Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

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Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham. Painting around 1520
Coat of arms of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham KG (born February 3, 1478 in Brecon Castle , † May 17, 1521 Tower Hill , London ) was an English magnate . As one of the richest magnates of his time, he was executed for alleged high treason.

Origin, childhood, youth and upbringing

Edward Stafford was the eldest son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and his wife Katherine Woodville . His mother was a sister of Queen Elizabeth Woodville . Edward was related to the Kings of the House of York through his great-grandmother, Anne Neville, Duchess of Buckingham . His father rebelled unsuccessfully against King Richard III in 1483 . whereupon his title was denied and his possessions confiscated. During the rebellion, young Edward was hidden in various castles and mansions in Herefordshire . After the death of his father at the end of 1483 until the defeat of Richard III. remained at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 is unclear. On October 30, 1485 he took part in the coronation of the new King Henry VII , where he was knighted as Knight of the Bath . Henry VII reassigned Stafford to Duke of Buckingham and returned his father's possessions after the Bill of Attainder imposed on his father in November 1485 was repealed. His mother had married Jasper Tudor , the new king's uncle , after his father's death , but Margaret Beaufort , the king's mother , was appointed guardian of Buckingham . Buckingham probably grew up on their estates, where he was raised by Lady Margaret's employees. He learned to read and write, but there is no evidence that he attended university. Later Buckingham was believed to be a sponsor of Buckingham College , Cambridge, and under pressure from Lady Margaret of Queen's College , Oxford. In addition, he later owned a rather extensive library. In 1512 he commissioned the printing of a translation of the Swan Knight's legend , and later he had A Lytell Cronicle printed, the translation of a description of the Middle East , which he presumably commissioned for his planned pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1520.

Magnate under Henry VII.

In 1488 the King planned to marry Buckingham to Anne , the young Duchess of Brittany , but since there were several other suitors for the young bride, he did not pursue this plan. In December 1489, the king approved Buckingham's engagement to Eleanor Percy († 1530), the eldest daughter of the Earl of Northumberland , who had just been murdered . The Northumberland executors paid the King £ 4,000 to approve the marriage. In 1495 the King accepted Buckingham into the Order of the Garter . Although he was not yet officially of legal age, in 1498 he was given the management of his estates. For this, however, he had to pay a handsome fee of £ 3,000 instead of the usual £ 1,000 to the king. He had to pay an additional £ 2000 to the king for the third marriage of his mother, who married Richard Wingfield without royal permission after the death of Jasper Tudor . Buckingham was the richest landowner of his time in England. He had an annual income of at least £ 5,000 from his estates. He owned estates in almost all English counties, including the Lords of Brecon and Newport in South Wales. However, his estates had been exploited during Lady Margaret's tutelage and the Welsh estates had been neglected. Lady Margaret had given him only a few records, so that he first had to spend a lot of time getting an overview of the condition of his possessions. Buckingham now supervised the administration of his goods himself in order to increase their entries. He issued regulations, set up an orderly archive, checked bills himself and tried, probably following the example of Henry VII, to bind his administrators closely to himself. He brought at least 128 lawsuits, with defendants often including his own vassals and tenants. However, the main purpose of these trials was to build pressure, as there were only six convictions. He systematically examined whether serfs had been unjustly released. Through these measures he was able to successfully increase the income from his English possessions. In doing so, he had hunting parks set up, sometimes without much consideration for the rural residents, which were then no longer accessible to the rural residents.

In contrast to his English possessions, Buckingham did not succeed in increasing the income from his South Welsh possessions. In 1504 he and other Marcher Lords pledged to Henry VII to prevent attacks and murders in the southern Welsh Marches , which often took place there because of border disputes between the Marcher Lords. However, Buckingham's attempts to maintain security and order in South Wales failed. In 1497 Buckingham served in the army that was deployed against the rebel Perkin Warbeck . He was also often at the royal court, where he stood out at weddings, receptions and other celebrations with his elegant wardrobe. Until 1517 he took an active part in splendid tournaments.

