John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln
John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln (1462/1464 - June 16, 1487 ) was the eldest son of John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk , and Elizabeth of York . His mother was the sixth child and third daughter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York , and Cecily Neville .
From the age of three to five, John was made Earl of Lincoln by his uncle King Edward . During the last reign of his maternal uncle, King Richard III. , he was an immediate heir to the throne because he was Richard's next male descendant from the House of York .
After Richard's defeat in the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485, all his claims to the throne were de facto extinguished and he was reconciled with the new ruler, Henry VII , who did not make him like the other former supporters of Richard III. declared a treason, but spared him and left him all his titles. Apparently he could not get over his now insignificance in the English aristocracy.
Two years later, in 1487, there were rumors of an escape from the Tower of London by Edward Plantagenet , who, along with de la Pole, was one of the last heir to the throne from the House of York. However, these rumors were false and the work of a priest named Roger Simon who passed the ten year old Lambert Simnel to be Edward. This fictitious story, which de la Pole surely saw through, since the real Edward Plantagenet was proven to be still in the Tower of London, was now used by the remaining Yorkists under the leadership of de la Pole: They officially supported Lambert's demands. While Simnel went to Ireland and was presented there to the Earl of Kildare, who immediately supported him, the Earl of Lincoln visited the court of his aunt Margaret of Burgundy and planned an attack on England there. His aunt supported him financially and was able to recruit 1,500 German and Swiss mercenaries. Other rebels gathered at de la Pole: Lord Lovell, Sir Richard Harleston and Thomas David. The German mercenaries reached Ireland on May 5th and then drove to England on June 5th with the reinforcement of Irish troops, where they were supported by some British.
On June 16, the Battle of Stoke broke out under the command of de la Poles. Due to the tactically unfavorable position and the shortage of the Yorkists, the rebels were defeated and crushed. John de la Pole died fighting.
Individual evidence
literature
- MJ Bennett: Lambert Simnel and the Battle of Stoke. Sutton, Stroud 1987.
- John Burke and John Bernard: The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales, with their Descendants, Sovereigns and Subjects. London 1851. Family trees CLXIX and CCI.
- Sir Bernard Burke: Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire , London 1883
- Paul Murray Kendall: Richard the Third. Norton, New York 1955.
- DE Roberts: The Battle of Stoke Field 1487. Newark and Sherwood DC 1987
- Charles Ross: Richard III. Methuen 1981.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | De la Pole, John, 1st Earl of Lincoln |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lincoln, John de la Pole Earl of |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English nobleman, Earl of Lincoln |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1462 or 1464 |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 16, 1487 |