Richard Edgcumbe (politician, around 1443)
Sir Richard Edgcumbe (also Edgecombe ) (* around 1443 , † September 8, 1489 in Morlaix ) was an English nobleman, diplomat and politician.
origin
Richard Edgcumbe came from the Edgcumbe family . He was a son of Piers Edgcumbe and his wife Elizabeth Holland , a daughter of Richard Holland . From his father he inherited estates in Cornwall and Devon with the headquarters at Cotehele House .
Supporters of the House of Lancaster during the Wars of the Roses
Edgcumbe was elected to Parliament from 1467 to 1468 as a Member of the Borough of Tavistock for the House of Commons . Although he was a staunch supporter of the House of Lancaster , King Edward IV appointed him administrator of the fallen crown fiefs in Devon and Cornwall in 1467 . However, after the king regained power after the Battle of Tewkesbury , he had Edgcumbes lands confiscated. On April 8, 1472, however, he pardoned him, gave him his lands back and appointed him in 1473 and 1474 as a member of various commissions in Cornwall. Edgcumbe served as a justice of the peace in Cornwall from 1474 to 1475 . Despite this leniency from Edward IV, Edgcumbe rebelled against the new King Richard III in 1483 . , allegedly after hearing rumors that the king had murdered his nephews . After the failure of the rebellion, Henry Trenoth placed him under house arrest in Cotehele on behalf of the king, but Edgcumbe was able to flee to Brittany . There he joined Henry Tudor , the aspirant of the House of Lancaster to the throne, but he was pardoned again on January 26, 1484. Edgcumbe, however, stayed with Tudor, landed with him in Wales in 1485 and fought at the Battle of Bosworth . After the battle, he was defeated by the victorious Henry Tudor, who now became Henry VII's new king, to the Knight Bachelor .
Confidante of King Henry VII.
The new king took Edgcumbe into the royal household as a knight and rewarded him with the position of controller of the household. On September 20, 1485 he was given the post of Chamberlain of the Exchequer for life, which nine days later was also given to Richard Guildford , who then exercised it in practice. Edgcumbe, however, was still a confidante of the king's council, he was administrator of the royal ward and the fallen fiefdom in Cornwall, Constable of Launceston Castle , again Justice of the Peace of Cornwall and administrator of the estates of the Earldom of March . A little later, the king gave him the estates of John la Zouche, 7th Baron Zouche , including Totnes Castle , and estates of Sir Henry Trenowth and Francis Lovel, 1st Viscount Lovel . Edgcumbe thus came into possession of a total of seven estates in south-west England. In late 1485, he testified to the investigation that resulted in the king receiving dispensation for his marriage to Elizabeth of York . In 1487 Edgcumbe served as the sheriff of Devon. On June 16, 1487 he took part in the Battle of Stoke . In November 1487 the king sent him as ambassador to Scotland, and in 1488 he went to Kinsale in Ireland with a small army of about 500 men to consolidate the rule of the king there. He received £ 300 for his expenses. In 1489 the king sent him as ambassador to Duchess Anne de Bretagne . There he died and was buried in the Dominican church of Morlaix.
family
Edgcumbe had married Jane Tremayne , daughter of Thomas Tremayne of Collacombe Barton in Lamerton , Devon. He had at least four children with her:
- Peter
- Margaret
- Agnes
- Elizabeth
Probably before he set out for Brittany, Edgcumbe had drawn up his will on June 14, 1489, which primarily regulated the settlement of his debts. His son Peter became his heir.
Others
Legend has escaped Edgcumbe in 1483 with a spectacular escape from his mansion Cotehele , which is also in the ballad Young Edgcumbe of Charles Causley is sung. After his return to Cotehele in 1485, he built a chapel in the forest at the place where he had hidden while on the run.
literature
- Alsager Richard Vian: Edgcumbe, Richard (d.1489) , in: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume XVI . Macmillan, Smith, Elder & Co., London and New York 1888, pp. 375f
- Maurice Smelt: 101 Cornish Lives , Alison Hodge, Penzance 2006, ISBN 978-0-906720-50-9
Web links
- JL Kirby: Edgcumbe, Sir Richard (c.1443-1489). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rachel Hunt: Cotehele, Cornwall. A souvenir guide . National Trust, Swindon, ISBN 978-1-84359-428-4 , p. 47
- ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 2, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 23.
- ↑ Rachel Hunt: Cotehele, Cornwall. A souvenir guide . National Trust, Swindon, ISBN 978-1-84359-428-4 , p. 46
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Edgcumbe, Richard |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Edgecombe, Richard; Edgcumbe, Sir Richard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English nobleman, diplomat and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1443 |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 8, 1489 |
| Place of death | Morlaix |