HULL, Sir Edward

Hull was born, probably in the second half of Henry IV’s reign, into a family with strong links with the Lancastrian court. His father, John, served as a King’s esquire under both Henry IV and Henry V, and his mother, Eleanor, was a servant of Queen Joan. The queen, her stepson, and afterwards the young Henry VI and his council rewarded Eleanor’s services generously, and this generosity was extended to her young son who entered Queen Katherine’s household as one of her henchmen.17 E404/39/331; C81/667/956; DL42/18, ff. 170v, 243v; CPR, 1416-22, pp. 41, 304; 1422-9, pp. 48, 66; CCR, 1435-41, pp. 139-40; PPC, iv. 77. In April 1430 Edward transferred into the service of the young Henry VI as an esquire of the King’s household and he accompanied the King on his coronation expedition to France with three archers, the first of many voyages across the Channel which Hull was to undertake over the course of the next two decades.18 E101/70/5/689; E403/693, m. 18; 695, m. 6; E404/46/203.

Hull’s mother was the sole heiress of her grandfather, Sir Baldwin Malet of Enmore, and although some of Malet’s manors had been settled on his widowed daughter-in-law, Edward could expect to succeed eventually to the undivided Malet lands.19 Some Som. Manors, 130, 272-5; Som. Feet of Fines (Som. Rec. Soc. xvii), 199; KB27/774, rot. 79. In 1436, Eleanor’s estates in Herts. alone were believed to be worth some £86 p.a.: EHR, xlix. 634. He was therefore well poised to contract an advantageous marriage, and did so not long after his return from France in 1432, marrying Margery, younger daughter and coheiress of the Somerset knight Thomas Lovell. Unfortunately for Hull, his wife was in much the same position as he was, for a large part of her estates was held for life by her maternal grandfather John Roger, who survived until 1441. Although the remainder of Margery’s share of the Lovell inheritance was settled on the couple at the time of the marriage, it was only after Roger’s death that they could take seisin of it. The lands which thus fell to them in 1441 comprised the Somerset manors of Milton, near Bruton, and a quarter of the manor of Wanstrow, as well as dubious claims to several properties alienated by Margery’s family over time.20 C139/107/32; CCR, 1441-7, pp. 9-10; 1447-54, pp. 244-5; Reg. Stafford, ii (Som. Rec. Soc. xxxii), 279; The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 634; iv. 226-7.

Having gathered military experience overseas in the King’s retinue in 1430, Hull was retained by Richard, duke of York, not long afterwards. He accompanied the duke to France in 1436 and was rewarded with a grant of an annuity of £10 in April of that year. Just over a year later, in October 1437, he received a first independent command when he was appointed captain of the fortified Norman town of Conches. Yet he remained in France to exercise his captaincy for no more than a few months. Instead, he now joined the select group of esquires for the body of the young King who had recently been declared of age, and was rewarded with an annuity of 50 marks and a more immediately tangible grant of a share of the value of a ship forfeited to the Crown.21 CPR, 1436-41, pp. 182, 232. Although Hull’s office as one of the esquires for the body should have demanded his regular attendance about the King, he was pricked sheriff of Somerset and Dorset in the autumn of 1438. He had no prior experience of county administration, and it is perhaps not surprising that in the course of his official duties he incurred a number of fines.22 KB27/714, fines rot. 1d. Nevertheless, he was evidently regarded as too valuable an agent to remain at court for any length of time, for within a few months of the end of his term as sheriff he was dispatched abroad on a series of diplomatic missions similar to those that his father had undertaken in the service of Henry V.23 E364/54, rot. Bd; E404/36/260. In early 1440, the Dartmouth shipowner Thomas Gille I* was commissioned to provide Hull with shipping to Gascony. This expedition took 16 weeks, but on his return Hull was allowed little rest, for in October he was once more sent abroad carrying a secret message from the King, and the following June (1441) he went on a further embassy to the Empire.24 E101/53/27; E364/73, rot. K; E403/740, mm. 1, 8; 741, m. 8; 743, m. 2; E404/56/175, 295; 57/49, 80, 83, 274; J. Ferguson, English Diplomacy, 204, 211. A renewed mission to Gascony followed early in 1442, and was probably less than welcome to Hull who in July 1441 had been granted a second annuity of a further 50 marks which he was only to receive when serving about the King’s person.25 E404/58/52, 124; CPR, 1436-41, p. 560; CCR, 1441-7, p. 3; E403/743, m. 2; 745, mm. 4, 9; 749, m. 3; 753, m. 3; 765, m. 10; 769, m. 6.

