CHAUNDRE, Richard

The origins of the man who represented Bishop Waynflete’s borough of Hindon in 1459 cannot be established with absolute certainty, but he appears to have hailed from Northamptonshire, and may have been a son or other kinsman of John Chaundre of Higham Ferrers who served as a tax collector in that county in 1432.4 CFR, xvi. 107. Nothing is known of Richard’s early career, but it appears that at some point he entered Waynflete’s service, having perhaps attracted the bishop’s attention by virtue of their shared roots in the northern Midlands. Before long, he came to be one of the bishop’s most trusted retainers among the esquires of his household, and played a pivotal part in transactions such as those in the summer of 1455 which surrounded the re-endowment of the deceased Cardinal Beaufort’s collegiate hospital of St. Cross in Winchester.5 V.G. Davis, ‘Bp. Waynflete of Winchester’ (Trin. Coll. Dublin Ph.D. thesis, 1985), 262, 400; CPR, 1467-77, p. 43; Southern Hist. xi. 6; G.L. Harriss, Cardinal Beaufort, 371-2; CCR, 1454-61, pp. 147-8.

There is little doubt that Chaundre owed his brief public career to Waynflete’s appointment as chancellor in October 1456, in the aftermath of the duke of York’s second protectorate. He clearly remained close to his master, for throughout the bishop’s chancellorship it was Chaundre who collected Waynflete’s official fee from the royal Exchequer.6 E403/810, mm. 2, 7; 812, m. 1; 814, mm. 1, 6; 817, mm. 1, 7; 819, mm. 2, 4. The failure of a final attempt to reconcile the duke of York’s adherents among the lords with those aligned with the court dominated by Queen Margaret (culminating in the London love-day of March 1458) deepened the political divisions. The court party now stepped up its efforts to pack the royal administration in the provinces with its supporters. In early September Chaundre was appointed controller of the subsidy of tunnage and poundage in the port of London, while two months later he was named to the escheatorship of Northamptonshire and Rutland.7 E136/150/12; E153/1322.

While Chaundre was thus busy in the administration’s service, the political crisis descended into open civil war, culminating in the battle of Blore Heath and armed stand-off at Ludford Bridge in October 1459. York and his principal supporters, the Neville earls of Salisbury and Warwick, were driven into exile and the court lost little time in summoning a Parliament intended to complete the defeat of its opponents by their attainder. In order to ensure a compliant House of Commons, the return of the government’s supporters was encouraged wherever possible. Thus, the bishop of Winchester’s pocket-borough of Hindon returned two of Waynflete’s trusted servants, Chaundre and the lawyer Nicholas Hervy*. There were rich rewards for the supporters of the increasingly narrow ruling faction. Before Michaelmas 1459 Chaundre had been appointed by Waynflete to the parkership of East Meon, while Parliament was still in session he secured the farm of two fisheries in the lordship of Marck in the marches of Calais, and later that year he received a general licence to engage in overseas trade.8 DKR, xlviii. 435, 441; Bp. of Winchester’s pipe rolls, 11M59/B1/193.

Yet soon the tables turned: if Chaundre had benefited from his master’s leading role in the Lancastrian administration, the Yorkist victory at the battle of Northampton in July 1460 brought about his complete eclipse. Even in May 1460 he had been stripped of his controllership in favour of the duke of Exeter’s nominee William Ash, and Waynflete’s dismissal as chancellor in late July rendered any renewed appointment unlikely. Evidence for Chaundre’s career after this date is scarce, but he may have found himself in some financial difficulty, as in May 1462 he and his wife were apparently reduced to selling some of their Northamptonshire property at Higham Ferrers, Rushden and Irthlingborough.9 CP25(1)/179/96/2.

Few other details of Chaundre’s career have come to light. In July 1459 he had been among the feoffees of the Oxfordshire property of William Darset (a fellow member of the Waynflete circle), and in 1464 he and William Overey were joint beneficiaries of a statute staple bond for £20 made to them by the Kentish gentleman Thomas Bettenham.10 CCR, 1454-61, p. 399; 1461-8, pp. 179-80; C241/249/36. He is not heard of thereafter, and had died by October 1467.11 CPR, 1467-77, p. 43.