John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu

Coat of arms of John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu

John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu (1431 - April 14, 1471 ), was an English peer and military man.

Life

He was the third son of Richard Neville (1400-1460) and Alice Montagu, 5th Countess of Salisbury (1407-1462). His eldest brother was Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (1428-1471), called "Warwick the Kingmaker".

He was on December 25, 1449 by King Henry VI. beaten to the Knight of the Bath . He played a prominent role in the long-running feud of his Neville family and the Percy family, and fought at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1454 . The conflict continued in the Wars of the Roses , with the Nevilles on the side of the House of York and the Percys on the side of the House of Lancaster . On September 23, 1459 he fought on the side of the victorious Yorkists in the Battle of Blore Heath . The following day he was ambushed by the Lancastrians and captured. On November 20, 1459 he was ostracized by parliament ( attainded ), but the ostracism was revoked on July 10, 1460 and Neville released. On November 1, 1460 he acted as a chamberlain for King Henry VI. (House of Lancaster) and was appointed to its Privy Council in January 1461 . Nevertheless he fought on February 17, 1461 in the Second Battle of St. Albans again on the side of the Yorkists and was again captured by the Lancastrians.

After the victory at the Battle of Towton on March 29, 1461, King Edward IV (House of York) gained the upper hand. He called Neville on May 23, 1461 by Writ of Summons in the House of Lords raised him to hereditary Baron Montagu . On May 21, 1462 he also accepted him as a Knight Companion in the Order of the Garter . He took part in the siege of Bamburgh Castle , which surrendered to him on December 24, 1462. In 1463 he held the offices of Justice of the Peace for County Durham and Chief Steward of the Diocese of Durham . In January 1463 he fought in the Battle of Alnwick Castle . From 1463 to 1470 he was the Warden of the East Marches . 1464 he led the Yorkists on April 25, 1464 in the Battle of Hedgeley Moor and on May 15, 1464 in the Battle of Hexham to a preliminary victory over the Lancastrians. In recognition of his successes, Edward IV raised him to Earl of Northumberland on May 27, 1464 , a title that Edward IV had withdrawn from the Percy family after Towton in 1461. He also received the associated lands of the Percys. In 1466 he was also appointed Sheriff of Northumberland for life . In 1470 Edward IV restored the Earl of Northumberland title, revoked in 1461, to the Percy family. For this purpose, on March 25, 1470, the crown had to renounce this title of nobility and associated lands. As compensation, Henry VI awarded him. on the same day the title of Marquess of Montagu . Although this was higher in rank than the earl title, it was not associated with any new lands.

Meanwhile, Neville's brother, Richard, 16th Earl of Warwick, took the side of the Lancastrians, forced Edward IV into exile and, at the end of 1470, made Henry VI possible. the return to the English throne. Henry VI. confirmed Neville in October 1470 as Warden of the East Marches and appointed him his lieutenant in the North in December 1470 .

At the beginning of 1471 Edward IV returned to England. Neville and his brother Richard Neville faced him unsuccessfully on April 14, 1471 at the Battle of Barnet . Both brothers fell in battle. The bodies of the two were first brought to London and publicly displayed in St Paul's Cathedral . Eventually they were both buried in the family vault at Bisham Abbey , Berkshire .

After his death, no formal ostracism order was passed against him, so that his title de iure fell to his underage eldest son George Neville , who had already been raised to Duke of Bedford with Elizabeth Plantagenet in 1470 . He never used his father's title. By resolution of parliament in 1475 it was decreed that his father's lands should not be given to him, but to Richard, Duke of Gloucester , the husband of his cousin Anne Neville and later King Richard III, and in 1477 his title of Duket was revoked.

Marriage and offspring

On April 25, 1457 he had married Isabel Ingaldesthorpe, daughter of Sir Edmund Ingaldesthorpe and cousin of Edward Tiptoft, 2nd Earl of Worcester . With her he had a son and five daughters:

• George Neville, 1st Duke of Bedford (about 1461-1483);
• Lady Anne Neville (before 1464 – before 1486), ⚭ 1482 Sir William Stonor;
• Lady Elizabeth Neville (around 1464–1517), ⚭ (1) before 1477 Thomas Scrope, 6th Baron Scrope of Masham (around 1459–1493), ⚭ 1494 (2) Sir Henry Wentworth;
• Lady Margaret Neville (1466–1528), ⚭ (1) Thomas Horne, ⚭ (2) 1504 Sir John Mortimer, ⚭ (3) c. 1506 (canceled in 1507) Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk , ⚭ (4) 1522 Robert Downes;
• Lady Lucy Neville (around 1466 – around 1534), ⚭ (1) Sir Thomas FitzWilliam, ⚭ (2) around 1506 Sir Anthony Browne;
• Lady Isabella Neville (* around 1467) ⚭ Sir William Hodleston.

literature

• James Tait : Neville, John (d.1471) . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography (DNB). Volume 40, Smith, Elder & Co., London 1894, pp. 265-269.
• Northumberland, John Neville, Earl of . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Encyclopædia Britannica . Volume 19, London 1911, pp. 789-790.

Web links

• Sir John Neville, 1st and last Marquess of Montagu on thepeerage.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 132.
2. ^ Charles Mosley (ed.): Burke's Peerage and Baronetage . Volume 1, Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, Crans 1999, p. 16.
3. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 14.

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Baron Montagu 1461-1470	George Neville (de iure)
New title created	Earl of Northumberland 1464-1470	Title waiver
New title created	Marquess of Montagu 1470-1471	George Neville (de iure)