Hull was nevertheless part of the King’s immediate circle, serving as one of the feoffees of the duchy of Lancaster estates, and was often entrusted with tasks such as the receipt at the Exchequer of money for the Chamber.26 E403/743, m. 15; R. M. Jeffs, ‘The Later Med. Sheriff’ (Oxf. Univ. D.Phil. thesis, 1960), 299-301; R. Somerville, Duchy, i. 210; PROME, xi. 404-10; RP, v. 165 (cf, PROME, xii. 69); DL37/14/1-17; Test. Vetusta ed. Nicolas, i. 22. This gave him privileged access to the Crown’s increasingly stretched resources. Even when the officials of the Exchequer, struggling to make ends meet, sought to utilize the technicality that Hull had recently been knighted in order to refuse payment of all grants he had received under the style of esquire, he rapidly procured a royal warrant which forced the hapless clerks to pay him in full.27 E404/64/75; E403/773, m. 4. More problematic were those grants which stipulated payment by royal officials or others in the provinces. Thus, in the summer of 1452 Hull found himself forced to pursue Nicholas St. Loe, a former farmer of the manor of Gillingham in Dorset, from the revenues of which his first annuity was payable, for the sum of £7 6d. still outstanding from earlier years.28 CP40/766, rot. 52.

Hull’s regular missions to the King’s French dominions enabled him to gather considerable expertise in all matters relating to their administration, in particular that of the duchy of Guyenne. On his return from Gascony in early 1442 he reported to the Council, giving a bleak assessment of the deteriorating military situation there. At least partly on the strength of his arguments, the King’s advisers were persuaded to complement their military strategy with a major diplomatic initiative. It was resolved that a marriage should be arranged between the King and a daughter of the count of Armagnac, thus tying this important feudatory to Henry VI’s French crown, and on 28 May 1442 instructions were drawn up for Hull, the King’s secretary, Thomas Bekynton, and Sir Robert Roos, to journey to France to make the necessary arrangements.29 DKR, xlviii. 354; E403/745, m. 4; R.A. Griffiths, Hen. VI, 462. Bekynton, carrying these letters, set out from Windsor on 5 June and found Hull at home at Enmore on the 16th. Yet, rather than preparing for an immediate departure in Bekynton’s company, Hull briefed him and his companions on the state of affairs in Gascony, and then set out to find the King at Windsor, where he arrived a week later. In direct contradiction of the council’s earlier decision, Henry now resolved to keep Hull in attendance on his person until an army should be ready to set out for Gascony. He informed his envoys accordingly, but even on the same day he was persuaded to change his mind yet again, and to send Hull to join his companions in France rather sooner.30 Corresp. Bekynton, ii. 178. Bekynton and Roos set sail on 10 July and arrived at Bordeaux six days later. On 20 July Hull was ordered to follow, but in the event he did not reach the Gascon capital until 22 Oct.31 Ibid. 184, 216; E403/747, m. 4; 753, m. 3; E404/59/231, 69/109; Ferguson, 181. Upon his arrival, Hull took up residence in Bordeaux castle and presented his fellow ambassadors with the King’s latest instructions.32 Corresp. Bekynton, ii. 218.

