Henry Clifford, 10th Baron de Clifford

Henry Clifford, 10th Baron de Clifford (1454 - April 23, 1523 ) was an English nobleman and politician at the time of the Wars of the Roses and the early days of the House of Tudor .

youth

Henry Clifford was born around 1454 as the eldest son of John Clifford, 9th Baron de Clifford . His childhood was overshadowed by the Wars of the Roses , for his father was a devotee of the Kings of the House of Lancaster . His father died in the War of the Roses in the Battle of Ferrybridge, unfortunate for Lancaster, on March 28, 1461. After the victory of the Yorkists , his property was confiscated and his family ostracized ( Attainder ). Henry Clifford's mother Margaret Vessy hid him in the country with a shepherd, where he grew up and was therefore later nicknamed "The Shepperd Lord". On March 16, 1471 he was pardoned, but not returned to his father's property and title.

Political career among the Tudors

On the occasion of King Henry VII's accession to the throne , he was knighted in September 1485 . On November 9, 1485, the ostracism was retroactively lifted by the Act of Parliament , he was reassigned the title of Baron de Clifford and the confiscated goods were returned to him. From 1485 to 1514 he was regularly called to the meetings of the House of Lords .

Under Henry VIII he was beaten to Knight of the Bath on June 23, 1509 and was later used in the military. In the campaign against Scotland in 1513 he took part as one of the English military leaders, especially in the Battle of Flodden on September 9, 1513. In the latter, he captured three artillery pieces, which he set up in his fortress Skipton Castle . In 1522 he loaned the king 1,000 marks for his campaign in France.

Marriages and offspring

In his first marriage before 1493 he had married Anne St. John of Bletso, a cousin of Henry VII. He had four children with her:

• Mabel Clifford († around 1550), ∞ William Fitzwilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton ;
• Margaret Clifford, ∞ Sir Cuthbert Radcliffe;
• Henry Clifford, 1st Earl of Cumberland , 11th Baron de Clifford (1493-1542);
• Thomas Clifford, ∞ Lucy Browne.

After the death of his first wife, he married Florence Pudsey in 1511 at the latest. With her he had a daughter:

• Dorothy de Clifford, ∞ Sir Hugh Lowther.

When he died on April 23, 1523, his son Henry inherited him as the 11th baron.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} The Complete Peerage , Volume III, page 294 and footnote d, page 294
2. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page, de Clifford article

Web links

• Thomas Andrew Archer: Clifford, Henry de (1455? -1523) in the Dictionary of National Biography , 1885-1900, Volume 11 on Wikisource
• Henry Clifford, 10th Lord Clifford at ThePeerage.com

predecessor	Office	successor
John Clifford	Baron de Clifford 1461 / 85-1523	Henry Clifford