Presumed portrait of Buckingham from the Master of the Brandon Portrait , early 16th century

Magnate under Henry VIII.

Relationship with the king

Following the death of Henry VII in 1509, Buckingham served as Lord High Constable and Lord High Steward at Henry VIII's coronation . The new king voided numerous commitments his father made to Buckingham and other magnates. A scandal erupted in 1510 when Buckingham discovered that the king was courting his married sister Anne, Lady Hastings . In 1510 Buckingham was considered a mortal enemy of France, and during the king's 1513 campaign to France, Buckingham commanded 550 soldiers. During the campaign, however, he was more distinguished by his splendid equipment than by his military skills. He rejected the policy of rapprochement between the king and France, which began in 1518 and which finally led to a meeting with the French king at the Camp du Drap d'Or in 1520 . In the tournaments that took place on the occasion of the meeting, he served as a referee. Despite his extensive holdings, Buckingham's finances were strained to the point of resentment at the cost of his equipment during the meeting at Camp du Drap d'Or. In 1514 the king forgave him debts that had been open since 1498. But in 1515 Buckingham's lawsuit failed, according to which he wrongly paid £ 7,000 in taxes. In addition, his claim for £ 3,500 in compensation for lost income and reimbursement of legal costs was denied.

In 1514 Buckingham was entrusted with the task of maintaining peace and order in nine counties where its main estates were located. In 1514 Buckingham claimed the office of Constable of England . In doing so, he claimed priority over other magnates that also had political implications. Buckingham had but little political influence despite his extensive possessions and his position at the royal court and was not one of the closer advisers of the king. Buckingham's right to the office of constable was recognized in court, but on the condition that the king could waive his services as constable. Henry VIII actually made this waiver. In 1518 Buckingham even received a sharp royal reprimand for the fact that its properties in South Wales were still subject to numerous encroachments and raids. Despite these various conflicts, it is certain that there was no open and ongoing enmity between Buckingham and the king himself.

Buckingham as a potential heir to the throne

Buckingham could be traced back to royal descent in two ways. He was a descendant of both John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock , Edward III's youngest son . In 1502, when Henry VII became seriously ill, the Privy Council considered whether Buckingham or Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk should take over the reign of the young heir to the throne when the king died , but the Tudor kings evidently did not regard Buckingham's ancestry as a threat Domination. Both Henry VII and Henry VIII had latent concerns about the legitimation of their rule, but Henry VIII even allowed Buckingham's eldest son to marry Ursula Pole, a granddaughter of George, Duke of Clarence , another descendant of Edward III. Buckingham himself certainly hoped that in the event of the death of Henry VIII, he would play an important role politically as England's leading magnate. This expectation was probably enough for the government of Cardinal Wolsey to interpret it as a claim to the throne and thus as high treason. Wolsey had long considered Buckingham's ancestry to be a potential threat to the king's rule, which is why he advised Buckingham to behave more modestly. Why and when the King asked Wolsey in a letter he wrote himself to keep a watchful eye on Buckingham, his brother Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and three other magnates is unclear. Sir John Fyneux , the Chief Justice , found, however, that Buckingham's parentage and demeanor was no reason to charge him with treason. In return, Buckingham was a clear opponent of Wolsey, whom he accused of wanting to ruin the long-established nobility.