The brunt of the negotiations with the count of Armagnac was, it seems, borne by Bekynton, while Roos, who had been elected regent of Guyenne, and Hull set about shoring up the English position on the battlefield. Not long after his arrival at Bordeaux, Roos ordered Hull to assemble his men at Loremont and await the regent’s arrival with further troops. Altogether, the force they mustered numbered some 400 Englishmen and 1,000 Gascons. Having sent scouts ahead of their main force, they slowly marched towards the town of St. Loubouer, where the archers were separated from the main force and placed under Hull’s command. Hull dismounted and led them on foot, ‘to grete merveille of many men how he might endure hit, and gouverned theym in the moost notable wise’. The French army was encamped outside the town, and when the English force reached their advanced sentries around eight o’clock, they killed two or three of the watchmen, before charging the French with the customary battle cry of ‘St. George d’Angleterre’. Taken by surprise, the French ran for their horses and fled the field, incurring heavy casualties, by English estimates losing more than 800 men and 1,000 horses. Hull’s archers then entered St. Loubouer from the south, while the horsemen and other men-at-arms entered from the north, meeting at the cross before the church, where they set up their standards. The whole engagement had taken no more than two hours, and after remaining at St. Loubouer over night, Hull and Roos returned to Bordeaux for breakfast.33 Ibid. 244-5. More sport was found in early November when Hull and Roos took 300 men-at-arms and a number of ballistas to besiege Langon, and destroyed the town within two days.34 Ibid. 223.

The months that followed saw a regular exchange of letters between the English emissaries and Armagnac and his ministers, and during this period Hull took a more active part in the negotiations than previously. The ambassadors nevertheless found time to enjoy the Christmas season, dining together on the great feast days, including those of St. Thomas the apostle and St. Silvester, when revels were held, and New Year’s Day, when they exchanged the customary gifts. Hull gave Bekynton two small vessels full of green ginger and in return received a scarlet cap.35 Ibid. 224-5, 227-8, 230-5. However, it became increasingly clear that the negotiations with Armagnac would come to nothing and in mid January Bekynton returned to England. Hull, by contrast, remained in Gascony, for on 9 Jan., mindful of his experience and the martial prowess he had shown shortly after his arrival, the council of Guyenne elected him constable of Bordeaux castle in place of Sir Robert Clifton* who had died the previous September.36 Ibid. 203, 235; E364/84, m. 3; E101/193/9/6.

Hull remained in France for a few months after his appointment to the office, but was back in England by 16 May 1443, more than two weeks before he was formally confirmed in post by Henry VI.37 C61/132, m. 9. Having secured the King’s blessing, he returned to Gascony, but his visit on this occasion was a short one, and as a rule he probably executed his office by deputy, for he was heavily preoccupied by other affairs at home.38 E404/58/176; 59/243; E403/749, m. 6. Here, the King’s chief minister William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, was tightening his grip on the government, and where possible employing trusted courtiers in the government of the localities. In this vein, Hull was appointed to a second shrievalty of Somerset and Dorset in November 1443. The administration’s financial crisis was deepening, and while Hull was not as yet appointed to any of the repeated commissions ordered to scour the shires in search of loans, he came to feel the reverberations of their efforts in the difficulties that his ministers experienced in trying to levy the county farm.39 CP40/745, rot. 36d.

Hull’s term of office hardly complete, fresh travels beckoned. As the Armagnac marriage had come to nothing, the King and his ministers had instead settled upon a different French marriage in the hope of securing a negotiated peace with Charles VII. Led by de la Pole, now marquess of Suffolk, a large contingent of nobles and gentry, with Hull in its ranks, sailed for France to bring home Henry VI’s bride, Margaret of Anjou. The expedition lasted for more than six months,40 Add. 23938, f. 13; E403/754, m. 10; E404/61/28. and while in France Hull was knighted. He was assigned to the new queen’s household as one of her two carvers (alongside Sir Andrew Ogard*). The queen evidently valued his service and marked him out with occasional gifts, including in 1446 a belt of gold, and, shortly before his death, a pure gold rose.41 E101/409/14, m. 3; Griffiths, 262; A.R. Myers, ‘Household of Queen Margaret’, Bull. John Rylands Lib. xl. 403-4; Myers, Crown, Household and Parl. 225.

