William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton

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Coat of arms of William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton

William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton , KG (around 1312 - September 16, 1360 ) was an English magnate , military and diplomat. He came from the Anglo-Norman family Bohun and was the fifth son of Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford and of Elizabeth , the youngest daughter of King Edward I.

Advancement as a military

As a younger son, William de Bohun was initially a relatively poor knight. Together with his twin brother Edward († 1334) he was a close friend of his cousin, the young King Edward III. , whom he supported in his 1330 coup against Roger Mortimer at Nottingham Castle . After November 1335 he married Elizabeth , the widow of Edmund Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer and daughter of Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere and Margaret de Clare . The marriage was supposed to end the enmity between the Bohun and Mortimer families, but since he was related to his wife in the 4th degree, he first needed a papal dispensation for the marriage , which was issued on November 13, 1335. Bohun quickly became a leading member of the royal household and took an active part in the Second Scottish War of Independence . He took part in the campaign of 1333, and in the campaign to Roxburgh from 1334 to 1335 he was Knight Banneret and led 60 mounted archers. In the summer of 1335 he led 43 men in arms and 80 mounted archers, and also in 1336 he fought in Scotland, where he was entrusted with negotiating an armistice.

Elevation to the Earl of Northampton

The king richly rewarded Bohun for these services. As early as 1332 he received a number of goods that had previously belonged to Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk , the king's half-brother. His wife Elizabeth not only brought her Wittum from her marriage to Mortimer into the marriage, but together with her three sisters she was also the potential heir to their childless brother Giles de Badlesmere, 2nd Baron Badlesmere . On March 16, 1337, Bohun had been made Earl of Northampton and was in contention for Stamford , Fotheringhay , Grantham and Oakham , who were still his brother-in-law. In addition, he was lifelong Sheriff of Rutland , and during the lifetime of his brother-in-law Badlesmere he received a royal pension until he died in 1338 and Bohun could take over his share of the inheritance. In the 1350s, Bohun was able to enlarge his property through purchases, particularly in Breconshire and Essex . Bohun's new earldom, like the other five newly created titles in 1337, was a preparation for the war against France . In this war, the new earls were to serve as military commanders. In the winter of 1337 to 1338, Bohun was still negotiating with France. He then accompanied King Edward III. on his trip to the court day of Emperor Ludwig in Koblenz . After Bohun was sent back to England in late 1338 to negotiate with the Privy Council, he spent the following year in the Netherlands negotiating with Brabant and Flanders , who were possible allies in the war against France. He then took part in the king's campaign in the Cambrésis and the Thiérache . In the spring of 1340 he traveled back with the king to Parliament in England and then took part in the naval battle of Sluis on June 24, 1340 . He had previously loaned £ 800 to the near-insolvent king and, ironically, Bohun was temporarily arrested in Brussels in July to serve as a hostage for the king's debts in the Netherlands. He could only escape further culpability by escaping from Ghent . He returned to England with the king in November 1340.

Diplomat and general during the Hundred Years War

In England, Bohun supported the king in his attack on the administration under Archbishop John Stratford of Canterbury. He was in the Tower of London when Lord Chancellor Robert Stratford was forced to deliver the Great Seal on December 1, 1340. In the following dispute with the archbishop he was the king's spokesman and achieved that the archbishop was not allowed to attend parliamentary sessions in the spring of 1341. After the king had reconciled himself with the archbishop in October 1341, the nobility turned back to war with France. When the armistice with France expired, England intervened in the War of the Breton Succession . On July 20, 1342 Bohun was appointed royal lieutenant in Brittany . He was able to lift the French siege of Brest through his victory in the naval battle of Brest and defeated Charles of Blois at the Battle of Morlaix in September . He then besieged Nantes . On April 2, 1343 he resigned his post as lieutenant and returned to England. From there he traveled to Avignon , to the by Pope Clement VI. mediated but ultimately unsuccessful peace negotiations with France. After the failure of the negotiations, the king immediately reappointed him on April 24, 1345 as one of his lieutenants for the upcoming campaign in France. In 1346 he accompanied the king on his campaign in Normandy and commanded the English left wing during the Battle of Crecy in August 1346. Probably after this brilliant victory appointed him king in place of his reclusive brother Humphrey de Bohun the Lord High Constable , according to other sources his brother had transferred this office already in 1338 him. He then took part in the beginning of the siege of Calais before he was replaced as lieutenant on January 10, 1347 and took part in negotiations with Flanders and France as royal envoy until 1349. In 1350 the king accepted into the Order of the Garter .

Next life

In the early 1350s, Bohun became the commanding officer of the Scottish Marches , admiral of the royal fleet in northern England, and commander of Carlisle . In 1355 he accompanied the king to Calais, and in January 1356 he was in Roxburgh when Edward Balliol before King Edward III. renounced his claim to the Scottish throne. From 1359 to 1360 he took part in the English campaign in southwest France before he testified on May 8, 1360 with the Peace of Brétigny .

Despite his diverse military duties, Bohun attended parliamentary and council sessions when he was in England. In 1334 and 1342 he took part in tournaments in Dunstable . After the death of Sir Hugh Courtenay, he was accepted into the Order of the Garter in September 1349 . He was buried in the Benedictine Abbey of Walden , Essex .

progeny

He had two children with his wife Elizabeth:

His wife had died in June 1356 and was buried in the Dominican monastery in London. His son Humphrey became his heir.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Find a grave: Elizabeth Badlesmere de Bohun. Retrieved June 14, 2015 .
  2. ^ David Nicolle: Crécy 1346. Triumph of the longbow. Osprey, London 2000. ISBN 1-85532-966-2 , p. 36
  3. ^ Douglas Richardson: Magna Carta Ancestry. A Study in Colonial and Medieval Family . 2nd edition, 2011. ISBN 978-1-4610-4520-5 , p. 244
personal data
SURNAME Bohun, William de, 1st Earl of Northampton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English magnate, military and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH around 1312
DATE OF DEATH September 16, 1360