Fall, sentencing and execution

In 1519 Sir William Bulmer was tried in the Star Chamber for wearing clothes in the colors of Buckingham as a member of the royal household in the presence of the king. It is not known when this incident took place; it is believed to have occurred during the King's visit in August 1518 to Penshurst , a Buckingham country estate. Bulmer finally received a public reprimand from the king who refused to allow members of his court to be in the service of other magnates. Ultimately, Buckingham's fall was arguably primarily the result of his lack of support for the Wolsey government, his uncertain speculations about the future, and a consequence of the violent temper he had openly displayed after the Bulmer affair. He had indicated the possibility of a rebellion. Buckingham may have been depressed, because in early 1520 he confessed to his chancellor that he considered himself a great sinner for whom there was certainly no divine mercy and whose political actions would therefore all fail. In October 1520 he surprisingly announced that he wanted to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. However, he could no longer compete. In April 1521 Buckingham was arrested. On May 8, he was charged with high treason, and on May 13, his peer trial began in the High Steward's Court . Charles Knyvett , a recently dismissed administrator of Buckingham, the priest Robert Gilbert , who served as Buckingham's chancellor, his chaplain Edmund Dellacourt and the Carthusian monk Nicholas Hopkins of the Hinton Charterhouse testified as witnesses to Buckingham's betrayal . They testified that from 1512 Buckingham believed Hopkins' prophecies that one day he would be king himself. Buckingham would believe the Tudor race was cursed because the Earl of Warwick was wrongly executed in 1499 . Buckingham was on the jury at the trial . The witnesses claimed that Buckingham believed that because of the curse, Henry VIII had no son. To make himself popular with the royal court, as Hopkins would have advised him, Buckingham had tried to bribe the royal guard with expensive clothing. He would have rejected Wolsey's policies and resented his peers who had not resolutely fought Wolsey together. Knyvett testified that after Bulmer's conviction, Buckingham had told of his father's plan to destroy Richard III. to kill. Perhaps as early as 1517, but by 1520 at the latest he had applied in vain to be allowed to raise an armed force of 300 to 400 men to ensure peace and order in his possessions in South Wales. Although this measure would have made sense, it brought back memories of the rebellion of Buckingham's father in 1483. On May 16, Buckingham was found guilty and executed by beheading the next day . On the day of his execution, Buckingham was buried in the Church of the Augustinian Settlement in London . During Parliament in 1523, an Act of Attainder was passed against him, so that his property was confiscated. After the death of Henry VIII, Buckingham's son claimed that his father had been executed on the instigation of Cardinal Wolsey for defending Queen Catherine when she was reprimanded by Wolsey in 1520. After the death of Henry VIII, his son received part of the property back.

Thornbury Castle in Gloucestershire, built by Buckingham as a country house

progeny

With his wife Eleanor Percy, who survived him, Buckingham had a son and three daughters:

He also had at least two illegitimate children, a son Henry, and a daughter, Margaret, whom he married to his ward Thomas Fitzgerald of Leixlip , a half-brother of the Earl of Kildare .

Buckingham had Thornbury Castle built in Gloucestershire as a stately country residence. The towers of the manor house only served as a military decoration in view of the generous bay windows. He wanted to convert the parish church of Thornbury into a collegiate monastery , which he could no longer implement. He had his London town house, Poultenay's Inn , magnificently expanded, so that it was called the Manor of the Rose .

literature

  • Barbara J. Harris: Edward Stafford, third duke of Buckingham . Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1986, ISBN 0-8047-1316-2 ·
  • Carole Rawcliffe: The Staffords, earls of Stafford and dukes of Buckingham, 1394-1521 . In: Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 3rd ser .. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1978, ISBN 0-521-21663-X
  • PB Farrer, AF Sutton: The duke of Buckingham's sons, 1483-1485 . In: The Ricardian, 6 (1982-4), pp. 87-92
  • Carole Rawcliffe: A Tudor nobleman as archivist: the papers of Edward, third duke of Buckingham . In: Journal of the Society of Archivists, 5 (1974-7), pp. 294-300

Web links

Commons : Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
predecessor Office successor
Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham
1485-1521 		Title forfeited
personal data
SURNAME Stafford, Edward, 3rd Duke of Buckingham
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobleman
DATE OF BIRTH February 3, 1478
PLACE OF BIRTH Brecon Castle
DATE OF DEATH May 17, 1521
PLACE OF DEATH Tower Hill , London