Hull’s duties about the persons of both the King and queen required him to spend much time at court, and like many other members of the royal households he joined the prestigious London fraternity of St. John the Baptist.42 Guildhall Lib. London, Merchant Taylors’ Co. accts. 34048/1, f. 388. He did, however, also find time to cultivate his connexions in his native Somerset. He received periodic appointments to important commissions in the locality, and in the autumn of 1448 was appointed sheriff of Somerset and Dorset for a third term.43 CPR, 1441-6, pp. 430-1; 1446-52, pp. 211, 221, 297, 299. By this date, he was also serving as constable of the duke of York’s castle at Bridgwater.44 DKR, xlviii. 309; C76/118, m. 14; SC6/1113/11, m. 2; P.A. Johnson, Duke Richard of York, 233. As was appropriate to his status, his kinsmen and neighbours periodically called upon him to attest their property transactions and to mediate in their disputes.45 Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1400-1445, 129, 151, 153; 1445-68 (Som. Rec. Soc. lx), 7, 36, 41, 61; Som. Feet of Fines (Som. Rec. Soc. xxii), 104; Add. Ch. 41056; CP25(1)/46/88/230; CCR, 1454-61, p. 62. Thus, in August 1446 Hull (freshly returned from a renewed visit to Gascony to settle a dispute between the count of Longville and the citizens of Bordeaux),46 E403/762, m. 10; 765, m. 10. was present at Bridgwater to mediate in a long-running quarrel between Edward Cullyford*, one of the county coroners, and John Brut of Cannington, a local gentleman. To Hull’s considerable irritation, Brut proved to be far from prepared to settle on amicable terms and proceeded to abuse his opponent in front of the arbiters. Shocked by such behaviour, Hull called upon his fellow arbiter, the lawyer Alexander Hody*, to intervene in his capacity as a j.p.. This Hody refused to do, claiming that his interference would only inflame an already volatile situation further, but he promised to see to it that Cullyford was not harmed by his opponents. With this, Hull and Hody withdrew, and Sir Edward’s reaction to the news of Cullyford’s murder later on the same day can only be guessed.47 KB9/254/68.

In spite of the connexions Hull thus maintained in Somerset it cannot be doubted that he owed his return to Parliament early in 1447 more to his links at court than to the part he played in Somerset society. The Parliament, overshadowed by the arrest and death of the King’s uncle, the duke of Gloucester, was dissolved after just three weeks, and there is no indication whether Hull distinguished himself in any way. His spell in the Commons may, however, have introduced him to the ways and procedures of Parliament, and provided him with the motivation to avail himself of the opportunities for electoral management offered by his renewed shrievalty in 1448-9. There can be little doubt that in February 1449 Hull was instrumental in securing one of the Somerset county seats for his wife’s brother-in-law, Thomas Wake*. While Wake could claim to fulfil the requirement for residence in the shire at least in so far as he was in possession of his wife’s valuable manor of Clevedon, he was normally resident in Northamptonshire (which he had in fact represented in the Commons on two occasions in the 1430s) and played no part in Somerset life.48 CPR, 1494-1509, p. 573. Hull had good reasons for wanting Wake in Parliament while he was himself excluded from sitting by his shrievalty, for the previous year the two men had embarked on a land transaction of dubious legality which was subject to challenge in the King’s courts. In the early 1430s the lands of the Lovell family of Titchmarsh – distant kinsmen of Hull’s wife – had been sold off by the widower of the line’s last representative, and the valuable manor of Titchwell in Norfolk had come into the hands of the aging soldier Sir John Fastolf. Although by 1448 Fastolf had been seised of Titchwell for almost two decades, in that year Hull and Wake joined forces to assert a claim in their wives’ names. Personally, Hull commanded little influence in East Anglia, but his extensive connexions at court, particularly through the duke of Suffolk, allowed him to secure favourable jury verdicts, a somewhat dubious inquisition post mortem for the last Lovell of Titchmarsh who by this date had been dead for some 23 years, and ultimately a grant of the manor to farm. In vain Fastolf appealed to the claimants’ sense of honour, and found himself forced into extensive and costly litigation, which was only to be terminated by Hull’s death. In the interim, however, Hull and Wake took possession of Titchwell and drew the income from it.49 P.S. Lewis, ‘Fastolf’s Lawsuit over Titchwell’, Historical Jnl. i. 1-20; C139/131/18; CFR, xviii. 105; CPR, 1446-52, p. 210; Property and Politics ed. Pollard, 13, 61, 63-64, 72; C.F. Richmond, Paston Fam.: First Phase, 62, 147.

