BURDET, Sir Thomas

Sir Thomas’s election to the Parliament of 1426 was omitted in the earlier biography,1 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 413-15. because the return describes neither Burdet nor his fellow Warwickshire MP, Sir William Byshoppeston*, as a knight. There can, however, be no doubt that this is an error on the clerk’s part, and the circumstances of their election are clear. Both were returned as supporters of John, duke of Bedford, who had called Parliament to Leicester to bring an end to the dispute between his brother, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, and Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester. Sir William and our MP’s son, Nicholas, were prominent in Bedford’s service, and it was these connexions that determined the result of the Warwickshire hustings held on 11 Feb. The county court was poorly attended, at least if one may judge from the list of attestors, headed by two minor esquires (one of whom was John Rous, Burdet’s neighbour).2 C219/13/4.

Burdet’s violent career may have led him into debt. In 1418 the abbot of Evesham won damages of 1,000 marks against a group of his servants, but even before this all was not well with his finances. On 1 Sept. 1416, before Richard Whittington†, mayor of the staple of Westminster, he acknowledged a debt of £2,000 to Robert Whittington†, and his maternal kinsmen, Laurence Fitton† and Richard Fitton*. On 1 July 1418 the sheriffs of the three counties in which Burdet held lands were ordered to enforce payment, and it is remarkable that, under these circumstances, he should have been elected to Parliament in the following year.3 E. Powell, Kingship, Law and Society, 237n.; C131/60/4; C241/212/42; CIMisc. vii. 562.

Sir Thomas secured a general pardon on 15 June 1437.4 C67/38, m. 18. It was fitting that his obit should have been celebrated by the guild of the Holy Cross in Stratford-upon-Avon, in which he had long played a prominent part.5 Shakespeare Centre Archs., Guild of Holy Cross, Stratford-upon-Avon mss, masters’ accts. BRT1/3/50, 51.