and namesake, Humphrey III*, who at around this time entered the household of Margaret of Anjou as one of the queen’s esquires. Yet, the Staffords of Hooke did possess ties with the royal household, where Humphrey’s uncle William was currently placed as an esquire of the King’s hall and chamber, and the omission of Humphrey from appointments to office in the localities may also point to a role in service about the queen’s person. Certainly, the man who did serve the queen was singled out for special favour: in 1452-3 he was among the men who were given a gold bracelet (armilla) by the queen as a New Year’s gift.10 A. R. Myers, Crown, Household and Parlt. 185, 202, 226.

Unlike his uncle William, Humphrey maintained close relations with the family of Butler or Ormond into which his first cousin Avice (heiress of the principal Stafford estates) had married. Thus, in 1451 he assisted Thomas Ormond of Swavesey (brother of Avice’s husband, James, earl of Wiltshire), Henry Filongley* and Thomas St. Barbe of Brent in finding sureties of £2,500 for the release of another of their brothers, John, from French captivity,11 CCR, 1447-54, p. 266. and in subsequent years he was frequently associated with the Ormonds in enfeoffments or other transactions.12 CCR, 1454-61, pp. 69, 303. He had good cause to pursue the connexion, for while Avice’s marriage remained childless he was her nearest relative and heir, and when the countess died, still without issue, in June 1457, he inherited all those of her lands which had not been settled on the earl of Wiltshire in jointure. These included the Warwickshire manor of Burmington, Crowell in Oxfordshire, West Wittenham in Berkshire, Bramshall, Amblecote and ten further manors in Staffordshire, and at the time were said to be worth in excess of £68 p.a.13 C139/164/16; C140/3/30, mm. 2, 6, 7, 9.

However, Stafford had scant opportunity to enjoy his newly acquired wealth before England descended into open civil war. Ever since the end of the duke of York’s second protectorate in 1456 tensions between York’s supporters and Henry VI’s court had continued to simmer. A last ditch effort in the spring of 1458 to bring about a reconciliation came to nothing, and in the autumn of 1459 the two sides faced each other in pitched battle. In October the Yorkists were routed at Ludford Bridge, and the duke of York and his principal allies driven into exile. Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, and York’s eldest son, Edward, earl of March, had sought refuge in the fortified port of Calais, where they posed a very real threat to the Lancastrian regime in England. Even before the engagement at Ludford, Henry Beaufort, duke of Somerset, had been appointed captain of Calais in Warwick’s place and he now sought to assume his office and set sail, only to be driven away by bad weather and diverted to the neighbouring castle of Guînes.

Stafford’s movements at this crucial time present something of a problem. At some stage in the early months of 1460, either as part of Somerset’s main force or in a subsequent bid to reinforce him, John Audley alias Tuchet*, a retainer of the earl of Wiltshire, sailed for Picardy. In his company was a Humphrey Stafford – either this MP or his cousin Humphrey Stafford IV*.14 English Chron. (Cam. Soc. lxiv), 84-85; Reg. Whethamstede ed. Riley, i. 369-70. What seems clear is that Audley was captured by the Yorkists, and by the end of June had switched sides and joined his one-time enemies.15 C.L. Scofield, Edw. IV, i. 76; English Chron. 95. Stafford’s part in these events is unclear. While a close connexion with the queen would have made him a likely candidate to have sailed to Calais with Audley, and to have been taken prisoner alongside him, it was his cousin Humphrey IV who – like Audley – went on to become a leading supporter of the Yorkist earls by the late summer.16 Scofield, i. 62, attributed the exploits of 1460 to Humphrey IV.

In any event, nothing further is heard of the former MP. If it was he who was taken prisoner at the same time as Audley, he may not have copied the latter’s adoption of the Yorkist cause shortly afterwards, for, back in England by Easter 1460, a Humphrey Stafford was named among the feoffees of Robert, Lord Hungerford and Moleyns, a staunch adherent of the Lancastrians.17 CCR, 1454-61, pp. 451-2. It is possible that he joined the queen and the prince of Wales in their flight to the north, and died an unnatural death, perhaps in Scotland, as has been supposed. An inquisition taken after his death found that he had died childless on 6 Aug. 1461, but his cousin and next heir, Humphrey IV, had already been granted seisin of his extensive estates a month earlier, on 7 July.18 C140/3/30; CPR, 1461-7, p. 124.