This was not to be the only occasion on which Hull exerted his influence to pursue his wife’s hereditary interests. In 1450 the Lovell heirs, headed by Hull, sold the Somerset manor of Stathe to Walter Norton, a Bristol merchant, for the sum of 200 marks. Norton was probably the loser in this transaction, for the manor had been in his family’s possession since the late fourteenth century. It had originally been alienated by Margery Hull’s ancestor Sir Edmund Clevedon† by a mortgage, and Sir Edward’s claim, if any, was as dubious as the one he had to Titchwell.50 CCR, 1447-54, pp. 244-5; Som. Feet of Fines (Som. Rec. Soc. xxii), 114-15; CP40/758, rot. 243; The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 852, iv. 416. Around the same time, the Hulls and Wakes were suing Norton’s brother Thomas* for a chest of charters and muniments, probably likewise relating to properties disputed between them.51 CP40/752, rot. 271.

Throughout the 1440s the King’s rewards to Hull had continued to flow. In April 1441 he was granted the keeping during the heir’s minority of the lands of Robert Kenne, a royal ward, consisting chiefly of the manors of Kenne and Kingston Seymour.52 CPR, 1436-41, p. 533; 1441-6, p. 33. In February 1444 Henry VI renewed his father’s grant of an annuity of 50 marks to Hull’s mother and extended it in survivorship to Edward, while two months later he was entrusted with the keeping of Stogursey priory near Bridgwater.53 CPR, 1441-6, p. 253; 1446-52, pp. 429-30; CCR, 1441-7, p. 428; PROME, xi. 423; Reg. Bekynton, i (Som. Rec. Soc. xlix), 41. Three years later, in April 1447, Hull and Philip Wentworth*, another royal esquire who had recently been sitting with him in the Commons, received custody of the Devon lands forfeited by Robert Cappes, a former sheriff of Somerset and Dorset. To these were added in the following year the goods of another traitor, Angerot de la Het, which Hull received jointly with Sir Edmund Hungerford*, like him one of the King’s knights. Further reward followed later that year in the form of a grant of two ships of Bristol and Northam forfeited by their owners, and a grant of free warren in his manor of Milton.54 CPR, 1446-52, pp. 45, 130, 156, 175; CChR, vi. 78.

The Act of Resumption passed towards the close of the Parliament of 1449-50 initially seemed to threaten Hull’s annuities – indeed he was one of the very members of the King’s court at whom the Act was directed – yet, such was his favour with the King that he was allowed to retain 100 of his 150 marks p.a.55 E163/8/14; PROME, xii. 129. Nor did his influence at court wane with the death of the duke of Suffolk. Both before and after 1450 private individuals as well as towns throughout the south-west sought to gain his favour and counsel for their affairs. The townsmen of Bridgwater regularly presented him with gifts of wine, and on one of his visits to Exeter while serving as sheriff of Devon in 1451-2, the citizens quite openly entertained him at one of their houses to induce him to intercede with Henry VI on their behalf,56 Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1400-1445, 139, 148; Griffiths, 335; Devon RO, Exeter city recs. receivers’ accts. 30-31 Hen. VI. while not long before his death Hull was sent a gift of fish by the Cornish landowner Ralph Reskymer.57 SC6/823/38, rot. 2d.

In the spring of 1451 Hull had been active at Plymouth taking the musters of fresh forces to be sent to Gascony, where the military situation was growing disastrous. But despite all efforts, Bordeaux fell to the French on 24 June. For a time Hull’s energies were concentrated at home, where he served as sheriff of Devon from Michaelmas. But even before his term had expired, his military experience was called upon. In June 1452 he and Gervase Clifton* were ordered to take an armed force to sea for a period of three months from 17 July to 16 Oct., ostensibly for the relief of the island of Jersey. However, the size of their force, each of them taking a retinue of 1,000 men, suggest a more ambitious undertaking. This was certainly the assessment of the French, who feared an invasion of Normandy. Yet, in the face of the crisis in Gascony, England’s resources were too thinly spread to allow for simultaneous assaults on several fronts. Thus, Hull’s attention was soon redirected to Gascony, where the earl of Shrewsbury required his assistance in the recovery of Bordeaux, and where he himself – at least nominally – still held office.58 E404/68/138, 144, 145; E403/788, mm. 4, 5; CPR, 1452-61, p. 108; Griffiths, 429, 441, 530; A.J. Pollard, John Talbot, 135; M.G.A. Vale, English Gascony, 232. Hull cannot have been in any doubt that this expedition was the most precarious one he had ever embarked upon, and on 26 Aug. 1452, before setting out, he made his will. The provisions were heavily dominated by his deference to his mother, to whom he was deeply devoted. He requested that should he die in England he should be buried as close to her as possible, asked that she should be gracious to his widow and otherwise left most other arrangements at her discretion, she being appointed sole executor.59 Reg. Bekynton, 815. While Hull was fighting in France, the King convened a gathering of the Knights of the Garter at Westminster in order to fill vacancies among the knights’ companions. Hull had been nominated on a previous occasion in 1449-50 by the duke of Somerset and Lord Beauchamp, but had been passed over. Now, his contribution to the recapture of Bordeaux and his present martial activity in France made him an obvious and a unanimous choice.60 As Hull was never installed, no stall plate survives in St. George’s chapel: Reg. Order of the Garter ed. Anstis, 143, 150-1; E.H. Fellowes, Knights of the Garter, 74.

Yet Hull never returned to England to enter his stall at Windsor. On 17 July 1453 English rule in Gascony came to its dramatic conclusion at the battle of Castillon. Among the most prominent casualties were the earl of Shrewsbury, who was killed in the battle, and Sir Edward Hull, who was either killed or so badly wounded that he died within hours.61 The death date of 3 Sept. 1453 given by Hull’s inq. post mortem is fictitious. His accts. give the date as 18 July: C139/155/41; E364/192, m. 1; CFR, xix. 55; Cam. Miscellany, xxiv. 209; Lewis, 19; English Chron. (Cam. Soc. lxiv), 70, 197. It was left to his mother to execute his will and settle his outstanding affairs.62 E207/17/2/17; CP40/778, rot. 33; 779, rot. 54d; E13/145B, rot. 26. He had requested 100 masses to be said for his soul, and this was evidently done soon after his death, for the churchwardens of Bridgwater accounted for expenditure on the torches used at the obit.63 Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1445-68, 72. Also still outstanding was the account for the constableship of Bordeaux castle from its re-conquest by the English in October 1452 to Hull’s death. Yet although in November 1453 Bishop Bekynton ordered the collection of all fees and debts owing to Hull at the time of his death, and his will was proved on 15 Jan. 1454, it was not until July 1456 that the Exchequer process to settle the Gascon account was set in motion.64 Reg. Bekynton, 799; E159/231, recorda Hil. rot. 30, Trin. rot. 11; 232, recorda Mich. rot. 5; 233, brevia Mich. rots. 17, 18; E199/27/38; E404/70/3/91; Vale, 247. Eleanor Hull successfully petitioned for exemption of her annuity from the 1455 Act of Resumption on account of her son’s service to the King, and in August of the same year she was granted a general pardon of all remaining issues, fines and amercements arising from her son’s offices.65 SC8/28/1366; PROME, xii. 410; CPR, 1452-61, p. 249. She made her will in 1458 and died two years later. As Sir Edward had died childless, her ancestral estates passed to her father’s half-brother Hugh Malet.66 Reg. Bekynton, 352-3; Some Som. Manors, 130, 273, 275; CP40/818, rot. 46. Hull’s widow, Margery, appears not to have remarried, and died childless, probably in about 1478-9 when she made arrangements for the transfer of her share of her father’s lands to her sister’s grandson, Roger Wake.67 C139/107/32; CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 851; CPR, 1494-1509, p. 574; Stogursey Chs. (Som. Rec. Soc. lxi), 60.